1621 In Prague twenty-six noblemen are executed. In Bohemia and Moravia, other nobles who had rebelled against Ferdinand II have their property confiscated and given to nobles who have demonstrated loyalty to the Catholic Church and to Ferdinand.
1621 The Pilgrims in Massachusetts have a meal with the Wompanoag chieftain, Massasoit, and more than ninety of his warriors. The Pilgrims have been struggling and are thankful. The day is to be celebrated in the United States as Thanksgiving.
1623 In cooperation with Britain's East India Company, Shah Abbas I of Iran expels the Portuguese from the island of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.
1623 The grandson of the late Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tokugawa Iemitsu, replaces his father as shogun.
1624 The Dutch establish a fur trading post, Fort Orange, at what today is Albany, New York.
1624 The African kingdom of Ndongo (east of Luanda ) acquires a queen: Nzinga.
1624 In China the Ming emperor has allowed a eunuch the power to dismiss from government service anyone he thinks disloyal to him. A rebellion led by six Confucianists attempting a moral revival of "pure" Confucianism is crushed. They are tortured and beaten to death, and seven hundred of their supporters are purged from their government positions.
1625 Fearing the power of the Catholic monarchs, the King of Denmark, a Lutheran, joins the Thirty Years' War on the side of the Protestants.
1626 The French establish an outpost on Madagascar.
1626 With fish hooks and trinkets, the Dutch buy Manhattan Island from Canarsie chiefs of the Wappinger Confederacy.
1628 William Harvey discards ancient writers whose theories have been used in medical practice for millennia. From firsthand observation – the rise of science – and digging into the human body, Harvey discovers blood circulation.
1629 In the Holy Roman Empire, hundreds are being burned as witches.
1630 Fearing Habsburg power along the Baltic Sea, Sweden joins the Thirty Year's War. The Swedes invade northern Germany and are not welcomed there by fellow Lutherans.
Copyright © 1998-2018 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.