Centuries: 16th century - 17th century - 18th century
Decades: 1590s 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s - 1640s - 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s
Years: 1636 1637 1638 1639 1640 - 1641 - 1642 1643 1644 1645 1646
Events
- The Long Parliament passes a series of legislation designed to contain Charles I's absolutist tendencies.
- The Dutch found a trading colony on Dejima, near Nagasaki, Japan.
- Portugal is ousted from Malacca by the Dutch.
- Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria is first performed.
- Moses Amyraut's De l'elevation de la foy et de l'abaissement de la raison en la creance des mysteres de la religion is published.
- August 5 - John Hathorn, magistrate († 1717)
- Pierre Allix, French Protestant clergyman
- Janez Vajkard Valvasor, Slovenian nobleman and polymath
- January 3 - Jeremiah Horrocks, English astronomer (* c.1619)
- May 12 - Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford