17th century

1601 – 1700 · 41 events

What happened around the world

1604 Kepler's supernova — The last galactic star blast seen with the naked eye
1605 Cervantes's Don Quixote — A parody of chivalry becomes the first modern novel
1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — Moons of Jupiter and lunar mountains back Copernicus
1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — A religious conflict ends in a system of sovereign states
1627 Death of the last aurochs — Cattle's wild ancestor vanishes despite royal protection
1642–1651 English Civil War — A king is executed and England briefly becomes a republic
1648 Peace of Westphalia — The Thirty Years' War ends and state sovereignty is born
1649 Execution of Charles I of England — Parliament tries its king and England becomes a republic
1676 Leeuwenhoek sees microbes — A drop of water reveals an invisible living world
1683 Battle of Vienna — Sobieski lifts the siege and the Ottoman retreat begins
1687 Newton's Principia — Laws of motion and gravity lay the base of classical physics
1688–1689 Glorious Revolution — A nearly bloodless coup makes Parliament supreme

1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — A people's militia drives the Polish garrison out of the Kremlin
1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — An assembly ends the Time of Troubles and founds a dynasty
1648 Semyon Dezhnev's voyage — Cossacks sail between Asia and America 80 years before Bering
1654 Pereiaslav Agreement — Khmelnytsky swears to the tsar; Left-bank Ukraine joins Moscow
1666–1667 Schism of the Russian Church — Nikon's reforms give birth to the Old Believers
1670–1671 Stenka Razin's uprising — A Cossack revolt sweeps the Volga from Astrakhan to Simbirsk
1682 Accession of Peter the Great — A ten-year-old takes the throne — Russia's future reformer
1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk — Russia and Qing China agree their first border

1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — For forty years she outfought and outwitted the Portuguese
c. 1636 Gondar becomes Ethiopia's capital — Emperor Fasilides gives Ethiopia a permanent capital
1637 Dutch capture of Elmina — A Gold Coast fortress becomes a hub of the slave trade
1652 Founding of the Cape Colony — A ships' supply post grows into the seed of Cape Town
1662 Last sighting of the dodo — Humans wipe out Mauritius's flightless bird in under a century

1619 Founding of Batavia — The Dutch gain their spice-trade capital in Asia
1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — A tomb for a beloved wife becomes the Mughal masterpiece
1641 Japan's seclusion: Dejima — A tiny island becomes Japan's only window to the West
1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — The Manchus enter Beijing, founding China's last dynasty
1674 Coronation of Shivaji — Shivaji crowns himself and founds the Maratha state
1699 Guru Gobind Singh founds the Khalsa — Why Sikh men are named Singh and wear the turban

c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — For nearly a century runaway slaves fought off colonial armies
1607 Founding of Jamestown — England's first permanent foothold in North America
1608 Champlain founds Quebec — The birth of New France and French-speaking Canada
1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — Mission towns where natives armed against slave raiders
1620 The Mayflower and Plymouth Colony — The Pilgrims signed a self-government pact on board
c. 1693 Brazilian Gold Rush — The first great gold rush of the modern era
1697 Fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya kingdom — The Itza held out almost 180 years after the Aztecs fell

1606 Janszoon lands in Australia — The first Europeans in Australia took it for New Guinea
1642 Tasman reaches New Zealand — Southern lands appear on European maps for the first time

Rus and Russia: Boris Godunov 1598 – 1605, False Dmitry I 1605 – 1606, Vasily Shuisky 1606 – 1610, Seven Boyars 1610 – 1613, Michael I 1613 – 1645, Alexis the Most Quiet 1645 – 1676, Feodor III 1676 – 1682, Peter the Great 1682 – 1725
England and Britain: Elizabeth I 1558 – 1603, James I 1603 – 1625, Charles I 1625 – 1649, Oliver Cromwell 1649 – 1660, Charles II 1660 – 1685, James II 1685 – 1688, William III of Orange 1689 – 1702
Franks and France: Henry IV 1589 – 1610, Louis XIII 1610 – 1643, Louis XIV 1643 – 1715
Holy Roman Empire & Austria: Rudolf II 1576 – 1612, Matthias 1612 – 1619, Ferdinand II 1619 – 1637, Ferdinand III 1637 – 1657, Leopold I 1658 – 1705
Ottoman Empire: Mehmed III 1595 – 1603, Ahmed I 1603 – 1617, Mustafa I 1617 – 1618, Osman II 1618 – 1622, Mustafa I 1622 – 1623, Murad IV 1623 – 1640, Ibrahim the Mad 1640 – 1648, Mehmed IV the Hunter 1648 – 1687, Suleiman II 1687 – 1691, Ahmed II 1691 – 1695, Mustafa II 1695 – 1703
China: dynasties: Ming 1368 – 1644, Qing 1644 – 1912
Japan: shoguns & emperors: Tokugawa Ieyasu 1600 – 1616, Tokugawa Hidetada 1616 – 1623, Tokugawa Iemitsu 1623 – 1651, Tokugawa Ietsuna 1651 – 1680, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi 1680 – 1709
India: empires: Mughal Empire 1526 – 1857