Moskvitin reaches the Pacific
Russian Cossacks see the Pacific for the first time
A party led by the Tomsk Cossack Ivan Moskvitin set out from Yakutsk, crossed the Dzhugdzhur range and in 1639 came down to the Sea of Okhotsk at the mouth of the Ulya. The Cossacks built winter quarters there, sailed along the coast in koch boats and became the first Russians to reach the Pacific.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — 21 years earlier
- 1640–1668 Portugal regains independence — 1 year later
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — 9 years later
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — 10 years later
Africa
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — 15 years earlier
- 1662 Last sighting of the dodo — 23 years later
Asia
- 1616 Nurhaci founds the Later Jin — 23 years earlier
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — 7 years earlier
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — 5 years later
Alive at the time
- Galileo Galilei (aged 75)
- René Descartes (aged 43)
- Rembrandt (aged 33)
- Louis XIV (aged 1)
- Nur Jahan (aged 62)
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba (aged 56)
- Thomas Hobbes (aged 51)
- Shah Jahan (aged 47)
- Michael I (aged 43)
- Oliver Cromwell (aged 40)