WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 17. CENTURY
Find out what all happened in the first half of the 17. century

Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony. (14. May 1607)

The Protestant Union is founded in Auhausen. (14. May 1608)

Henry IV of France is assassinated bringing Louis XIII to the throne. (14. May 1610)

Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII. (14. May 1643)

Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first recorded European to see Cape Cod. (15. May 1602)

Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made). (15. May 1618)

The Treaty of Westphalia is signed. (15. May 1648)

Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve (1612–1676) founds the Ville Marie de Montréal. (17. May 1642)

In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts. (18. May 1631)

Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power. (19. May 1643)

An Act of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years. (19. May 1649)

Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe. (20. May 1609)

The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War. (20. May 1631)

Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck to end the Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War. (22. May 1629)

Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place. (23. May 1609)

The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War. (23. May 1618)

100 English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first English colony in America. (24. May 1607)

The Protestant Union is formally dissolved. (24. May 1621)

Peter Minuit buys Manhattan. (24. May 1626)

Ming general Wu Sangui forms an alliance with the invading Manchus and opens the gates of the Great Wall of China at Shanhaiguan pass, letting the Manchus through towards the capital Beijing. (25. May 1644)