Decades: 1590s 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s - 1640s - 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s
Years: 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 - 1642 - 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647
Events January 4 - Charles I attempts to arrest five leading members of the Long Parliament, but they escape. Beginning of English Civil War. March 1 - Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first incorporated city in America May 17 - Sieur de Maisonneuve founds the Ville Marie de Montréal. July - Charles I besiges Hull in an attempt to gain control of its arsenal. October - Battle of Edgehill. November 24 - Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania). The Dutch drive Spain from Taiwan. The first recorded sighting of New Zealand and Tasmania by Abel Tasman. Blaise Pascal produces a mechanical adding machine (the "Pascaline"). Claudio Monteverdi's opera l'Incoronazione di Poppeia is first performed. First Battle of Lostwithiel Births December 25 - Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and scientist. Deaths January 8 - Galileo Galilei, Italian artist and scientist. December 4 - Armand-Jean Duplessis Richelieu, French cardinal and statesman\n