Early Modern
Battle of Breitenfeld (1631): Gustavus Adolphus Defeats Tilly
Decisive Swedish-Saxon victory; Tilly's army was destroyed and Sweden became the leading Protestant power in Germany.
Region
Europe
Early Modern
Sack of Magdeburg (1631): Worst Massacre of the Thirty Years' War
Magdeburg was stormed and almost entirely burned; an estimated 20,000 people died, and the atrocity pushed Protestant princes towards Sweden.
Early Modern
Battle of Lützen (1632): The Death of Gustavus Adolphus
Tactical Swedish victory: Wallenstein withdrew, but Gustavus Adolphus and Pappenheim were both killed.
Early Modern
Trial of Galileo (1633): The Inquisition and Heliocentrism
Galileo was found vehemently suspect of heresy, forced to abjure, his Dialogue was banned and he spent his last years under house arrest.
Early Modern
Descartes' Discourse on the Method (1637): Cogito, Ergo Sum
Descartes' method of doubt and his 'I think, therefore I am' became a founding text of modern philosophy, and the attached Géométrie launched analytic geometry.
Early Modern
Evliya Çelebi: The Ottoman Traveller and His Seyahatname
Evliya produced the Seyahatname, the longest and most detailed travel account of the Ottoman world.
Early Modern
Dejima (1641): The Dutch Trading Post in Nagasaki Harbour
For over two centuries Dejima was Japan's only direct link with Western Europe and the channel for rangaku, Dutch learning.
Early Modern
Irish Rebellion of 1641: Uprising in Ulster and Its Aftermath
The plot on Dublin failed, but the Ulster rising spread across Ireland, killed thousands of settlers and helped push England into civil war.
Early Modern
Pascaline (1642): Blaise Pascal's Mechanical Calculator
Pascal built one of the first working mechanical calculators; about 20 were made, but high cost and fragility kept it from commercial success.
Early Modern
Battle of Edgehill (1642): First Pitched Battle of the Civil War
Indecisive; both armies held the field, but the king kept the road to London open and the war continued.
Early Modern
English Civil War (1642-1651): King Charles I versus Parliament
Parliament won; Charles I was executed in 1649, the monarchy was abolished and England became a republic until 1660.
Early Modern
Battle of Rocroi (1643): France Breaks the Spanish Tercios
Decisive French victory; the Spanish siege of Rocroi was broken and the Army of Flanders suffered heavy losses, though the war continued until 1659.