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Year '1631' (MDCXXXI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Contents

Events of 1631

January - June

July - December

Undated

Births

Deaths

Events of 1631

January - June

★ February 5 - Roger Williams emigrates to Boston.

★ February 16 - Gustav Adolf Secondary School was founded in Tallinn, Estonia by Swedish king Gustav II Adolf.

★ May 10 - During the Thirty Years' War imperial troops storm the German city of Magdeburg and commit a massacre. About 20,000 inhabitants are killed.

★ May 18 - In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.

★ June 20 - Algerian pirates sack Baltimore, County Cork in Ireland.

July - December

★ September 17 - Battle of Breitenfield (1631) is fought in Thirty Years War.

★ October 10 - A Saxon army takes over Prague.

Undated

★ Moses Amyraut's ''Traite des Religions'' is published.

★ The bell "Emmanuel" in Notre Dame de Paris is recast.

★ The Taj Mahal's construction is started: it will be finished, 22 years later, in 1653.

Births

★ January 1 - Katherine Philips, Anglo-Welsh poet (d. 1664)

★ February 20 - Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (d. 1712)

★ March 16 - René Le Bossu, French critic (d. 1680)

★ May 2 - Sir John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl (d.1703)

★ July 15 - Jens Juel, Danish diplomat (d. 1700)

★ August 19 - John Dryden, English writer (d. 1700)

★ September 3 - William Stoughton, American judge at the Salem witch trials (d. 1701)

★ November 4 - Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (d. 1660)

★ December 14 - Lady Anne Finch Conway, English philosopher (d. 1679)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

★ January 1 - Thomas Hobson, English carrier and origin of the phrase "Hobson's choice" (b. 1544)

★ March 31 - John Donne, English writer and prelate (b. 1572)

★ May 6 - Robert Bruce Cotton, English politician (born 1570)

★ June 17 - Mumtaz Mahal, favorite wife of Shah Jahan (b. April 1593)

★ June 21 - John Smith of Jamestown, English soldier and colonist (b. 1580)

★ July 19 - Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher (b. 1550)

★ July 28 - Guillén de Castro y Bellvis, Spanish dramatist (b. 1569)

★ October 14 - Sofie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (d. 1631), Queen and regent of Denmark (b. 1557)

★ December 23 - Michael Drayton, English poet (b. 1563)
: ''See also .''