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Year '1640' was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Contents

Events of 1640

January - June

July - December

Undated

Births

Deaths

Fiction

Events of 1640

January - June

★ May 5 - King Charles I of England disperses the Short Parliament.

★ Charles I summons the Short Parliament in an attempt to fund the second of the Bishops Wars.

July - December

★ October 26 - The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Scotland and Charles I of England.

★ November: The English Long Parliament is summoned.

★ December 1 - Portugal regains its independence from Spain and João IV of Portugal becomes king. Spain does not recognize Portugal's independence until 1668.

Undated

★ The first university in Finland, the Academy of Åbo, was founded in Turku.

★ Change of Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from Murat IV (1623-1640) to Ibrahim I (1640-1648).

★ The first book is printed in North America, the Bay Psalm Book.

★ The first known European coffee house opens in Venice.

★ Henry Glapthorne flourishes.

Births

★ January 25 - William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, English soldier and statesman (d. 1707)

★ March 18 - Philippe de la Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1719)

★ March 30 - John Trenchard, English statesman (d. 1695)

★ April 1 - Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (d. 1697)

★ May 31 - Michał Wiśniowiecki, King of Poland (d. 1673)

★ June 9 - Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1705)

★ July 10 - Aphra Behn, English author (d. 1689)

★ September 29 - Antoine Coysevox, French sculptor (d. 1720)

★ November 28 - Willem de Vlamingh, Flemish sea captain

★ December 6 - Claude Fleury, French historian (d. 1723)

★ December 13 - Robert Plot, British naturalist (d. 1696)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

★ January 14 - Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, English lawyer and judge (b. 1578)

★ January 25 - Robert Burton, English scholar (b. 1577)

★ February 9 - Murad IV, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1612)

★ March 17 - Philip Massinger, English dramatist (b. 1583)

★ April - Uriel da Costa, Portuguese philosopher (suicide) (b. 1585)

★ April 10 - Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer (b. 1578)

★ May 30 - Peter Paul Rubens, German painter (b. 1577)

★ June 3

★
★ John Aylmer, English political theorist (b. 1521)

★
★ June 3 - Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, English politician (b. 1584)

★ September 30 - Charles, Duke of Guise (b. 1571)

★ October 20 - John Ball, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1585)

★ December 30 - John Francis Regis, French saint (b. 1597)

★ ''date unknown'' - Pedro Teixeira, explorer

★ ''probable'' - John Ford, dramatist (b. 1586)
: ''See also .''

Fiction

The play Cyrano by Edmond Rostand takes place in the year 1640.