1638

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Events

January–March

January 4
- A naval battle takes place in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Goa in South India, as a Netherlands fleet commanded by Admiral Adam Westerwolt decimates the Portuguese fleet.
- A fleet of 80 Spanish ships led by Governor-General Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera attacks the Sultanate of Sulu in the Philippines by beginning an invasion of Jolo island, but Sultan Muwallil Wasit I puts up a stiff resistance.
January 8 – Shimabara Rebellion: The siege of Shimabara Castle ends after 27 days in Japan's Tokugawa shogunate (part of modern-day Nagasaki prefecture) as the rebel peasants flee reinforcements sent by the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu.
January 22 – The Shimabara and Amakusa rebels, having joined up after fleeing the shogun's troops, begin the defense of Hara Castle in modern-day Minamishimabara in the Nagasaki prefecture. The siege lasts more than 11 weeks before the peasants are massacred.
February 28 – The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in opposition to changes to the Church of Scotland proposed by King Charles I.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
March 3 – Thirty Years' War: Battle of Rheinfelden – A mercenary army under Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, fighting for France, defeats forces of the Holy Roman Empire.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
March 5 – Thirty Years' War: The Treaty of Hamburg is signed by France and Sweden, providing the latter with funds.
March 22
- Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his sons capture the city of Kandahar from the Safavids. <ref>G. P. Tate, The Kingdom of Afghanistan: A Historical Sketch (Times of India, 1911) p. 205</ref>
- Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy and goes to Rhode Island.
March 28 – Dutch merchant Willem Kieft is appointed Director of New Netherland by the Dutch East India Company to succeed Wouter van Twiller.<ref>George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania: A History (Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1926) p. 31</ref>
March 29 – Settlers from Sweden arrive on the ships Kalmar Nyckel and Fogel Grip to establish the settlement of New Sweden in Delaware, beginning the Swedish colonization of the Americas.

April–June

April 3 – Preacher John Wheelwright is banished from Boston and founds Exeter, New Hampshire.
April 14 – The Netherlands colonizes Mauritius, with colonists from the ship Dragon going ashore after sighting it the day before, an event chronicled by British traveler Peter Mundy.<ref>Peter Mundy, ed. by Lavinia Mary Anstey, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667 (Hakluyt Society, 1919) p. 343</ref><ref>Jolyon C. Parish, The Dodo and the Solitaire: A Natural History (Indiana University Press, 2013) p.37</ref>
April 15 – Shogunate forces defeat the last remnants of the Shimabara Rebellion, in the fortress of Hara. In the aftermath, suppression of Christianity is strictly enforced, Portuguese traders are expelled and Japan enters more than two centuries of isolationism.
April 25 – Settlement of what will become New Haven, Connecticut begins.<ref>Laura A. Macaluso, Historic Treasures of New Haven: Celebrating 375 Years of the Elm City (Arcadia Publishing, 2013)</ref>
May 13 – Construction begins on the Red Fort in Delhi (India) for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan who is transferring his capital there from Agra.
May 23 – The Kandyan Treaty is signed between Singhala King Rajasimha II and the Dutch, to rid Ceylon of the Portuguese.
June 20 – Eighty Years' War: Battle of Kallo – Spanish troops under Ferdinand of Austria defeat a much larger Dutch force, near Antwerp.
June 27 – Patriarch Cyril of Constantinople is deposed for high treason, strangled and thrown into the sea by Janissaries, on Ottoman Sultan Murad IV's command.

July–September

July 16 – Thirty Years' War: The siege of Saint-Omer ends after almost two months as the French-held Flemish city falls after being besieged by Spanish and German troops.
July 20 – Scottish Covenanters meet at Muchalls Castle to compose a response to the 14 demands of the Bishops of Aberdeen.<ref>J. P. Edmond, The Aberdeen Printers: 1638-1682 (J. & J. P. Edmond & Spark, 1884) p.65</ref>
July 28 – Thirty Years' War: Swedish Army Field Marshal Johan Banér begins a destructive campaign against the Duchy of Pomerania, held by the Holy Roman Empire.
August 15 – The Portuguese expedition led by Pedro Teixeira completes the first ascent of the Amazon River, crossing the Quijos River and arriving at Quito in Ecuador soon after (the same trip had been made in the opposite direction, in 1541).
August 22 – Franco-Spanish War (1635–59): The Battle of Getaria is fought between the navies of France and Spain, with the French sinking all 17 Spanish Navy ships and killing 2,000 Spanish sailors and officers.<ref>Guy Le Moing, Les 600 plus grandes batailles navales de l'Histoire (in French)(Marines Editions, 2011) p.309</ref>
August 27 – Tayyar Mehmed Pasha becomes the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire after Bayram Pasha dies while fighting in Baghdad.
September 6 – The Finnish mail service, predecessor of Posti Group, is established.<ref>"Suomen julkinen postilaitos perustettin 6.9.1638, joloin hyvakayttiin Tukholman-Kakisalmen linjalle postitaksa". Aili Rytkonen Bell and Augustus A. Koski, Finnish Graded Reader (Foreign Service Institute, 1968) p. 268</ref>
September 21 – The Treaty of Hartford is signed, ending the Pequot War between British American colonists and the Pequot.
September – John Spofford arrives in Boston Harbor, on the ship John of London, and is one of the first people to establish Rowely, Essex County, Massachusetts.

October–December

October 21 – The Great Thunderstorm in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, England: probable ball lightning strikes the parish church, killing 4 and injuring about 60.
November 21 – The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is summoned to Glasgow, by King Charles I.<ref>James Pagan, Sketch of the History of Glasgow (Robert Stuart and Company, 1847) p. 35</ref>
November 24 – New Haven, the first planned city in America, is founded when local Indians make a deed of Quinnipiac to Theophilus Eaton and other English settlers.<ref>"The New Haven Colony", by Henry White, in Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society (New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1865) p.3</ref>
December 18 – Cardinal Mazarin becomes the first adviser to French potentate Richelieu, on the death of Leclerc du Tremblay.
December 21 – The full moon is in total eclipse from 1:12 to 2:47 UT, and the solstice occurs later in the day, at 16:05 UT.
December 25 – Capture of Baghdad by the Ottomans under Sultan Murad IV.

Date unknown

Shipwrecked English buccaneer Peter Wallace, called Balis by the Spanish, settles near and perhaps gives his name to the Belize River, the first known European settlement in Belize.
The Peking Gazette makes an official switch in its production process of newspapers, from woodblock printing to movable type printing (private newspapers in Ming dynasty China were first mentioned in 1582).