1631

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).

Events of 1631

January - June

* February 5 - Roger Williams emigrates to Boston.
* February 16 - Gustav Adolf Secondary School is founded in Tallinn, Estonia by Swedish king Gustav II Adolf.
* May 10 - Thirty Years' War: Imperial troops storm the German city of Magdeburg and massacre 20,000 inhabitants.
* 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 - Thirty Years' War: Battle of Breitenfield (1631) - King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden defeats the Catholic League and the Holy Roman Empire, ensuring religious liberty for the Protestant states of Germany.
* October 10 - Thirty Years' War: 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 is finished in 1653).
* Mount Vesuvius erupts in Pompeii.

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)

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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 (b. 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 ."