In the first decisive battle of the English Civil War the king's nephew, Rupert of the Rhine, is heavily defeated at Marston Moor

The Dutch artist Aelbert Cuyp paints landscapes that glow with the warmth of gentle sunlight

The royalist forces, again under the command of Rupert of the Rhine, suffer another major defeat at Naseby

With the help of his more robust brother-in-law, Blaise Pascal provides physical proof that atmospheric pressure varies with altitude

The Swiss cantons agree on joint action to defend their external borders, in the pact known as the Defensionale of Wyl

Charles I is held at his palace of Hampton Court, as a prisoner of Cromwell and parliament

A Cossack rebellion leads to the eventual transfer of their territory from Poland to Russia

A rebellion of nobles against Mazarin, the principal minister of the young Louis XIV, becomes known as the Fronde

The Dutch chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont suggests that there are insubstantial substances other than air, and coins a name for them - gases

The Peace of Westphalia finally brings to an end the Thirty Years' War

Spain recognizes the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands

Colonel Thomas Pride denies entrance to the House of Commons to about 140 opponents of Cromwell's policies

Cromwell persuades the House of Commons, purged now of all opposition, that it is treason for a king to wage war against parliament

After a trial lasting a week in Westminster Hall, Charles I is convicted of treason for fighting a war against parliament

Charles I is beheaded on a scaffold erected in the street in London's Whitehall

Parliament chooses Oliver Cromwell to chair the new English Commonwealth's council of state

Rembrandt creates an etching so desirable that it becomes known as the Hundred Guilder Print

John Milton becomes Latin secretary in Cromwell's council of state

The Russian empire, expanding eastwards through Siberia, reaches the Pacific coast

Cromwell captures the royalist stronghold of Drogheda and massacres some 2800 people

Descartes catches a fatal chill, returning home in midwinter from pre-dawn instruction of Queen Christina of Sweden

James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh, calculates that creation began on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC

A German burgomaster, Otto von Guericke, devises an air pump capable of creating a vacuum

The poems of Massachusetts author Anne Bradstreet are published in London under the title The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

Parliament in England passes the first of several Navigation Acts designed to reserve international trade for English ships