Major Events
- Aug 22 Madras (now Chennai), India, founded by the British East India Company on sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers
- Nov 24 1st observation of transit of Venus by Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree - helped establish size of the Solar System
- More 1639 Events
Did You Know?
Virginia orders half of its tobacco crop destroyed to support plunging prices and to avoid an economic catastrophe, the 1st colony to order the destruction of crops
More People Born in 1639
Who Died in 1639
- Jan 20 Mustafa I 'Mustafa the Mad', Ottoman sultan (1617-18, 22-23), dies at 38 or 39
- Jan 23 Francisco Maldonado da Silva Solis, Peruvian poet, burned at stake
- Jan 24 [George] Jörg Jenatsch, Swiss Grisons leader, assassinated by a man disguised as a bear at about 42
- Mar 22 Thomas Carew, English poet and diplomat (The Rapture), dies
- May 21 Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian, philosopher and poet, dies at 70
More 1639 Deaths
Articles About 1639
Great Sacrifice of a Plague-Ridden Village
William Mompesson, a clergyman born on this day, created a legend when he persuaded the people in a plague-ridden village to sacrifice their lives to save others.April 28Transit of Venus
Crabtree watching the Transit of Venus in 1639 by Ford Maddox BrownNovember 24