| 1606–1657 | Ottoman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy, Hungary, Transylvania [treaties] | The 1606 peace treaties between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires lead to half a century of peace and stability in Hungary; no major campaigns are fought between the two, though frontier skirmishes and raids are endemic, and Transylvania develops into a rich regional power. |
| 1607–1700 | North America, UK [food and drink] | Fruits introduced to the North American colonies from England include apples, which adapt well in New England, and peaches, which grow easily in Virginia and other warmer regions. Native vegetables like pumpkins, squash, and beans are favoured over European vegetables. |
| 1640–1700 | North America [literature and language] | Literacy rates in the colonies, particularly in New England, are high relative to those in the Old World. Shipton, New England has a 95% literacy rate; males in Virginia have a literacy rate between 54% and 60%. |
| 1642 | [maths] | French mathematician Blaise Pascal, aged only 19, builds the first calculating machine to help his father, the Intendant of Rouen, with tax calculations. It performs only additions. |
| 1642 | Netherlands [painting] | The Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn paints The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, better known as The Night Watch. |
| 1642 | France [canals] | The Briare Canal linking the Loire and Seine rivers (begun in 1604) is completed. A staircase of seven locks in sequence is the most advanced piece of canal engineering in Europe. |
| 1642 | France [law and government] | A decree is issued by the French government which consolidates the trend towards centralization of government functions by ordering the transfer of all duties undertaken by local government finance officers to the intendants, who are given wide powers of punishment. The decree is reinforced by a declaration issued on 16 April 1643. |
| 1642 | Papal States, Parma, Venice, Tuscany, Italy [wars] | In an attempt to establish his supremacy in northern Italy, Pope Urban VIII excommunicates Odoardo I Farnese, Duke of Parma. His actions spark off the War of Castro and prompt the formation of an antipapal league, including Venice, Tuscany, and Modena, in defence of Parma. |
| 8 January 1642 | Florence [births and deaths] | Galileo Galilei, Italian mathematician, physicist and astronomer, who developed the astronomical telescope, dies in Arcetri, near Florence, Italy (77). |
| 1 June 1642 | UK [political events] | England's Long Parliament passes the Nineteen Propositions, a list of demands, calling for parliamentary approval of the king's ministers and control of the militia, church reform, and enforcement of anti-Catholic legislation, amongst others, which is presented to King Charles I in York. He rejects them and the outbreak of the English Civil War becomes virtually inevitable. |
| 22 August 1642 | UK [British Civil Wars (1642–51)] | The English Civil War officially begins when King Charles I raises his standard at Nottingham, England. |
| November 1642 - February 1643 | Pacific [exploration] | Abel Janszoon Tasman, an explorer in the service of the Dutch East India Company, discovers Van Dieman's Land (now Tasmania) and, in December, New Zealand. In January 1643 he sights Tonga and in February he sees the Fiji Islands. |
| 4 December 1642 | France [births and deaths] | Armand-Jean du Plessis, French cardinal and duc de Richelieu, (‘Cardinal Richelieu’), chief minister (1624–42) to King Louis XIII of France, who defeated the Habsburg hegemony in Europe, dies in Paris, France (57). |
| 4 December 1642 | France [political events] | Following the death of Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister of King Louis XIII of France, he is succeeded by Cardinal Jules Mazarin. |
| 25 December 1642 | England [births and deaths] | Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician who laid the foundations of calculus and gravitation theory, born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England (–1727). |
