1637 - Definition and Overview

Events

• February 3 - Tulipmania collapses in Netherlands by government order
• February 15 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor
• December 17 - Shimabara Rebellion erupts in Japan
• Pierre de Fermat makes a marginal claim to have proof of what would become known as Fermat's Last Theorem.
• France places a few missionaries in the Côte d'Ivoire, a country it would come to rule more than 200 years later.
• England wages war against the Mashantucket Pequots
• First opera house, Teatro San Cassiona, opens in Venice
• René Descartes - Discours de la Methode

Births

• February 12 - Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (d. 1680)
• December 7 - Bernardo Pasquini, composer (d. 1710)
• Ottoman sultan Ahmed III
• Emperor Go-Sai of Japan

Deaths

• February 15 - Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
• April 1 - Niwa Nagashige, Japanese daimyo and retainer
• August 6 - Ben Jonson, English writer
• Nicholas Ferrar involved in the London Virginia Company