After besieging Fort Zeelandia, Koxinga forces the Dutch East India Company to surrender and establishes the Kingdom of Tungning.
The treaties of Westphalia end the Thirty Years' War and lay foundations for the modern concept of state sovereignty.
Using microscopes of his own making, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek describes single-celled organisms in water and reports them to the Royal Society.
Li Zicheng's rebels take Beijing and the Chongzhen Emperor dies by suicide; weeks later Qing forces enter the city and begin their rule of China.
The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman became the first known European to reach Tasmania and New Zealand.
After the Battle of Penghu, the Kingdom of Tungning surrenders and Taiwan is incorporated into the Qing empire.
The shogunate expels the Portuguese and severely restricts foreign contact, allowing only Dutch and Chinese trade at Nagasaki.