1618 Plymouth Rock Colony is established. The Dutch burn San Juan. 1625 Francis Bacon dies. 1637 Ming Dynasty ends in China, Ching Dynasty begins. 1638 New Sweden in Delaware River Valley brings both Swedish and Finnish Lutherans to America for the first time.
Puritan regime reigns in England.
First Lutheran Church, Albany, New York, is founded and is today the ELCA's oldest congregation. Microscope is invented. 1654 Black plague devastates London. Stuart monarchy is restored in England. 1660 Rembrandt paints The Return of the Prodigal Son.