In the year 1628...
- In response to repeated depredations by English king Charles I, Parliament at the instigation of Sir Edward Coke issues the Petition of Right, a statement of civil liberties asserting four principles: no taxes may be levied without consent of Parliament; no subject may be imprisoned without cause shown (reaffirming of the right of habeas corpus); no soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry; and martial law may not be used in time of peace.
- The Thirty Years' War continues in Germany as Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein continues his string of successes by occupying several strategically located towns along the Hanseatic coast. Wallenstein's fortune finally turns however, when he is turned back at the Siege of Stralsund, the first defeat his army has ever suffered.
- A massive famine strikes China's Shenxi province, and when the Ming government refuses to reduce taxation in response, 22-year old peasant Zhang Xianzhong, nicknamed "Yellow Tiger," initiates a peasant uprising which will last 16 years, spread across much of northern China, and eventually claim millions of innocent lives.
- The Huguenot stronghold at La Rochelle succumbs to the forces of Cardinal Richelieu after a 14-month siege.
- In one of the most celebrated exploits in Dutch history, a small fleet of Dutch West India Company ships under Admiral Piet Hein capture 16 Spanish treasure ships without spilling a single drop of Dutch blood. All told, Hein liberates 11,509,524 guilders worth of gold, silver, cochineal, and indigo. The booty fully pays for the next 8 months of the Dutch war against the Spanish, West India Company investors receive a 50% dividend that year, and Hein becomes a Dutch national hero.
- The New England Company is formed by English entrepreneurs and receives a land grant extending from the Merrimack River to the Charles River plus three miles on either side, which will become the basis of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
- English privateer Sir Kenelm Digby executes a daring and highly profitable raid on a French and Venetian fleet at Scandaroon (modern-day Iskenderun, Turkey).
- Oliver Cromwell becomes a member of Parliament. From the very start, he is a staunch opponent of King Charles I.
- Dutch settler Jonas Michaelius organizes a congregation in New Amsterdam known today as the Reformed Church of America, a major American Protestant denomination.
- English physician William Harvey publishes Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus ("An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals"), in which he becomes the first to accurately describe in exact detail how blood is pumped through the body by the heart and then returns to the heart as part of a closed system.
- English clergyman and author John Earle publishes his Microcosmographie a witty collection of characterizations making light of the manners of the time.
- British colonists settle Nevis.
These people were born in 1628:
- English author John Bunyan.
- Dutch landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael
- Italian physiologist Marcello Malpighi, who will give his name to numerous physiological features, including the Malpighi layer of human skin, two different Malpighian corpuscles in the kidneys and the spleen, and the Malpighian tubules in the excretory system of insects.
- Japanese feudal lord and historian Tokugawa Mitsukuni, compiler of the massive history of Japan, Dai Nihon Shi ("History of Greater Japan").
- English courtier George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham, son of the first duke.
- French poet Charles Perrault.
- English diplomat and author Sir William Temple, husband of Dorothy Osborne and an accomplished writer in his own right.
- French general François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg.
- French sculptor François Girardon.
- French composer Robert Cambert.
- Italian painter Carlo, Conte Cignani.
These people died in 1628:
1627 - 1628 - 1629
17th century
How they were made