Events

• February 5 - Roger Williams emigrates to Boston.
• May 10 - During the Thirty Years' War imperial troops storm the German city of Magdeburg and commit a massacre. About 20,000 inhabitants are killed.
• May 18 - In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
• June 20 - Algerian pirates sack Baltimore, County Cork in Ireland.
• Moses Amyraut's Traite des Religions is published.
• The bell "Emmanuel" in Notre Dame de Paris is recast.

Year in topic

• 1631 in literature
• 1631 in science

Births

• Lady Anne Finch Conway née Anne Finch, philosopher (d. 1679)
• August 19 - John Dryden, poet and playwright (d. 1700)

Deaths

• March 31 - John Donne, English poet and writer.
• Isaac du Ryer , French poet (date approximate).
• John Smith of Jamestown