Events of 1634

January–June

• February 24 – February 25—Rebellious soldiers kill Albrecht von Wallenstein.

• March 1—Battle of Smolensk: King Ladislaus IV of Poland defeats the Russian army.

• March 25—The first settlers arrive in St. Mary's City, Maryland (led by Lord Baltimore), the fourth permanent settlement in British North America.

July–December

• July 4—The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (later the Canadian province of Quebec).

• August 18—Urbain Grandier, a priest accused of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.

• September 5 and September 6—The Battle of Nördlingen results in a Catholic victory.

• October 11–12—The Burchardi flood (also known as the second Grote Mandrenke) strikes the North Sea coast of Germany and Denmark, causing 8–12,000 deaths.

Undated

• Moses Amyraut's Traite de la predestination is published.

• Curaçao is captured by the Dutch.

• The Treaty of Polianovska is defined.

• The first meeting of the Académie française occurs.

• Jean Nicolet becomes the first European to set foot in Wisconsin. He is in search of a water-route to the Pacific when he lands at Green Bay, most likely in August of 1634.

• Covent Garden Market opens in London.

• The English establish a settlement at Cochin (now Kochi) on the Malabar coast.

• The first decennial performance of the Oberammergau Passion Plays is held.

• In England, Oxford University Press receives its charter and becomes the second of the privileged presses.

• In Maryland, the Jesuits Andrew White, John Altham Gravenor, and Thomas Gervase arrived with Lord Leonard Calvert on March 25, 1634, and in that year established an institution of higher learning at St. Mary's which later became known as Georgetown University, North America's oldest university.

Births

• January 16—Dorothe Engelbretsdotter, Norway's first female author (d. 1713)

• January 25—Gaspar Fagel, Dutch statesman (d. 1688)

• March 18—Marie-Madeleine de La Fayette, French novelist (d. 1693)

• April 9—Albertine Agnes of Nassau, Regent of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe (d. 1696)

• June 20—Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy (d. 1675)

• July 14—Pasquier Quesnel, French Jansenist theologian (d. 1719)

• July 18—Johannes Camphuys, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1695)

• October 18—Luca Giordano, Italian artist (d. 1705)

• December 15—Thomas Kingo, Danish poet (d. 1703)

Deaths

• February 25—Albrecht von Wallenstein, general (assassinated) (b. 1583)

• May 12—George Chapman, English author (b. c.1559)

• May 15—Hendrick Avercamp, Dutch painter (b. 1585)

• June 22—Johann von Aldringen, Austrian field marshal (b. 1588)

• June 25—John Marston, English dramatist (b. 1576)

• August 9—William Noy, English jurist (b. 1577)

• August 11—Frederick Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1591)

• August 18—Urbain Grandier, French priest (b. 1590)

• September 3—Edward Coke, English colonial entrepreneur and jurist (b. 1552)

• December 25—Lettice Knollys, English noblewoman (b. 1540)

• December 29—John Albert Vasa, Polish bishop (b. 1612)

• date unknown

• *Adriano Banchieri, Italian composer (b. 1568)

• *Johan Bara, painter and engraver (b. c. 1581)

• *Wigund-Jeronym Trubecki, prince of Trubeck