war on his own Parliament. September 2 – Parliament orders the theatres of London closed, effectively ending the era of English Renaissance theatre. September 6 – England's Long Parliament suppresses all stage plays in theatres. September 7 – Lord Forbes raises his unsuccessful siege of Galway. September 8 – Thomas Granger is executed by hanging at Plymouth, Massachusetts, for confessing to numerous acts of bestiality. October–December October 8 – 1642 Yellow River flood: Some 300,000 people die in the intentional breaking of the dams and dykes of the Yellow River, done either by the Ming dynasty defenders of Kaifeng to break the siege by the large Manchu dynasty rebel force of Li Zicheng. October 23 – First English Civil War – Battle of Edgehill: Royalists and Parliamentarians battle to a draw. November 13 – First English Civil War – Battle of Turnham Green: The Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army, and fail to take London. November 15 – Sir Edward Ford, High Sheriff of Sussex, captures Chichester from the Parliamentarians without resistance. The Parliamentarians send Sir William Waller to recapture Chichester. November 24 – Abel Tasman and his crew become the first Europeans to discover "Van Diemen's Land", now the Australian island and state of Tasmania, and the island is claimed for the Netherlands on December 3 at what is now Prince of Wales Bay. November 27 – Hong Taiji (known in the West as Abatai) begins a 60-day march of Manchu warriors, southwardly from the Great Wall through Ming Chinese provinces of Zhili and Shandong, before returning northward on January 27. Two years later Beijing falls to rebels, the Chongzhen Emperor commits suicide, and the Shunzhi Emperor becomes the first Qing Emperor to rule over China proper. December 13 – Abel Tasman and his crew become the first recorded Europeans to sight New Zealand, arriving at its South Island. In a battle between the Europeans and the Island's Maori inhabitants, four crew members are killed. December 21 – After routing Edward Ford's royalist troops at the Battle of Muster Green, William Waller follows Ford's retreating force to Chichester as the Parliamentarians besiege the city, which falls on December 29 after eight days. The inhabitants of Chichester agree to pay the Parliamentarians an additional month's pay to prevent the town from being plundered. Date unknown The village of Bro (Broo), Sweden is granted city rights for the