The English poet John Milton titled his defence of freedom of the press "Areopagitica," arguing that the censors of ancient Athens, based at the Areopagus, had not practiced the kind of prior restraint of publication being called for in the English Parliament of Milton's time.
John Milton used its imprimaturs (from the 1638 edition) as an illustration on his Areopagitica.
June 16 - Parliament issues the Licensing Order of 1643 to control the press — the action against which John Milton protests in his Areopagitica of the following year.