Events
1600
January–March
- January 1 – Scotland adopts January 1 as New Year's Day instead of March 25.
- January 20 – Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, renews the Nine Years' War (Ireland) against England with an invasion of Munster. [1] [2]
- January 24 – Sebald de Weert makes the first recorded sighting of the Falkland Islands. [3]
- February 17 – On his way to be burned at the stake for heresy in Rome, Giordano Bruno has his tongue "imprisoned" after he refuses to stop talking. [4]
- February 19 – The Huaynaputina volcano in Peru erupts, in what is still the worst recorded volcanic eruption.
- March 20 – Linköping Bloodbath: Five Swedish nobles are publicly executed by decapitation and Polish–Swedish King Sigismund III Vasa is de facto deposed as ruler of Sweden.
April–June
- April 19 – The first Dutch ship ever to arrive in Japan, the Liefde ("Love"), anchors in Sashifu, in the Bungo Province (modern-day Usuki in Ōita Prefecture). The sailors present on this ship are William Adams, Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn, Jacob Quaeckernaeck and Melchior van Santvoort.
- May 27 – Michael the Brave becomes ruler of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia, formally uniting the three Danubian Principalities under one Romanian ruler.
- June 5 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, the former Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Chancellor of the University of Dublin, is put on trial in England before a commission of 18 men, after being charged with malfeasance. He is deprived of his main business, a monopoly on sweet wines, and stripped of his noble title. In revenge, he attempts to organize a coup d'etat to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and fails in his plot.
- June 9 – Yi Hang-bok becomes the new Chief State Councillor of Korea (the Yeonguijeong), equivalent to a prime minister, after being appointed by King Seonjo to replace Yi San-hae.
- June 13 – Barrister Nicholas Fuller is granted the exclusive right in England to manufacture playing cards. [5]
- June 25 – In England, a fire destroys much of the town of North Walsham, Norfolk, burning down 118 homes, 70 shops, and most of the stalls in the market square. The fire is traced to the home of one person who tries to flee town after the blaze begins. Many of the persons left homeless are given shelter at the St Nicholas Church.
July–September
- July 2 – Eighty Years' War (Dutch War of Independence) – Battle of Nieuwpoort: The Dutch Republic gains a tactical victory over the Spanish Empire. [6]
- August 5 – The brothers Alexander Ruthven and John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, are killed during a failed attempt to kidnap or murder King James VI of Scotland at their home.
- September 18 – The Battle of Mirăslău takes place within Transylvania as Hungarian troops, backed by the Holy Roman Empire, triumph over the Principality of Wallachia, backed by Poland. Hungarian General Giorgio Basta brings 30,000 men against the 22,000 commanded by Wallachia's ruler Michael the Brave. The Wallachians sustain more than 5,000 dead and wounded.
- September 24 – All 130 crew of the Dutch Republic ship Hoop die when the merchantman sinks in a storm while traveling in the Pacific Ocean between the Hawaiian Islands and Japan. [7] The Liefde, a ship accompanying Hoop, is badly damaged but survives; all but 24 of its crew of more than 100 die from starvation and thirst after drifting more than six months before arriving in Japan on April 19, 1601.
October–December
- October 6 – The première of Jacopo Peri's Euridice , the earliest known fully surviving work of modern opera, takes place in Florence for the wedding of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici. Emilio de' Cavalieri stages the production. [8]
- October 8 – The basic legal system for the Republic of San Marino goes into effect during the service of captains regent Girolamo Gozi and Francesco Giannini.
- October 20 – Persian diplomats, led by Husayn 'Ali Beg of Persia, and Englishman Anthony Shirley (who serves as translator) arrive in Prague to meet with Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. [9]
- October 21 – The Battle of Sekigahara occurs in what is now present-day Gifu Prefecture, Japan, where the Eastern Army led by Tokugawa Ieyasu emerges victorious against the Western Army led by Ishida Mitsunari. The battle ends the Sengoku period and grants the Tokugawa clan nominal control over Japan, establishing the Tokugawa shogunate with Tokugawa Ieyasu as shogun.
- November 7 – Emperor Rudolf II grants an audience in Prague to Persian diplomats Husayn 'Ali Beg and Anthony Shirley, and present the offer of Persia's King Abbas the Great to supply weapons to the Empire in their fight against the Ottomans. [9] [10]
- November 15 – Thessaly rebellion: Greek farmers in Thessaly, incited by Bishop Dionysios Skylosophos, begin an uprising against the Ottoman Empire, with violence in an area bounded by Trikala and Karditsa and the surrounding mountains, but the rebellion is suppressed by the Ottomans in a few days. [11]
- December 31 – The East India Company is granted a Royal charter in the Kingdom of England for trade with Asia.
Date unknown
- Approximate date – The Lutheran orthodox campaign intensifies, to reinforce the Book of Concord .
- Caister Castle in England falls into ruin.
- Sumo wrestling becomes a professional sport in Japan.
- William Shakespeare's plays Henry IV, Part 2 , Henry V , The Merchant of Venice , A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing are published in London. [2]
- William Gilbert publishes De Magnete , one of the first significant scientific books published in England, describing the Earth's magnetic field, and the beginning of modern geomagnetism.
- Fabritio Caroso's dance manual Nobiltà de dame is published.
1601
January–March
- January 11 – Valladolid is briefly the capital of Habsburg Spain under Philip III, before returning indefinitely to Madrid in 1606.
- January 17 – Treaty of Lyon: France gains Bresse, Bugey and Gex from Savoy, ceding Saluzzo in exchange.
- February 8 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, longtime favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, begins a rebellion against the Queen. The revolt is crushed the next day. The Earl of Essex and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton are arrested and charged with treason. Essex confesses to the plot and then implicates his co-conspirators. [12]
- February 23 – Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia, arrives in Prague to enlist the assistance of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor in driving Ottoman troops out of Transylvania. Michael leaves on March 5, having received a pledge of Austrian troops to the fight.
- February 25 – The Earl of Essex becomes the first of the Essex's Rebellion participants to be executed. He is beheaded at Tower Hill. His co-conspirator, the Earl of Southampton, sentenced to death, but Queen Elizabeth commutes his penalty to life imprisonment; Southampton will be released two years later.
- March 5 – The treason trial for five secondary participants in Essex's Rebellion — Gelli Meyrick, Henry Cuffe, Christopher Blount, Charles Danvers, and Sir John Davies — is held in London. All five are found guilty. Meyrick and Cuffe are hanged at Tyburn on March 13, and Blount and Danvers are beheaded at Tower Hill on March 18. Davies is allowed to go free.
- March 7 – In India, Mughal Empire Prince Daniyal Mirza, son of the Emperor Akbar, is named the ruler of Khandesh, after having completed the conquest of the sultanate of Ahmednagar.
- March 24 – Sigismund Báthory, who had abdicated as Prince of Transylvania in 1599, returns as the leader of the invading Polish Army.
April–June
- April 3 – At an assembly of nobles at Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca in Romania), Sigismund Báthory is again proclaimed Prince of Transylvania.
- April 22 – The first expedition of the East India Company sets sail from England for the Spice Islands with John Davis as pilot-major. [13]
- May 5 – Dutch explorer Joris van Spilbergen, leading three ships of the Compagnie van De Moucheron, departs on his first expedition to Asia, departing from Veere with the ships Ram, Schaap, and Lam (Ram, Sheep and Lamb). After establishing trade in Sri Lanka, Spilbergen and his crew return to the Dutch Republic in 1604.
- May 28 – Sekigahara Campaign: Japanese warlord Date Masamune leads an unsuccessful attempt to take Fukushima Castle.
- June 23
- Polish–Swedish War (1600–1611): The Battle of Kokenhausen is fought at Koknese in Livonia (now Latvia) after Swedish troops had invaded the Lithuanian territory). The Polish hussars, commanded by Prince Krzysztof Radziwill, overwhelm a numerically superior force of Swedish attackers led by General Carl Gyllenhielm, and over 2,000 Swedish soldiers are killed. [14]
- Juan de Oñate, the Spanish colonial administrator in what is now the U.S. state of New Mexico, departs from San Gabriel de Nuevo Mexico with 130 Spanish soldiers and 12 priests on an expedition to explore the interior of the area. [15]
July–September
- July 2 – The Spanish expedition of Juan de Oñate reaches the Canadian River on (the feast day of Biblical Mary Magdalena), in what is now Texas. [16]
- July 5 – The Siege of Ostend, which will last more than three years and claims more than 100,000 casualties for both Spain and the Netherlands, begins as Albert of Austria, Governor General of the Habsburg Netherlands, leads an attack on the Dutch Netherlands fortress at Ostend. The Spanish forces eventually triumph on September 20, 1604, albeit in a Pyrrhic victory that will see at least 60,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or dead from disease. [17]
- July 22 – General Yemişçi Hasan Pasha is selected as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mehmed III, 12 days after the death of Grand Vizier Damat Ibrahim Pasha. Hasan will only serve 15 months before he being executed on the Sultan's orders on October 4, 1603.
- August 2 – The Oñate expedition reaches the Rita Blanco River on the day of the Feast of the Porciuncula and follows it northward into Oklahoma. [16]
- August 3 – The Battle of Guruslău takes place in Goroszlo in (now Guruslău in Romania), as Wallachian troops led by Michael the Brave and Giorgio Basta defeat Transylvanian defenders commanded by Sigismund Báthory. Wallachia, assisted by Austrian troops from the Holy Roman Empire, retakes the Principality of Transylvania from Ottoman rule.
- September 2 – A Spanish Navy fleet of 33 ships and 4,432 men, under the command of Admiral Juan del Águila, departs Portugal after being dispatched to Ireland by King Philip III. The Spanish fleet is intended to support an Irish rebellion led by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O'Donnell against the British.
- September 6 – Pope Clement VIII issues a decree forbidding the publication of any litany, except that of the saints as found in the liturgical books and the Litany of Loreto. [18]
- September 9 – The siege of Nagykanizsa, an Ottoman fortress in Hungary, is started by Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and lasts for more than two months before being abandoned.
- September 11 – Queen Elizabeth I summons her 10th, and last, meeting of the English Parliament.
- September 19 – The Juan de Oñate expedition of Spanish explorers first encounters the indigenous Escanjaque Indians in what is now the U.S. state of Kansas. The Escanjaques ask the Spaniards to assist them in a war against a rival tribe, the Rayados. Instead, Oñate befriends the Rayados five days later. [16]
- September 20 – The siege of Székesfehérvár, an Ottoman occupied Hungarian fortress, is completed by troops of the Holy Roman Empire after 16 days. [19] The Ottomans will recapture Székesfehérvár a year later.
- September 28 – The Escanjaque Indians attack Juan de Oñate's Spanish expedition as the Spaniards are returning from their furthest venture east, the Little Arkansas River. [16]
October–December
- October 2 (September 22 O.S.) – A large Spanish fleet, with 6,000 soldiers led by Juan del Águila, lands at Kinsale at County Cork in Ireland, to assist Tyrone's Rebellion.
- October 4 – Claudine de Culam, a 16-year-old girl in the French village of Rognon, is hanged after being convicted of "carnal cohabitation with a dog". The dog is hanged along with her. [20]
- October 26 – Johannes Kepler, assistant to Tycho Brahe, is suddenly promoted to the position of Royal Mathematician of the Holy Roman Empire after Brahe's sudden death.
- October 27 – The 10th Parliament of Elizabeth I is opened by Queen Elizabeth of England. It serves until December 19.
- November 4 – Cyril I is selected as the new leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church as Patriarch of Constantinople and Greek Patriarch of Alexandria, succeeding Meletius I Pegas, who died on September 12.
- November 18 – Ottoman defenders commanded by Tiryaki Hasan Pasha successfully resist the Austrian siege of Nagykanizsa.
- December 6 – The Battle of Castlehaven is fought off of the coast of southern Ireland as six Spanish Navy ships led by General Pedro de Zubiaur are intercepted by an English fleet of four warships led and commanded by Sir Richard Levenson. Two of the Spanish ships are sunk, and the other four are run aground.
- December 19 – The 10th Parliament of Elizabeth I is adjourned. Another English Parliament will not be assembled until 1604 when summoned by James I.
- December 24 (Julian calendar, used by the English; January 3, 1602, according to the Gregorian calendar used by the Irish and Spanish forces in the battle) – The Battle of Kinsale ends the siege of Kinsale, Ireland (begun in autumn 1601).
- December 27 – The Battle of Bantam is fought within what is now Indonesia off of the coast of the island of Java, as Walter Harmensz leads five Dutch Republic galleons in a successful attack against a Portuguese fleet led by André Furtado de Mendonça.
Date unknown
- Dutch troops attack the Portuguese in Malacca.
- Jesuit Matteo Ricci becomes the first European to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, being invited by the Ming Dynasty Emperor.
- A rainy summer in the Tsardom of Russia causes a bad harvest, leading to the Russian famine of 1601–03 which kills about two million people.
- Martin Möller is accused of Crypto-Calvinism.
1602
January–March
- January 3 – Battle of Kinsale: The English defeat Irish rebels and their Spanish allies. (The battle happens on this date according to the Gregorian calendar used by the Irish and Spanish but on Thursday, 24 December, 1601 according to the old Julian calendar used by the English.)
- February 2 (Candlemas night) – In London, the first known production of William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night takes place. [21]
- March 20 – The United East India Company is established by the United Provinces States-General in Amsterdam, with the stated intention of capturing the spice trade from the Portuguese.
April–June
- April 20 – The Danish–Icelandic Trade Monopoly is established.
- May 25 (May 15 Old Style) – English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, sailing in the Concord, becomes the first European at Cape Cod. [22]
- June 2 – Dutch explorer Joris van Spilbergen lands on the eastern side of the island of Sri Lanka, at Santhamuruthu, and begins the process of attempting to establish a relationship with the rulers of the Kingdom of Kandy. [23]
- June 3 – Anglo-Spanish War (1585) – Battle of Sesimbra Bay off of the coast of Portugal: Five galleons of the English Royal Navy defeat a larger force of Spanish Navy ships. [24]
- June 5 – James Lancaster's East India Company fleet arrives at Achin (modern-day Aceh), Sumatra to deal with the local ruler. Having defeated Portugal's ally, the ruler is happy to do business, and Lancaster seizes a large Portuguese galleon and loots it.
- June 17 – An expedition of 14 Dutch Republic ships, commanded by Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck, departs from Texel on its expedition to the East Indies.
- June 18 – Nine Years' War (Ireland): Dunboy Castle in Ireland is taken by the English after 143 Irish defenders had withstood an 11-day siege by more than 4,000 English soldiers under the command of Sir George Carew. Of the 143 soldiers, who had been loyal to Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, 85 are killed in the siege, and the 58 survivors are hanged after the English victory. [25]
July–September
- July 7 – The German duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, with a capital at Altenburg, is created as a separate duchy as a gift to Johann Philipp, the eldest son of his father Johann II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar.
- July 26 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, recently premiered by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, is licensed for publishing in London but not in fact printed at this time.
- July 29 – Juan de Zúñiga Flores, Bishop of Cartagena, becomes the Grand Inquisitor of Spain but serves for only five months before his death at the age of 55.
- August 22 – Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, the prime minister for India's Mughal Emperor Akbar, is assassinated at Narwar as part of a plot by Emperor Akbar's son, Prince Salim, who will later succeed Akbar as Emperor Jahangir. [26] Abu'l-Fazl's killer, Vir Singh Bundela, sends the victim's severed head to Prince Salim as proof of the plot's success.
- September 1 – The Mutiny of Hoogstraten, a rebellion by soldiers of the Army of Flanders, begins with the seizure by 3,000 disgruntled mercenaries of the town of Hoogstraten (now in Belgium). The mutineers hold the town for almost two years before surrendering on 18 May 1604.
- September 10 – Rory O'Donnell (Rudhraighe Ó Domhnaill) becomes the last Irish King of Tyrconnell upon the death of his brother, Hugh Roe O'Donnell (Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill). After less than a year, Rory allows Tyrconnell (modern-day County Donegal in Northern Ireland) to come under Irish control in return for being created the Earl of Tyrconnell.
- September 12 – King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland receives the delivery of eight specially woven Persian carpets displaying Poland's royal coat of arms, after having dispatched agent Sefer Muratowicz to Kashan. [27]
- September 20 – The siege of the Spanish Netherlands town of De Graaf ends after two months as a Dutch and English army forces the surrender of the Spanish defenders. [28]
- September 30 – The siege of Weissenstein, a Swedish town that is now Paide in Estonia, ends after four months with a victory of 2,000 Polish and Lithuanian troops commanded by Jan Zamoyski, the Great Crown Hetman of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
October–December
- October 3 – Battle of the Narrow Seas: An English fleet, joined by the Dutch, begins a pursuit of six Spanish galleys through the Strait of Dover, and defeats them the next day.
- November 8 – The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in England is opened. [29]
- December 11 – A surprise attack by forces under the command of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens of Geneva (this actually takes place after midnight, in the early morning of December 12, but commemorations/celebrations on Fête de l'Escalade are usually held on December 11 or the closest weekend).
Ongoing
- Russian famine of 1601–03
- Long Turkish War (1591/1593-1606)
- Jelali revolts
Date unknown
- The Portuguese are expelled from Bahrain.
- The Safavid Empire of Persia and the Spanish Empire conclude a defensive alliance and declare war on the Ottoman Empire.
- First publication, in London, of:
- Ben Jonson's satirical comedy Poetaster .
- William Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor .
- The play A Larum for London, or the Siedge of Antwerp .
- Copies are printed of the geographical map of East Asia created by Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit stationed in Ming dynasty Beijing, China, with Chinese-written labeling and map symbols.
- The iconoclast and Confucian scholar Li Zhi commits suicide while in a Chinese prison, during the late Ming dynasty; he had taught that women were the intellectual equals of men and should be given equal opportunity in education; he was charged with spreading "dangerous ideas".
1603
January–March
- January 24 – Anglo-Spanish War: English Admiral Christopher Newport leads an unsuccessful attempt to take the Spanish-controlled Caribbean island of Jamaica, where he was attempting to pillage the area to obtain supplies. The Spanish defenders repel the fleet, and Newport leads the attackers to the coast of Central America.
- February 17 – Anglo-Spanish War: The Battle of Puerto Caballos is fought off of the coast of Guatemala by two Spanish Navy galleons, and eight English Navy and French pirate ships. The English-French soldiers and pirates, commanded by Christopher Newport and Michael Geare, plunder Puerto Caballos over the next two weeks, and the Spanish defenders suffer 230 casualties. [30]
- February 25 – Dutch–Portuguese War: the Portuguese ship Santa Catarina is seized by Dutch East India Company ships off Singapore.
- March 15 – French explorer Samuel de Champlain departs from the Channel port of Honfleur in the Calvados département in the Kingdom of France for his first voyage to the settlement of New France in what is now Canada. [31]
- March 24
- Queen Elizabeth I of England dies at Richmond Palace (having ruled since 1558). She is succeeded by her first cousin twice removed, King James VI of Scotland (where he has ruled since 1567), uniting the crowns of Scotland and England. [32]
- Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shōgun from Emperor Go-Yozei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan. The 265-year-long Edo period begins.
- March 30 – The Nine Years War (Ireland) is ended by the submission of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, to the English Crown, and the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont.
April–June
- April 27 – The first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia is established in Banten by Vice Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck, who sets up a factory to store and package the trading commodity black pepper.
- April 28 – The funeral of Elizabeth I of England is held in Westminster Abbey. [33]
- May 8 – Mozes Székely is installed as the Prince of Transylvania by the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed III. Székely is killed in battle on July 17.
- May 13 – In modern-day northern Thailand, the rulers of Chiang Mai retake control of the Nan province and capture its ruler, Cao Cetabut. [34]
- May 14 – Pope Gabriel VIII of Alexandria, leader of the Coptic Christian Church, dies after a reign of almost 16 years. He is succeeded by Pope Mark V.
- May 19 – The King's Men, a troupe of English professional actors composed primarily of former members of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, is granted its royal patent by King James. The company will give the first performances of many of the plays of William Shakespeare, who is one of the company's 26 principal actors. Named in order of priority on the patent are manager Lawrence Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage. [35]
- May 26 – The Battle of Sluis is fought at sea off of the Belgian Netherlands as Spanish ships try unsuccessfully to break through a blockade port of the port of Sluis. The Spanish ships are forced to return to port after at least 414 sailors are killed. [36]
- May 29 – A tabagie feast is held in Tadoussac in the modern-day Canadian province of Quebec, as representatives of France (Samuel De Champlain and François Gravé Du Pont, form an alliance with representatives of the Innu, Algonquin and Maliseet tribes. [37]
- June 7 – Prince Şehzade Mahmud of the Ottoman Empire, the 16-year-old son of Sultan Murad III, is executed on orders of his father, on advice of the Grand Vizier, after being accused unjustly of an assassination plot. [38]
July–September
- July 17 – Sir Walter Raleigh is arrested in England on charges of treason and of conspiring with Lord Cobham in the "Main Plot" to overthrow King James for replacement by Lady Arbella Stuart. [39]
- July 25 – The formal coronation of James I as King of England takes place at Westminster Abbey. [32] Ceremonies are limited because of plague.
- August 17 – The Accademia dei Lincei, the oldest scientific academy in the world, is founded in Rome by Federico Cesi.
- September 20
- Samuel Champlain arrives back in France. [40]
- Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618): Led by Iranian Emperor Abbas the Great, the Safavid Army of Iran stages a surprise attack on Tabriz, which had been taken from the Safavids by the Ottoman Empire in 1588. Tabriz is recaptured after 29 days.
October–December
- October 6 – On the Philippine island of Luzon, the Sangley Rebellion against Spanish rule ends with the massacre of 20,000 Sangley Chinese residents in Manila. [41]
- October 18 – Yemişçi Hasan Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, is executed on orders of Sultan Mehmed III, after failing to respond more quickly to the Safavid Empire's actions to take Tabriz. The Sultan appoints Yavuz Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt to replace Yemişçi Hasan.
- October 21 – Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618): The Safavid Army of Iran, led by Emperor Abbas the Great, recaptures Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire after 15 years of Ottoman occupation.
- November 15 – Having recaptured Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire, Abbas the Great leads the Safavids in a siege of Yerevan.
- November 17 – Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason, in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle. [32] He is found guilty, but his life is spared by King James I at this time, and he is returned to imprisonment in the Tower of London.
- November – Rokugō rebellion: More than 1,000 rōnin rebel in support of their exiled lord, Onodera Yoshimichi, in Japan. [42]
- December 22 – Sultan Mehmed III of the Ottoman Empire dies, and is succeeded by his son Ahmed I.
- December 29 – Yavuz Ali Pasha, who had been appointed by Mehmed III in October as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, arrives at Constantinople to begin service. He dies from illness seven months later.
Ongoing events
Date unknown
- A rebellion breaks out in Transylvania.
- French Huguenot Pierre de Gua is granted royal permission to settle in North America, founding the colony of Acadia.
- Yaqob is deposed as Emperor of Ethiopia for the first time by Za Sellase, who appoints his cousin Za Dengel to replace him.
- Johann Bayer publishes the star atlas Uranometria , the first to cover the entire celestial sphere. [43]
- Japanese female entertainer Izumo no Okuni originates kabuki dance drama in Kyoto.
- The earliest of eight companies that will eventually merge to form the Kikkoman Corporation, the producers of soy sauce, is founded in Japan.
1604
January–March
- January 1 – The earliest recorded performance of William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream takes place at Hampton Court [44] prior to the main presentation, The Masque of Indian and China Knights , which is performed by courtiers of King James. [45]
- January 14 – The Hampton Court Conference is held between James I of England, the Anglican bishops and representatives of the Puritans. Work begins on the Authorized King James Version of the Bible [29] and revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
- February 14 – King James of England denounces the Roman Catholic Church after learning from one of his spies, Sir Anthony Standen, that Queen Anne has been sent a rosary from the Pope.
- February 17 – King James issues an order for all Jesuits and all Roman Catholic priests to leave his kingdom by March 19. [46]
- February 24 – At Linköping in Sweden, the Riksdag declares that Sigismund, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, who has been absent for five years, has effectively abdicated as King of Sweden, and recognizes Karl, Duke of Södermanland, as the new monarch.
- March 15 – More than seven months after their July 25, 1603 coronation, King James I and Anne, Queen consort make the traditional Royal Entry to London. The ceremonies have been postponed from 1603 because of the ongoing plague.
- March 19 – King James opens his first parliamentary session as King of England. In his opening speech to the "Blessed Parliament", the King makes clear that he wants to bring a legal union between England and Scotland and that he does not wish to be "a husband to two wives." The House of Commons refuses to agree with him on the unification of the crown or on the funding that the King requests.
- March 22 – Karl IX begins his reign as King of Sweden.
April–June
- April 9 – On the first day of the new year 966 M.E. on the Burmese calendar, King Nyaungyan Min of Burma makes a triumphant return to his capital at Inwa after his victory in the war against the principality of Mongnai (Monē), one of the Shan States between Burma and Siam
- April 17 – Tsar Dmitry of Russia makes a public conversion to Roman Catholicism in order to attract the aid of Jesuits in his attempt to rule all of Russia.
- April 18 – Maurice of Nassau assembles a combined army of 7,000 Dutch and 4,000 English soldiers to make an attack on the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium).
- May 19 – Maurice of Nassau begins the Siege of Sluis, a port in the Spanish Netherlands, with 11,000 Dutch and English troops. Despite reinforcements from Spanish relief troops, the city surrenders after three months, with both sides having lost hundreds of casualties.
- May 20
- Five conspirators in England, led by Robert Catesby, who has invited Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Thomas Percy and Guy Fawkes, meet at the Duck and Drake Inn in London to make a plan for the assassination of King James. [47]
- Peace discussions between England and Spain begin at Somerset House in London to end the Anglo-Spanish War after 19 years of fighting.
- May 22 – English entrepreneur Charles Leigh and a crew of 46 arrive in South America at what is now the Oyapock River in French Guiana after traveling on the ship Olive Plant. The 35 men and boys who stay create a colonial settlement which they call Oliveleigh, and make a claim to all of the area.
- June 9 – Thomas Percy, one of the English conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate King James I, is appointed as one of the king's bodyguards by the Earl of Northumberland.
- June 15 – Ottoman–Safavid War: General Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha, commander of the eastern Ottoman Army, leads troops on a march from Constantinople to fight the Persia's Safavid Army in Armenia, but arrives too late to save the city of Yerevan.
- June – Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18): Shāh Abbas I of Persia's Safavid army captures the city of Yerevan from the Ottoman Empire after a siege. At this time the Shāh begins the expulsion of Armenians from Jolfa to New Julfa in his capital of Isfahan; more than 25,000 die during the exodus.
July–September
- July 4 – The Jesuits Act 1603 (officially "An Act for the due execution of the Statutes against Jesuits, seminary Priests and recusants") is given royal assent by King James I of England to create penalties against Jesuits and Catholics who send their children abroad to Catholic colleges. [48]
- July 7
- On 11 Safar 1013 AH in the Islamic calendar, the decree of Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I is read aloud in the Great Mosque of Mecca, declaring that Idris ibn Hasan has been proclaimed the new Sharif of Mecca, in partnership with Idris's brother Fuhayd ibn Hasan and Idris and Fuhayd's nephew, Muhsin ibn Husayn
- King James angrily dismisses the English parliament after failing to get full financial subsidies. He tells the members in his closing speech, "I am not of such a stock as to praise fools." [49]
- July 16 – The last of the 18 sessions of the English and Spanish peace conference is held at the Old Somerset House in London, with the parties reaching an agreement on terms of a treaty.
- July 22 – King James begins fundraising for his project for an accurate translation of the Holy Bible into English, asking Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, to contact all Anglican churches for donations.
- August 5 – Sokolluzade Mehmed Pasha becomes the new Ottoman Grand Vizier, replacing the late Yavuz Ali Pasha
- August 18 – England concludes the Treaty of London with Spain, ending the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), an intermittent conflict within the Eighty Years' War. [50]
- August 19 – The Dutch siege of Sluis in the Spanish Netherlands ends after three months, a day after relief troops commanded by General Ambrogio Spinola retreat. At least 2,000 of the members of the Spanish garrison inside had been killed or incapacitated by disease and famine. Sluis becomes part of the Netherlands afterward.
- September 1 – Sri Guru Granth Sahib , the religious text of Sikhism, whose compilation by Guru Arjan was completed on August 29, is installed at Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar.
- September 20 – After a bloody three-year siege. Ostend is finally captured by Spanish forces under Ambrogio Spinola
October–December
- October 4 – Za Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia, is killed in battle with the forces of Za Sellase, who restores his cousin Yaqob to the throne.
- October 9 – Kepler's Supernova (SN 1604) is first observed from the northern parts of the Italian Peninsula. Beginning on October 17, Johannes Kepler begins a year's observation of it from Prague. There won't be another supernova visible to the "naked-eye" until 1987. As of 2023 [update] , this is the last supernova to be observed in the Milky Way. [51] [52]
- November 1 – The first recorded performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello , takes place at the Palace of Whitehall in London.
- December 26 – On the evening of St. Stephen's Day), the first recorded performance of Shakespeare's "problem play" Measure for Measure takes place, before King James I of England in the banquet hall of the Palace of Whitehall. [53]
- December 29 – The 1604 Quanzhou earthquake, with an estimated 8.1 magnitude, shakes the Taiwan Strait leaving several dead.
Date unknown
- France begins settling Acadia, first successful French North American colony.
- Before 1 October, Huntingdon Beaumont completes the Wollaton Wagonway, built to transport coal from the mines at Strelley to Wollaton just west of Nottingham, England, the world's oldest wagonway with provenance. [54]
- The Table Alphabeticall , the first known English dictionary to be organized by alphabetical ordering, is published.
- First publication of Christopher Marlowe's play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus , in London.
- Lancelot de Casteau's L'Ouverture de cuisine published in Liège, including the first printed recipe for choux pastry.
Religion
- According to legend, the vault of Christian Rosenkreuz is discovered.
- The Papacy is expected to fall this year by Tobias Hess and Simon Studion according to their correspondence in 1597.
1605
January–March
- January 1 – William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream , copyrighted 1600, is given its earliest recorded performance, and witnessed by the Viscount Dorchester. [55]
- January 7 – Shakespeare's play, Henry V , copyrighted 1600, is given its earliest recorded performance, presented by the Lord Chamberlain's Men for King James I of England. [56]
- January 16 – The first part of Miguel de Cervantes' satire on the theme of chivalry, Don Quixote (El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha, "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha"), is published in Madrid. One of the first significant novels in the western literary tradition, it becomes a global bestseller almost at once. [57]
- January 15 – Shakespeare's play, Love's Labour's Lost , copyrighted 1598, is given its earliest recorded performance, presented at the home of the Earl of Southampton for Queen Anne, wife of King James I of England. [58]
- February 3 – An estimated 7.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan south of the island of Honshu, and triggers a tsunami that washes away hundreds of houses and kills thousands of people.
- February 10 – Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice is given its earliest recorded performance, presented by the King's Men Players at the Palace of Whitehall for King James I of England. A second performance is given on February 12, Shrove Tuesday, at the King's request. [59]
- February 21 – Stephen Bocskai is elected Prince of Transylvania at the capital, Belugrad (now Alba Iulia in Romania.
- February 25 – Admiral Steven van der Hagen leads a fleet of ships for the Dutch East India Company and makes the first capture of land for the Netherlands in what will become the Dutch East Indies, and later Indonesia. Hagen's men capture the Portuguese citadel of Forte Amboino and the rest of Ambon Island, and make it the capital of the Dutch possessions in Asia.
- March 11 – A proclamation declares all people of Ireland to be the direct subjects of the British Crown and not of any local lord or chief. [60]
- March 3 – Pope Clement VIII dies at the age of 69 after a reign of 13 years, prompting the assembling of cardinals to elect as successor.
- March 14 – The Roman Catholic cardinals' conclave to elect a successor to Pope Clement VIII opens in the Vatican at Rome, 11 days after Clement's death. Sixty-one of the 69 cardinals meet behind closed doors for the rest of the month.
April–June
- April 1 – Cardinal Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici, the Bishop of Pistoia, is elected by the assembled 61 cardinals at the heated Papal conclave after 17 days of balloting. He takes the regnal name of Pope Leo XI to become the 232nd pope, but serves for less than four weeks. [61]
- April 8 – The city of Oulu (Swedish: Uleåborg) is founded by King Charles IX of Sweden. [62]
- April 13 – Tsar Boris Godunov dies; Feodor II accedes to the Russian throne.
- April 16
- Tokugawa Ieyasu abdicates as shogun of Japan, becoming Ogosho (retired shogun). His son Tokugawa Hidetada succeeds him to the office. [63]
- In England, John Winthrop, later governor of the future Massachusetts Bay Colony, marries his first wife (of 4), Mary Forth, daughter of John Forth, of Great Stambridge, Essex.
- April 27 – Pope Leo XI dies suddenly from a cold at the age of 69, after a reign of only 26 days, prompting the return of the cardinals for the second papal conclave in less than two months. During his brief reign, the Pope issued a bull requiring secret balloting in papal conclaves.
- May 8 – A group of 59 Roman Catholic cardinals assemble at Rome for another papal conclave to elect a successor to Pope Leo XI. During the meeting, a fistfight breaks out among the cardinals over the two rival candidates, Antonio Sauli and Domenico Toschi, neither of whom receive the necessary 40 votes for a two-thirds election. In the fight, Cardinal Alfonso Visconti sustains several fractures. [64]
- May 16 – Camillo Borghese, Cardinal Vicar of Rome and cardinal-priest of Sant'Eusebio is elected the 233rd pope, and takes the name of Pope Paul V. Another "Year of Three Popes" will not occur until 373 years later, in 1978. Borghese is elected as a compromise candidate after the physical disagreements during the conclave. [65]
- June 1 – Russian troops in Moscow imprison Feodor II and his mother, later executing them.
- June 20 – Pretender Dmitriy and his supporters, including troops of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, march to Moscow. [66]
July–September
- July 4 – A proclamation commands all Roman Catholic seminary priests and Jesuits to leave Ireland by December 10 and directs the laity to attend Church of Ireland services. [60]
- July 13 – A 7.5 earthquake strikes China's Hainan Province causing widespread damage and thousands of deaths.
- July 21 – Claiming to be Dmitriy, son of Ivan the Terrible, a pretender is officially crowned Tsar Dimitriy Ioannovich of Russia in Moscow by Patriarch Ignatius.
- August 14 – A Spanish attack on the Moorish fortress of Hammamet, in Ottoman Tunisia, ends in a disaster for the Spaniards. Although Spanish troops had managed to scale the walls and open the gates, they are suddenly ordered to retreat and are massacred while waiting on the coast for the return of the ships that brought them.
- August 19 – Eighty Years' War: The siege of the Dutch city of Lingen, by 13,000 Spanish troops and 3,000 cavalry, ends with the surrender of Captain Maerten Cobben after nine days of defense. Although the Dutch Republic's stadtholder, Maurice, Prince of Orange, had proclaimed that Lingen must be held at all costs, Dutch troops failed to come to Cobben's aid and Don Ambrogio Spinola of Spain peacefully takes control of the city. [67]
- September 27 – Swedish armies are decisively defeated by Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth cavalry in the Battle of Kircholm.
October–December
- October 27 – The 3rd Mughal Emperor, Akbar "the Great", dies of dysentery at Fatehpur Sikri in India.
- October 28 – Eighty Years' War: Spanish troops under Ambrogio Spinola, 1st Marquess of Los Balbases, Captain-General of the Army of Flanders (newly appointed a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece), occupy Wachtendonk after a 20-day siege.
- October
- The first issue of Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien by Johann Carolus in Strasbourg (Holy Roman Empire), generally regarded as the world's first newspaper, is published. [68] De Nieuwe Tijdinghen, a Dutch proto-newspaper, is also published this year.
- Francis Bacon's Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human is published in London.
- November 3 – Jahangir, the fourth Mughal Emperor, begins his 22-year reign over the Mughal Empire in northern India.
- November 5 (O.S.) – The Gunpowder Plot, a scheme to bomb England's Palace of Westminster during the opening of Parliament, is foiled after Sir Thomas Knyvet is tipped off, and finds Catholic plotter Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building. Knyvet orders a search of the area and 36 barrels of gunpowder are found. Fawkes is arrested for trying to assassinate King James I and the members who had been scheduled to sit together in Parliament the next day. [69]
- November 6 – The Iranian Safavid ruler Abbas the Great leads the Persian troops to a victory over a larger force of Ottoman Empire troops in the Battle of Sufiyan, and captures Tabriz. [70]
- December 6 – In England Thomas Bonham petitions to become a member of the College of Physicians in order for his practice to be legal, and is rejected. Dr. Bonham continues to practice, and is eventually imprisoned on November 13, 1606, leading to the landmark decision in Dr. Bonham's Case in 1610.
- December 11 – King Sigismund III of Poland marries his former sister-in-law, Constance, daughter of Charles II, Archduke of Austria, after Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor refuses to permit the King to marry Anna of Tyrol. King Sigismund, a widow, had previously been married to Constance's older sister, Anne.
- December 21 – On behalf of Spain, Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós begins his expedition to the South Pacific Ocean with 160 men on three ships. Queiros departs from Callao in the Viceroyalty of Peru with his flagship, San Pedro y San Pablo, and San Pedro and Los Tres Reyes.
Date unknown
- Habitation at Port-Royal established by France under Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, the first European colonization of Nova Scotia in North America (at this time part of Acadia); the Gregorian calendar is adopted.
- Crew of the Olive become the first English visitors to Barbados.
- Refugee French Huguenot merchants begin to settle in Dublin and Waterford. [71]
- The Priory of St. Gregory's is founded at Douai, Flanders, at this time in the Spanish Netherlands, by its first prior, John Roberts, and other exiles, thus becoming the first English Benedictine house to renew conventual life after the English Reformation. More than two centuries later the community will establish Downside Abbey back in England.
- The Irish College in Paris is co-founded by John Lee, an Irish priest, and John de l'Escalopier, President of the Parlement.
- Central Mexico's Amerindian population reaches one million.
1606
January–March
- January 9 – The Black Nazarene, a statue, arrives in Manila from Mexico.
- January 24 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators, for plotting against Parliament and James I of England, begins in London. [72] They are hanged, drawn and quartered on January 30–31.
- January 29 – Explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós of Portugal, accompanied by a party of 160 men on the ships San Pedro, San Pablo and Los Tres Reyes, leads the first Europeans to discover the Pitcairn Islands.
- February 9 – Queirós and his crew discover Mehetia, followed three days later by the Tauere atoll.
- February 26 – Sailing on the Dutch ship Duyfken , Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon and the crew make the first confirmed sighting of Australia by a European, reaching the Cape York Peninsula, at the Pennefather River near what is now Weipa, Queensland. [73] The Duyfken follows by exploring the western coast. [74]
- March 19 – Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the Fortezza Vecchia Chapel of Saint Francesco, elevates Livorno to the rank of city.
April–June
- April 10 – Charter of 1606: The First Charter of Virginia is adopted, by which King James I of England grants rights to the Virginia Company (comprising the London Company and Plymouth Company) to settle parts of the east coast of North America.
- April 12 – The first version of the Union Flag is created, [32] to be worn as a national flag by English and Scottish ships.
- April 17 – Venetian Interdict: Pope Paul V places the Republic of Venice under an interdict, as well as excommunicating Leonardo Donato, the Doge of Venice, and members of the Venetian Senate. [75]
- May 1 – Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers the islands of Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides). [76] Believing them to be Australia, he names them La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. [77]
- May 17 – Russia's Tsar Dmitry I is assassinated in the Kremlin by supporters of Vasili Shuisky.
- May 19 – Vasili Ivanovich Shuisky becomes the new Tsar of Russia as Vasili IV.
- June or October – Battle of Cape St. Vincent: An improvised Spanish fleet under Luis Fajardo defeats the Dutch fleet under Willem Haultain.
- June 21 – Derviş Mehmed Pasha is appointed the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Ahmed I after Sokolluzade Lala Mehmed Pasha dies of a stroke. Derviş Mehmed serves less than six months before Ahmed suddenly has him executed.
- June 22 – By Act of Parliament in England, all Roman Catholics in England become required to swear and oath of allegiance to King James I, a Protestant raised in the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. [78]
- June 23 – A treaty is signed in Vienna between the Archduchy of Austria and the semi-independent Principality of Transylvania. Archduke Rudolf agrees to recognize Stephen Bocskai as Prince of Transylvania in return for Bocksay's guarantee of constitutional and religious rights to the ethnic Hungarians within Transylvania's borders.
July–September
- July 1 – Scottish minister Patrick Simson and 44 other ministers of the Church of Scotland sign Simson's Protest to the Scottish Parliament against the introduction to Scotland of a hierarchy of bishops.
- July 3 – The Russian Orthodox bishop Hermogenes is installed as the new Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, replacing Ignatius.
- July 10
- Simion Movilă becomes the new Prince of Moldavia upon the death of his older brother, Ieremia Movilă. Simion will reign for only 14 months before being poisoned on September 14, 1607.
- England deports 47 Roman Catholic priests, including Thomas Garnet, putting them on board a ship bound for Flanders in what is now Belgium. A royal proclamation is read to the group, warning them that they will be put to death if they ever return to the British Isles.
- July 14 – The expedition commanded by Portuguese explorer Luís Vaz de Torres, with the ships San Pedrico and Los Tres Reyes Magos, makes the first European sighting of South Pacific islands in New Guinea, starting with Rossel Island and Tagula Island. Discoveries follow on July 18 (Basilaki Island and Sideia Island), July 20 (the Dumoulin Islands and Sariba Island, and July 30 (Doini Island).
- July 24 – King Christian IV of Denmark, as the guest of his brother-in-law, King James of England, Scotland and Ireland, is welcomed at London, and the two monarchs are driven by coaches to a banquet at Theobalds House at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. They are entertained by playwright Ben Jonson's play, The Entertainment of the Kings of Great Britain and Denmark .
- July 31 – Playwright John Marston presents his own original play to King James and King Christian during the Danish monarch's visit to London.
- August 16 – Battle of Cape Rachado: A Dutch fleet is defeated by the Portuguese.
- August (approx.) – Possible first performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth in London. [79] [29]
- September 20 – The trial of alleged poisoners in the Frankenstein gravediggers scandal begins in the Bohemian town of Frankenstein.
October–December
- October 2 – King Charles IX of Sweden founds the city of Vaasa, to the Korsholm Parish in the Coastal Ostrobothnia. [80]
- October – Luís Vaz de Torres is the first European to sail through the Torres Strait.
- November 11 – The Peace of Zsitvatorok is signed, between the Ottoman and Holy Roman Empires. The independence of Transylvania is recognized by both sides, and Austria's annual tribute to the Ottomans is abolished.
- December 19 – The Susan Constant sets out from the River Thames in England leading the Virginia Company's fleet for the foundation of Jamestown, Virginia. [81]
- December 26 – William Shakespeare's play King Lear is given its first recorded performance, staged at the Palace of Whitehall. [82]
1607
January–March
- January 13 – The Bank of Genoa fails.[ citation needed ]
- January 19 – San Agustin Church, Manila, is officially completed; by the 21st century it will be the oldest church in the Philippines.
- January 30 – Coastal flooding around Britain, probably a storm surge, including Bristol Channel floods in which a massive wave sweeps along the Bristol Channel, killing an estimated 2,000 people. [83] [84]
- February 24 – Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo , the earliest fully developed opera in the modern-day repertoire, premieres at the Ducal Palace of Mantua. [85]
- March 10 – Battle of Gol in Gojjam: Susenyos defeats the combined armies of Yaqob and Abuna Petros II, which makes him Emperor of Ethiopia.
April–June
- April 25 – Battle of Gibraltar: A Dutch fleet of 26 warships, led by Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck, stages a surprise attack on a Spanish fleet anchored in the Bay of Gibraltar. In the battle that ensues, Spain loses as many as 10 galleons and 12 smaller ships, and at least 300 men are killed. The disaster causes Spain to go into bankruptcy by October. [86]
- April 26 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia, later moving up the James River.
- May 14 – Jamestown, Virginia, is established as the first permanent English settlement in North America, beginning the American frontier.
- May 15 – From Jamestown, Christopher Newport, George Percy, Gabriel Archer and others travel six days exploring along the James River up to the falls and Powhatan's village.
- May 26 – At Jamestown, the president of the governing council, Edward Wingfield, directs the fort to be strengthened and armed against the many attacks of the natives: "Hereupon the President was contented the Fort should be pallisadoed, the ordinance mounted, his men armed and exercised, for many were the assaults and Ambuscadoes of the Savages ..." [87] 200 armed Indians attack the Jamestown settlement, killing two people and wounding 10.
- May 28 – A wooden defensive wall (palisade) is built by settlers around the Fort at Jamestown. Gabriel Archer writes in his journal, "we laboured, pallozadoing our fort".
- June 5 – Dr John Hall marries Susanna, daughter of William Shakespeare, at the Church of the Holy Trinity, S4tratford-upon-Avon (England).
- June 8 – Newton rebellion: The Tresham landowning family kills more than 40 peasants during protests against the enclosure of common land in Newton, Northamptonshire, England, at the culmination of the Midland Revolt.
- June 10 – In Jamestown, Captain John Smith is released from arrest and sworn in as a member of the colony Council.
- June 15 – At Jamestown, the triangular fort is completed and armed: "The fifteenth of June we had built and finished our Fort, which was triangle wise, having three Bulwarkes, at every corner, like a halfe Moone, and foure or five pieces of Artillerie mounted in them. We had made our selves sufficiently strong for these Savages. We had also sowne most of our Corne on two Mountaines." [88] The colony reportedly bears extreme toil in strengthening the fort. [89]
- June 22 – Christopher Newport sails back to England.
July–September
- July 2 – Luis de Velasco returns to office as the Spanish Viceroy of New Spain, which at this time includes Mexico, parts of the future United States and much of Central America. Velasco had previously been Viceroy from 1590 to 1595, then served as Viceroy of Peru (encompassing much of South America) from 1596 to 1604. He serves as New Spain's viceroy until 1611.
- July 5 – Zebrzydowski Rebellion: The Battle of Guzów is fought in Poland near Guzów against rebels by the combined armies of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, led by Poland's Hetman, General Stanisław Żółkiewski, and the Hetman of Lithuania, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz. The rebels, led by Mikołaj Zebrzydowski and Janusz Radziwiłł, are forced to retreat.
- July 10 – Ottoman Grand Vizier Kuyucu Murad Pasha launches a secret expedition to confront rebel Kurdish tribal chief Ali Janbulad, who has seized control of Aleppo in what is now Syria.
- July 17 – In the (modern-day) South Kalimantan province of Indonesia, Sultan Mustain Billah of Banjar orders the massacre of the crew of a Netherlands East India Company ship visiting the capital at Banjarmasin.
- July 20 – The second "False Dmitry", one of three people claiming to be Dmitry Ivanovich, son of the late Tsar Ivan the Terrible, appears at the Russian town of Starodub and persuades residents that he is the rightful heir to the Russian throne.
- August 3 – After Catholics and Protestants clash in Donauwörth, emperor Rudolph II declares an imperial ban over the city and orders Bavarian duke Maximilian I to execute the ban leading to the occupation of the city by a force of 15,000 in December. This in turn leads to the creation of the Protestant Union in 1608.
- August 13 – The ship Gift of God of the Plymouth Company arrives at the mouth of the modern-day Kennebec River in Maine. English colonists establish Fort St. George, also known as the Popham Colony. The settlement lasts little more than a year, before residents return to England in the first oceangoing ship built in the New World, a 30-ton pinnace called The Virginia.
- September 5 – Hamlet is performed aboard the East India Company ship Red Dragon, under the command of Capt. William Keeling, anchored off the coast of Sierra Leone, the first known performance of a Shakespeare play outside England in English, and the first by amateurs.
- September 10 – Jamestown President Edward Maria Wingfield is deposed and John Ratcliffe elected.
- September 14 – Flight of the Earls: Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, flee Ireland for Spain with 90 followers, to avoid capture by the English crown, never to return.
- September – The Scrooby Congregation of Protestant English Separatists attempt to flee to the Dutch Republic from Boston, Lincolnshire, but are betrayed, arrested and imprisoned for a time.
October–December
- October 4 – Flight of the Earls: The Earl of Tyrone and the Earl of Tyrconnell, along with their followers, reach the European continent, landing on St. Francis' Day at Quilleboeuf in France with 99 people. [90] after having departed Rathmullan in Ireland on September 12.
- October 27 – Halley's Comet is seen by Johannes Kepler.
- November 7 – A Dutch warship commanded by Admiral Cornelis Matelief de Jonge arrives at the Malay Peninsula to attempt opening trade with the Pahang Sultanate, and get Pahang's assistance in the Dutch Navy's fight against the Portuguese Navy in Asian trade. Sultan Abdul Ghafur agrees to assistance in return for Dutch technical assistance. [91]
- November 9 – King Philip III of Spain announces that his government had run out of money and that it is suspending payments on its foreign debts. [92] effectively declaring the state bankrupt. The decision in the wake of the destruction of most of the ships of Spain's Navy at the April 25 Battle of Gibraltar.
- November 15 – Flight of the Earls: After the departure from Ireland of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, along with 90 of their followers, King James I of England, Scotland and Ireland issues a proclamation "that the flight of the Earles of Tyrone and Tyrconell, with some others of their fellowes out of the North parts of our Realme of Ireland; these men's corruption and falshood, whose hainous offences remaine so fresh in memorie since they declared themselves so very monsters in nature, as they did not only whithdraw themselues from their personall obedience to their Soveraigne, but were content to sell over their Native Countrey to those that stood at that time in the highest termes of hostilitie with the two Crownes of England and Ireland... we doe hereby professe in the worde of a King, that... notwithstanding all that they can claime, must be acknowledged to proceed from meere Grace upon their submission after their great and unnaturall Treasons", and must forfeit their rights and possessions as nobles. [93]
- December 10 – Captain John Smith and nine men depart the Jamestown Colony on a barge in order to get more corn for the English fort. Sailing up the Chickahominy River, the boat reaches a settlement of the Appomattoc tribe at Apocant. While Smith, Jehu Robinson and Thomas Emery are further upstream in a canoe, George Casson is captured at Apocant by Opchanacanough, brother of Chief Powhatan. Robinson and Emery are killed while Smith is away from their camp, and Smith is soon taken prisoner by Opchancanough and, on January 5, is delivered to Powhatan at Werowocomoco for execution. After an intervention by Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, Smith is released a month after his capture. [94]
- December 22 – A fleet of 13 Dutch warships under the command of Admiral Pieter Verhoeff departs the Netherlands on an expedition to the Indian Ocean to open trade with Asian nations and to fight hostile resistance. Verhoeff never returns, and he and many of his crew will be ambushed and killed on May 22 at the Banda Islands in Indonesia.
Date unknown
- The rule of Andorra passes jointly to the king of France, and the Bishop of Urgell.
- In the Midland Revolt against Enclosures in England, the term Levellers is first used.
- Missionary Juan Fonte establishes the first Jesuit mission among the Tarahumara, in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Northwest Mexico.
1608
January–March
- January 2 – The first of the Jamestown supply missions returns to the Colony of Virginia with Christopher Newport commanding the John and Francis and the Phoenix bringing about 100 new settlers to supplement the 38 survivors he finds at Jamestown.
- January 7 – At Jamestown, Virginia, fire destroys "all the houses in the fort"; the fort is repaired in March.
- January 11 – John Smith is released by Powhatan after 15 days of captivity, and arrives back at Jamestown the next day. [95] Upon his return, instead of being welcomed, he is charged with negligence for the deaths of the two men with him at the time of his capture, Jehu Robinson and Thomas Emery, but later exonerated.
- January 17 – Emperor Susenyos I of Ethiopia defeats an Oromo army at Ebenat; 12,000 Oromo are reportedly killed at a cost of 400 Amhara.
- January 23 – Treaty of The Hague, a defensive alliance between France and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, is signed. [96]
- February 6 – Gabriel Báthory makes an agreement with Hungarian mercenary soldiers, the Hajduk , in order to overthrow the government of Transylvania.
- February 7 – A peace conference opens at the Binnenhof at The Hague, in the Netherlands, to end a war between the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium).
- February 14 – The brutal winter of 1607-1608 in England ends after 10 weeks of sub-freezing temperatures.
- February 18 – Don Julius Caesar d'Austria, the illegitimate son of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, brutally murders his girlfriend, Markéta Pichlerová, then dismembers her body. Emperor Rudolf imprisons Julius for the rest of his life. [97]
- February 26 – After being held captive in Morocco for more than 13 years, popular professor Malian Ahmad Baba is able to return to Timbuktu on 10 Dhu 'l-Qa'da 1016 A.H.
- March 5 – Sigismund Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania, abdicates in favor of Gabriel Báthory in order to avoid a civil war.
- March 16 – Gwanghaegun becomes the new King of Korea upon the death of his father, King Seonjo, who had reigned for more than 40 years.
- March 18 – Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia, at the ancient city of Axum. [98]
April–June
- April 10 – Jamestown supply missions: Christopher Newport again sails for England, carrying Powhatan's tribesman Namontack for a visit to London.
- April 19 – The Burning of Derry launches O'Doherty's Rebellion in the Kingdom of Ireland.
- April 20 – Old Bushmills Distillery is first licensed to distil whiskey at Bushmills, County Antrim, Ireland by King James I.
- May 8 – A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer. [99]
- May 14 – The Protestant Union is founded in Auhausen.
- June 15 – During a voyage in the Arctic Ocean, explorer Henry Hudson and the crew of the Hopewell sight what they claim to be a mermaid, swimming in the seas near Norway. [100]
- June 26 – Matthias I, already King of Bohemia becomes the King of Hungary and the King of Croatia upon the abdication of both jobs by his older brother, Rudolf II, who continues as Holy Roman Emperor.
July–September
- July 3 – The settlement of Quebec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain. [101]
- August 24 – The first official English representative to India, Captain William Hawkins, lands at Surat.
- September 10 – John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, and begins expanding the fort.
- September 21 – The University of Oviedo in Spain is founded.
- September 23 – The siege of the Troitsky monastery by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth begins in Russia north of Moscow, but fails after 16 months.
October–December
- October 1 – The second of the Jamestown supply missions, which set out in July from England, arrives at Jamestown, Virginia, with Christopher Newport commanding the Mary and Margaret carrying 70 settlers, bringing the population back up to 120; the passengers include two women and some skilled artisans, mostly from continental Europe, to develop industries. [102]
- October 2 – Dutch lens maker Hans Lippershey demonstrates the first telescope in the Dutch Parliament.
- November 19 – In Budapest, the coronation ceremonies take place for Matthias to be crowned as King Mátyás II of Hungary.
- November 20 – Sir Thomas Gates, Governor of the London Company's colony at Jamestown, Virginia, is ordered by the Board of Directors to forcibly convert the native Indians in the area to Christianity as Anglicans.
- November 30 – At the colony of Portuguese Macau, a port on the Chinese mainland leased from the Chinese Empire, a group of 100 Japanese samurai, wielding katana and muskets engage in a fight with musket-armed Portuguese soldiers commanded by Governor André Pessoa. [103] Around 50 Japanese are killed and the others are imprisoned until they sign an affidavit blaming themselves for the incident. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the principal shogun of Japan, subsequently ends the "red seal ships" program of authorizing Japanese nationals to visit Macau. The incident eventually leads to much larger naval battle in 1610, the Nossa Senhora da Graça incident.
- December 13 – At the Morača monastery in Kolašin, in what is now the nation of Montenegro, Patriarch Jovan Kantul assembles the rebel leaders of Montenegro and Herzegovina. The group agrees with a representative of the Duchy of Savoy to deliver Duke Charles Emmanuel a monarchy within the Balkans, in return for special privileges to the Serbian Orthodox Church.
- December 20 – Karl of the House of Liechtenstein founds the Principality of Liechtenstein within the Holy Roman Empire, an independent nation that will continue more than 400 years later between Austria and Switzerland.
- December – Jamestown supply missions: Christopher Newport returns to England from Jamestown carrying cargo with "tryals of Pitch, Tarre, Glasse, Frankincense, Sope Ashes ..."
Date unknown
- Spring – The Scrooby Congregation of Protestant English Separatists successfully flees to the Dutch Republic from the Humber, origin of the Pilgrim Fathers who in 1620 move on to North America.
- The first cheques are used in the Dutch Republic.
- The Uniform Land-Tax Law is imposed in Korea.
- Five royal schools in Ulster are given a Royal Charter by King James I.
1609
January–March
- January 12 – The Basque witch trials are started in Spain as the court of the Inquisition at Logroño receives a letter from the commissioner of the village of Zugarramurdi, and orders the arrest of four women, including María de Jureteguía and María Chipía de Barrenetxea. [104]
- January 15 – One of the world's first newspapers, Avisa Relation oder Zeitung , begins publication in Wolfenbüttel (Holy Roman Empire). [105]
- January 31 – The Bank of Amsterdam is established.
- February 4 – The last day of Keichō 慶長 13 (according to the Japanese lunar calendar).
- March 11 – The Swedish Army, under the command of General Jacob De la Gardie, begins marching east from Vyborg (at this time, part of the Swedish Empire, modern-day Russia) in order to defend the Russian Empire against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the course of the Polish–Muscovite War.
- March 19 – The Dutch warship Mauritius sinks off the coast of the Cape of Cape Lopes Gonçalves on the modern-day West African nation of Gabon. The wreckage of the Mauritius will not be located until 375 years later, in 1985.
- March 24 – Led by the Grand Hetman of Lithuania, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, the Lithuanian Navy breaks the blockade of Riga by sinking two Swedish Navy warships off the coast of Salacgrīva.
- March 25 – Johann Wilhelm, the Roman Catholic Duke of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg in Germany, dies at the capital in Düsseldorf with no heirs. On April 2, his widow, Duchess Antoinette of Lorraine establishes a regency to determine who the successor will be, prompting the War of the Jülich Succession between the states of the Protestant Union and the states of the Catholic League.
April–June
- April 4
- King Philip III of Spain signs an edict for the expulsion of the Moriscos from his country with effect from September 11.
- English explorer Henry Hudson, in the service of the Dutch East India Company, sets out from Amsterdam in the Halve Maen . [106]
- April 5 – Invasion of Ryukyu in Japan: Soldiers of the Shimazu clan capture the castle on Ryukyu Island, beginning to make the Ryukyu Kingdom a vassal of Satsuma Han, but Ryukyu is still allowed to keep itself a tribute state of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
- April 9 – The Netherlands and Spain agree to the Twelve Years' Truce (which lasts until 1621) in the Eighty Years' War, with the signing of the Treaty of Antwerp, allowing the Dutch East India Company to trade within the Spanish Empire.
- May 20 – London publisher Thomas Thorpe issues Shake-speares Sonnets , with a dedication to "Mr. W.H.", and the poem A Lover's Complaint appended; it is uncertain whether this publication has Shakespeare's authority.
- May 23 – The Second Virginia Charter is officially ratified; it is intended to replace the council with a governor, who has absolute control in the colony.
- June 2 – With the Sea Venture as its flagship, a fleet of nine English ships and more than 500 passengers altogether, departs from England to bring supplies to the English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia. The fleet runs into a storm in July and the Sea Venture is wrecked in the Bermuda islands on July 24.
- June 10 – The War of the Jülich Succession begins as the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg sign a treaty at Dortmund and then send troops to establish Protestant Union rule in the Roman Catholic United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.
- June 16 – The Battle of Tashiskari is fought as General Giorgi Saakadze of the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli repels invading troops from the Ottoman Empire before they can capture Tbilisi.
- June 29 – A fleet of ships from the Kingdom of Spain, assisted by a French warship, fights a battle in the Mediterranean Sea against a larger fleet of 23 ships from the North African Eyalet of Tunisia and sinks 21 of them. The other two Tunisian ships are captured.
July–September
- July 4 – French explorer Samuel de Champlain and his entourage of 60 men in 24 canoes become the first Europeans to enter Lake Champlain, located between the modern-day U.S. states of Vermont and New York. [107]
- July 9 – Bohemia is granted freedom of religion by a 'Letter of Majesty'.
- July 10 – The German Catholic League is formed in Munich by Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria to counteract the Protestant Union. Maximilian assembles representatives from Augsburg, Konstanz, Passau, Regensburg, and Würzburg in an alliance "for the defense of the Catholic religion and peace" within the Holy Roman Empire.
- July 23 – A three-day hurricane begins in the Caribbean Sea and separates the nine London Company's ships and their 600 passengers who are en route to relieve the Jamestown settlement. One ship sinks, and the flagship is wrecked. Less than 300 settlers make it to Virginia.
- July 25
- The Sea Venture , flagship of the nine-ship fleet of the London Company is deliberately wrecked at Bermuda during a storm, as Admiral George Somers drives the ship into the reefs of Discovery Bay in order to prevent the ship from sinking. A group of 153 survivors stay, making the first English settlement of the island. [108]
- After a fight on November 30 in Portuguese Macau between Japanese traders and Portuguese soldiers, Japan's ruling shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, strictly prohibits further trade between Japan and Portugal. [109]
- July 30 – At modern-day Crown Point, New York, Samuel de Champlain participates in a battle between the Huron and Iroquois, shooting and killing two Iroquois chiefs; this helps set the tone for French–Iroquois relations for the next 100 years.
- August 10 – The Spanish galleon San Francisco sinks in a storm off the coast of Japan, with the loss of 56 men. Clinging to floating wreckage, the survivors are able to reach Yubanda, near Onjuku in modern-day Chiba Prefecture.
- August 11 – Four ships arrive at the colony of Jamestown, Virginia, with almost 300 men, women and children, to bring supplies for the starving English colonists. They are followed days later by the other three ships remaining from the London Company. Most of the supplies, however, are spoiled by rain and seawater, and many of the passengers are ill with the bubonic plague. [110]
- August 15 (August 5 O.S.) – English astronomer Thomas Harriot becomes the first person to make a detailed drawing of the Moon, based on his observations through a telescope.
- August 25 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian officials. [111]
- August 28 – Henry Hudson is the first European to see Delaware Bay. [106] [2]
- September 2 – Henry Hudson enters New York Bay, aboard the Halve Maen .
- September 10 – Jamestown: Capt. George Percy replaces Captain John Smith as president of the Council, and Smith returns to England.
- September 11
- Expulsion of the Moriscos from Valencia in accordance with the edict signed by Philip III on April 4.
- Henry Hudson in the Halve Maen sails into Upper New York Bay, [112] and begins a journey up the Hudson River. [113]
October–December
- October 12 – A version of the rhyme Three Blind Mice is published in London. [114] The editor, and possible author of the verse, is the teenage Thomas Ravenscroft. [115]
- November 19 – Archduke Matthias of Austria is formally crowned in Budapest as Mátyás II, King of Hungary, after having been appointed on June 26, 1608.
- November 29 – In Japan, a treaty is signed between Spanish nobleman Rodrigo de Vivero, former Governor-General of the Philippines and the former shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, for the establishment of a Spanish factory in eastern Japan.
- December 8 – One of the first public libraries, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana , is opened in the Italian city of Milan, founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo. Unlike other reading rooms, the library houses its collection on shelves along the walls, rather than chained to reading tables.
Date unknown
- The Dutch East India Company imports tea to Europe.
- The Dutch East India Company establishes a trading post in Hirado, Japan.
- Dutch entrepreneur Isaac Le Maire devizes the concept of selling short shares in order to benefit from a falling Dutch East India Company share price. [116]
- Hugo Grotius publishes Mare Liberum , his legal text on freedom of the seas, in Leiden.
- The Scrooby Congregation of Protestant English Separatists (predecessors of the Pilgrim Fathers) moves from Amsterdam to Leiden.
- Warsaw becomes the capital of Poland. [117]
- The municipality of Buenavista in Marinduque, Philippines is founded.
- The Statutes of Iona are passed, marking the end of the bloody feuds between the clans in the Scottish Highlands.
- The Douay–Rheims Bible Old Testament translation from the Vulgate into English vol. 1 is published in Reims.
- English-born Sister Mary Ward founds the Sisters of Loreto at Saint-Omer, at this time in the Spanish Netherlands.
- Johannes Kepler publishes his first two laws of planetary motion in Astronomia nova . [118]
- Cornelis Drebbel invents the thermostat.
- "Egyptians" (i.e., Romany people) are expelled from the Kingdom of Scotland.
