Directory

1620 CE

The first merry-go-round is seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey. Captain Andrew Shilling, on behalf of the English Honourable East India Company, lays claim to Table Bay in Africa. Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land near what becomes known as Plymouth Rock, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 22 – In France, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, and his wife, the Duchess Marie de Rohan, sign a marriage contract on behalf of their one-year-old daughter to be engaged to the year-old son of Charles, Duke of Guise.source
  • February 4 – Prince Bethlen Gabor secures a peace treaty with Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor.source
  • April 20 – Mian Shahul Mouhammed Kalhoro begins his reign at Karachi as the king of Sindh, in modern-day Pakistan, and rules until 1657.source
  • July 3 – Under the terms of the Treaty of Ulm, the Protestant Union declares neutrality and ceases to support Frederick V of the Palatinate's claim to the throne of Bohemia.source
  • November 21 (November 11 OS) – The Mayflower arrives inside the tip of Cape Cod (named from the Concord voyage of 1602), at what becomes known as Provincetown Harbor, with the Pilgrims and Planters; 41 Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of the colony, on board the ship.source
  • A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas and Origin and progress of the disturbances in the Netherlands by Johannes Gysius are re-published in the Netherlands.source
  • "A Dutch Ship, putting in this Year [of 1620, before June], sold 20 Negroes to the Colony [as slaves], which were the first of that Generation, that were ever brought to Virginia."source

Conflict & Security

  • April 1 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and former King of Bohemia, sends a two-month ultimatum directing King Frederick of Bohemia (who has usurped the throne in the modern-day Czech Republic) to leave Bohemia by June 1. Frederick refuses to depart his capital at Prague.source
  • August 7 – In a battle at Les Ponts-de-Cé in France, King Louis XIII defeats troops led by his mother, Marie de' Medici.source
  • September 17–October 7 – Battle of Cecora: The Ottoman Empire defeats Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth–Moldavian troops.source
  • October 6 – Battle of Amedamit in Gojjam, Ethiopia: The Roman Catholic Ras Sela Kristos, half-brother of Emperor Susenyos, crushes a group of rebels, who are opposed to Susenyos' pro-Catholic beliefs.source
  • November 8 – Thirty Years' War: Battle of White Mountain – Catholic Habsburg forces are victorious over Bohemian rebels two hours from Prague.source
  • The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) continues (principally on the territory of modern-day Germany).source
  • Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada begins restoring Osaka Castle in Japan. Its modern-day appearance dates from this remodeling.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • July 3 – Captain Andrew Shilling, on behalf of the English Honourable East India Company, lays claim to Table Bay in Africa.source
  • July 25 (July 15 OS) – The armed merchant ship Mayflower embarks about 65 emigrants for New England at or near her home port of Rotherhithe on the Thames east of London; about July 29 (July 19 OS) she anchors in Southampton Water.source
  • August 1 (July 22 OS) – The ship Speedwell departs Delfshaven with English separatist Puritans from Leiden bound to rendezvous with the Mayflower; on August 5 (July 26 OS) she anchors in Southampton Water.source
  • September 2 (August 23 OS) – Mayflower and Speedwell depart together from Dartmouth; they are well out into the Atlantic when the Speedwell is again found to be leaking.source
  • September 16 (September 6 OS) – Mayflower departs from Plymouth in England on her third attempt to cross the Atlantic. The Pilgrims on board comprise 41 "saints" (English separatists largely from Holland), 40 "strangers" (largely secular planters from London), 23 servants and hired workers, together with c. 30 crew.source
  • December 21 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land near what becomes known as Plymouth Rock, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.source
  • Mayflower and Speedwell return again to England, anchoring at Plymouth; the latter ship is given up as a participant in the voyage and on September 12 (September 2 OS) departs for London, most of her passengers and stores having been transferred to the Mayflower.source
  • History of submarines: Cornelis Drebbel demonstrates the first navigable undersea boat in the Thames in England.source

Religion & Belief

  • June 3 – The oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, is begun at Quebec City in modern-day Canada.source
  • Juan Pablo Bonet, teacher of deaf children in the Spanish court, creates a sign alphabet.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • November 3 – The Great Patent is granted to Plymouth Colony.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 7 – Ben Jonson's play News from the New World Discovered in the Moon is given its first performance, a presentation to King James VI and I. In addition to dialogue about actual observations made by telescope of the Moon, the play includes a fanciful discussion of a lunar civilisation, featuring a dance by the "Volatees", the lunar race.source
  • Francis Bacon publishes the Novum Organum (beyond Aristotle's Organon) on logical thinking. 1.source

Crime & Justice

  • March 24 – English sailor Owen Fitzpen is captured by Turkish pirates while on a trading voyage in the Mediterranean Sea and sold into slavery. He remains a slave in North Africa for seven years until he and 10 other slaves are able to take over a Turkish ship and sail back to Europe.source
  • August 7 – The mother of astronomer Johannes Kepler is arrested for witchcraft.source
  • August 15 (probable date; August 5 OS) – Mayflower and Speedwell depart together from Southampton, but are forced to put back into Dartmouth, Devon, for repairs to a leak in the latter ship on August 22 or 23 (August 12 or 13 OS).source

Climate & Environment

  • April 7 – The earliest recorded earthquake in South Africa occurs at Robben Island.source
  • A severe frost in England freezes the River Thames; 13 continuous days of snow blanket Scotland. On Eskdale Moor, only 35 of a flock of 20,000 sheep survive.source

Culture & Society

  • May 17 – The first merry-go-round is seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey.source
  • November 25 – The wedding of Gustav II Adolf and Maria Eleonora takes place in Sweden.source

Births

  • January 1 – Robert Morison, Scottish botanist and taxonomist (d. 1683)source
  • January 1 – William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker of England (d. 1684)source
  • January 5 – Miklós Zrínyi, Croatian military commander (d. 1664)source
  • February 23 – Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford, English politician (d. 1708)source
  • March 29 – Edward Digges, English barrister and colonist, Colonial Governor of Virginia (d. 1674)source
  • April 15 – Edward Villiers, English politician and military officer (d. 1689)source
  • April 17 – Marguerite Bourgeoys, French Catholic nun, founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame (d. 1700)source
  • August 6 – William Hiseland, English (later British) soldier, reputed supercentenarian (d. 1732)source
  • September 25 – François Bernier, French physician and traveller (d. 1688)source
  • October 1 – Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes (d. 1683)source
  • October 20 – Aelbert Cuyp, Dutch painter (d. 1691)source
  • October 31 – John Evelyn, English diarist and writer (d. 1706)source
  • December 17 – Maurice of the Palatinate, 4th son of Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate (d. 1652)source
  • December 18 – Heinrich Roth, German Jesuit missionary, pioneering Sanskrit scholar (d. 1668)source

Deaths

  • January 26 – Karan Singh II becomes the new ruler of the Kingdom of Mewar (in the modern-day state of Rajasthan in India) upon the death of his father, the Maharana Amar Singh I.source
  • January 26 – Amar Singh I, ruler of Mewar (b. 1559)source
  • February 15 – James Archer, Irish Jesuit; played a controversial role in the Nine Years' War (b. 1550)source
  • February 23 – Nicholas Fuller, English politician (b. 1543)source
  • March 17 – St. John Sarkander, Moravian priest (injuries caused by torturing) (b. 1576)source
  • March 22 – King Karma Phuntsok Namgyal of Tibet dies of smallpox after a reign of less than two years, after Ngawang Namgyal of Bhutan casts a tantric spell over him.source
  • April 23 – Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, Palestinian-born Kabbalist (b. 1543)source
  • May 16 – William Adams, English navigator and samurai (b. 1564)source
  • August 14 – Katherine Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, wife of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1540)source
  • September 26 – Taichang Emperor, fourteenth emperor of the Ming dynasty of China (b. 1582)source
  • September – Sidonia von Borcke, German noble and alleged witch (b. 1548)source
  • October 7 – Stanisław Żółkiewski, Polish nobleman of the Lubicz coat of arms (b. 1547)source
  • November 9 – Louise de Coligny, daughter of Gaspard II de Coligny; fourth and last spouse of William the Silent (b. 1555)source
  • November 27 – Francis, Duke of Pomerania-Stettin, Bishop of Cammin (b. 1577)source