Editing 1616 (section)

== Events ==
<onlyinclude>

=== January–March ===
* [[January 1]] – King [[James VI and I|James I of England]] attends the [[masque]] ''[[The Golden Age Restored]]'', a satire by [[Ben Jonson]] on fallen court favorite the [[Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset|Earl of Somerset]]. The king asks for a repeat performance on [[January 6]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama: The Report of the Modern Language Association Conference|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1J6RAAAAIAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Northwestern University Press|page=36}}</ref>
* [[January 3]] – In the court of [[James I of England]], the king's favorite [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham|George Villiers]] becomes [[Master of the Horse]] (encouraging development of the [[thoroughbred]] horse); on [[April 24]] he receives the [[Order of the Garter]]; and on [[August 27]] he is created Viscount Villiers and Baron Waddon, receiving a grant of land valued at £80,000. In [[1617]], he will be made [[Earl of Buckingham]]. After the [[William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke|Earl of Pembroke]], he is the second richest nobleman in [[Kingdom of England|England]].
* [[January 10]] – English diplomat Sir [[Thomas Roe]] presents his [[credentials]] to the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal Emperor]] [[Jahangir]], in [[Ajmer]] Fort, opening the door to the [[British India|British presence in India]].<ref>Jehângïr's period of stay at Ajmer was from 5 Shawwäl 1022 to 1 Zil-qä'da 1025 equivalent to November 8, 1613, to October 31, 1616.</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|first=Michael|last=Strachan|title=Roe, Sir Thomas (1581–1644)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23943|access-date=2012-10-09|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/23943}} </ref> Roe sailed in the ''Lyon'' under the command of captain [[Christopher Newport]], best known for his role in the [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia colonies]].
* [[January 12]] – The city of [[Belém]], Brazil is founded on the [[Amazon River]] delta, by Portuguese captain [[Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco]], who had previously taken the city of [[São Luís, Maranhão|São Luís]] in [[Maranhão]] from the French.
* [[January 15]] – After overwintering with the [[Wyandot people|Huron Indians]], [[Samuel de Champlain]] and Recollect Father [[Joseph Le Caron]] visit the [[Petun]] and [[Ottawa Indians]] of the [[Great Lakes]]. This is Champlain's last trip in North America before returning to France. Having secured Canada, he helps create [[French America]], [[New France]], or [[L'Acadie]].
* [[January 29]] – [[Netherlands|Dutch]] captain [[Willem Schouten]], in the ''Eendracht'', rounds the southern tip of South America, and names it [[Cape Horn|''Kaap Hoorn'']], after his birthplace in [[Holland]].
* January – 8-year-old [[António Vieira]] arrives from Portugal with his parents in [[Bahia]] (modern-day [[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]]) in [[Colonial Brazil]], where he will become a [[diplomacy|diplomat]], noted author, leading figure of the [[Catholic Church|Church]], and protector of Brazilian [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]], in an age of intolerance.
* [[February 1]] – [[James I of England]] grants [[Ben Jonson]] an annual pension of 100 [[Mark (money)|mark]]s, making him ''de facto'' [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|poet laureate]].<ref name="DNB Jonson">{{cite ODNB|first=Ian|last=Donaldson|title=Jonson, Benjamin (1572–1637)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15116|access-date=2012-10-09|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/15116}}</ref>
* [[February 17]] – Manchurian leader [[Nurhaci|Qing Tai Zu]], referred to in the west as "Nurhaci", declares himself [[Khan (title)|khan]] and crowns himself as Emperor of China, founding the [[Later Jin (1616–1636)|Later Jin dynasty]].
* [[February 18]] - Preparing the declaration of independence from the colony of the Hashimi Empire, namely the Arya Bayu Kingdom by Khan Nasaruddin II, who was crowned in [[Mecca]],[[Medina]], and [[Isfahan]].
* [[February 19]] – The first recorded [[eruption]] of [[Mayon Volcano]], the [[Philippines]]' most active [[volcano]], takes place.<ref name="volcano.si.edu">Event dated with reference to historical documents. {{cite web|publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]]|title=Global Volcanism Program|url=http://www.volcano.si.edu/|access-date=2008-03-12|archive-date=October 24, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024175830/http://volcano.si.edu/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[February 24]] – A commission of [[Roman Catholic]] theologians, the "Qualifiers," reports that the idea that the Sun is stationary is "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture...".
* [[February 26]] – Astronomer [[Galileo Galilei]] appears before Cardinal [[Robert Bellarmine|Roberto Bellarmino]] and "warned of the error of the [[Copernicus|Copernican]] opinion taught by him", and [[injunction|enjoined]] by the Catholic Church against any attempt to hold, teach or defend the position of Copernicus that the Sun is stationary rather than revolving around the Earth "in any way whatsoever, verbally or in writing."<ref name=Holden>"Galileo", by Edward S. Holden, ''The Popular Science Monthly'' (May, 1905) p.66, 68</ref>
* [[February 28]] – In the aftermath of the [[1613]]–[[1614]] anti-Jewish [[pogrom]] called the [[Fettmilch uprising]] in [[Frankfurt]], Germany, mob leader [[Vincenz Fettmilch]] is beheaded, but the Jews, who had been expelled from the city on August 23, 1614, following the plundering of the [[Judengasse]], can return only as a result of direct intervention by [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor|Matthias]]. After long negotiations, the Jews are left without any compensation for their plundered belongings.
* [[February]] – English merchants of the [[East India Company]] complain that the great troubles and wars in Japan since their arrival have put them to much pains and charges. Two great cities, [[Osaka]] and Sakaii, have been burned to the ground, each one almost as big as London, and not one house left standing, and it is reported above 300,000 men have lost their lives, “yet the old Emperor Ogusho Same hath prevailed and Fidaia Same either been slain or fled secretly away, that no news is to be heard of him.” [[Jesuits]], priests, and friars are banished by the emperor and their churches and [[monasteries]] pulled down; they put the fault on the arrival of the English; it is said if Fidaia Same had prevailed against the emperor, he promised them entrance again, when without doubt all the English would have been driven out of Japan.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=East Indies: February 1616|title=Calendar of State Papers Colonial, East Indies, China and Japan: 1513–1616|volume=2|year=1864|pages=457–461|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=68785|access-date=2008-03-01}}</ref>
* [[March 5]] – ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]'', written by [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] in [[1543]] is placed on the [[Index of Forbidden Books]], by the [[Congregation of the Index]] of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] "until corrected".<ref>''The Pontifical Decrees against the Motion of the Earth, Considered in their Bearing on the Theory of Advanced Ultramontanism'' (Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer, 1870) pp.5-6</ref>
* [[March 11]]
** [[Galileo Galilei]] meets [[Pope Paul V]] in person, to discuss his position as a defender of Copernicus' [[heliocentrism]]. The Pope promises Galileo safety from any enemies, and Galileo complies for the next seven years with the injunction against teaching Copernican doctrines.<ref name=Holden/>
** English [[Roman Catholic]] [[priest]], [[Thomas Atkinson (priest)|Thomas Atkinson]], is [[hanged, drawn, and quartered]] at [[York]], at age 70 (he will be [[Saint|beatified]] by [[Pope John Paul II]] on November 22, 1987).
* [[March 19]]
**Sir [[Walter Ralegh]], English explorer of the [[New World]], is released from prison in the [[Tower of London]], where he has been imprisoned for treason, in order to conduct a second (ill-fated) expedition, in search of [[El Dorado]] in South America.<ref name="Pocket On This Day">{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-14-102715-0|year=2006}}</ref>
**''[[The Scornful Lady]],'' a comedy stage play written by [[Francis Beaumont]] and [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]], is published.
* [[March 26]]–[[August 30]] – English explorer [[William Baffin]], as pilot to [[Robert Bylot]] on the ''[[Discovery (1602 ship)|Discovery]]'', makes a detailed exploration of [[Baffin Bay]], whilst searching for the [[Northwest Passage]].<ref name="The People's Chronology">{{cite book|chapter=1616|title=The People's Chronology|editor=Everett, Jason M.|publisher=Thomson Gale|year=2006}}</ref> The expedition also discovers [[Smith Sound]], [[Lancaster Sound]] and [[Devon Island]], and reaches [[latitude]] 77° 45' North, a record which holds for 236 years.
* [[March 31]] – Mughal Emperor [[Jahangir]] confers the title of [[Nur Jahan]] ('Light of the World') on his 20th wife.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Jahangirnama: memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India|location=Washington, D.C.; New York|publisher=Freer Gallery of Art; Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; Smithsonian Institution; Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=9780195127188|orig-year=1829|translator-last=Thackston|translator-first=W. M.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India|first=Ellison Banks|last=Findly|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|year=2000|isbn=0-19-507488-2|page=94}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Nath|first=Renuka|title=Notable Mughal and Hindu women in the 16th and 17th centuries A.D.|year=1990|publisher=Inter-India Publ.|location=New Delhi|isbn=9788121002417|page=72}}</ref>
* [[March]] – [[Action of 1616]], La Goulette, [[Tunisia]]: A Spanish squadron under Francisco de Ribera defeats a Tunisian fleet.

=== April–June ===
* [[April 25]] – Sir [[John Coke]], in the [[Court of King's Bench (England)]], holds the King's actions in a case of ''[[In commendam]]'' to be illegal.
* [[May 3]] – The [[Treaty of Loudun]] is signed, ending a series of rebellions in France.<ref>{{cite book|author=Victor L. Tapié|title=France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KPM3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA76|date=12 July 1984|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-26924-7|pages=76–}}</ref>
* [[May 25]] – King [[James I of England]]'s former favourite, the [[Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset|Earl of Somerset]], and his wife [[Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset|Frances]], are convicted of the murder of [[Thomas Overbury]] in [[1613]]. They are spared death, and are sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London (until [[1622]]).<ref>{{cite ODNB|first=Alastair|last=Bellany|title=Carr, Robert, earl of Somerset (1585/6?–1645)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4754|access-date=2012-10-09|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/4754}}</ref> Although the King has ordered the investigation of the poet's murder and allowed his former court favorite to be arrested and tried, his court, now under the influence of  [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham|George Villiers]], gains the reputation of being corrupt and vile. The sale of peerages (beginning in July)<ref name="CBH1616">{{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Alan|last2=Palmer |first2=Veronica|year=1992|title=The Chronology of British History|publisher=Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 170–172|isbn=0-7126-5616-2}}</ref> and the royal visit of James's brother-in-law, [[Christian IV of Denmark]], a notorious drunkard, add further scandal.
* [[June 12]] – [[Pocahontas]] (now Rebecca) arrives in England, with her husband, [[John Rolfe]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert S. Tilton|title=Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American Narrative|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idPhpg0PxtAC&pg=PA45|date=25 November 1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-46959-3|pages=45}}</ref> their one-year-old son, [[Thomas Rolfe]], her half-sister Matachanna (alias Cleopatra) and brother-in-law ''[[Tomocomo]]'', the [[shaman]] also known as Uttamatomakkin (having set out in May). Ten [[Powhatan]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] are brought by Sir [[Thomas Dale]], the colonial governor, at the request of the [[Virginia Company]], as a fund-raising device. Dale, having been recalled under criticism, writes ''A True Relation of the State of Virginia, Left by Sir Thomas Dale, Knight, in May last, 1616'', in a successful effort to redeem his leadership. Neither Pocahontas or Dale see Virginia again.

=== July–September ===
* [[July 6]] – First recorded eruption of [[Manam Motu|Manam Volcano]] (erupting frequently since), forming a 10-km-wide island in the [[Bismarck Sea]], {{convert|13|km|mi|abbr=on}} off coast of [[Papua New Guinea]], in the southwestern part of the [[Pacific Ring of Fire]].<ref name="volcano.si.edu" />
* [[July 20]] – The death of [[Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone]], in exile in Rome, ends the [[Flight of the Earls]] from Ireland.<ref name="O'Donnell1915">{{cite book|author=Elliott O'Donnell|title=The Irish abroad, a record of the achievements of wanderers from Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKTIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA303|date=1 January 1915|publisher=Dalcassian Publishing Company|pages=303}}</ref>
* [[August 8]] – The [[Tokugawa shogunate]] ([[Bakufu]]) in Japan forbids foreigners other than Chinese from traveling freely, or trading outside of the ports of [[Nagasaki]] and [[Hirado]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Arano|first=Yasunori|title=The Formation of a Japanocentric World Order|journal=International Journal of Asian Studies|volume=2|issue=2|year=2005|page=201|doi=10.1017/s1479591405000094|s2cid=145541884}}</ref>
* [[September 15]] – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in [[Frascati]], Italy.

=== October–December ===
* [[October 10]] – [[Sakazaki Naomori]] of [[Iwami Province|Iwami]] [[Tsuwano han]] commits suicide after failing to kidnap [[Princess Sen]].
* [[October 25]] – [[Dirk Hartog]] makes the second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, at [[Dirk Hartog Island]] off the Western Australian coast, and the [[pewter]] [[Hartog Plate]] is left to mark the landfall of the Dutch ship ''[[Eendracht (1615 ship)|Eendracht]]''.<ref>Plate now in the [[Rijksmuseum]] in [[Amsterdam]].</ref>
* [[October]]
** [[John Donne]] is appointed as Reader in Divinity at his old [[Inns of Court|inn of court]] in London, [[Lincoln's Inn]].
** [[King James's School, Knaresborough]] in [[Yorkshire]] is founded by Dr. Robert Chaloner, and the charter is signed by King James I of England.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kellett|first=Arnold|title=King James's School, 1616–2003|location=Knaresborough|publisher=King James's School|year=2003|isbn=0-9545195-0-7}}</ref>
* [[October]]/[[November]] – [[Ben Jonson]]'s satirical five-act comedy, ''[[The Devil is an Ass]]'', is produced at the [[Blackfriars Theatre]] in London by the [[King's Men (playing company)|King's Men]], poking fun at contemporary credence in witchcraft and [[Middlesex]] juries.<ref>Published [[1631]].</ref>
* [[November 4]] – [[Charles I of England|Prince Charles]] (15-year-old surviving son of [[James I of England]] and [[Anne of Denmark]]) is invested as [[Prince of Wales]] at [[Whitehall]] in London, the last such formal investiture until [[1911]].
* [[November 5]] – Bishop [[Lancelot Andrewes]] preaches the annual [[Gunpowder Plot|Gunpowder Treason]] sermon before King [[James I of England]] at [[Whitehall]], both having been intended victims of the plot.
* [[November 6]]–[[November 25|25]] – [[Ben Jonson]]'s works are published in a collected [[Ben Jonson folios|folio]] edition (the first of any English playwright).<ref name="CBH1616"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Bland|first=M.|title=William Stansby and the production of the ''Workes of Beniamin Jonson'', 1615–16|journal=The Library|publisher=[[Bibliographical Society]]|volume=20|year=1998|page=10|doi=10.1093/library/20.1.1|doi-broken-date=November 1, 2024 }}</ref>
* [[November 6]] – Captain William Murray is granted a royal [[patent]], giving him the sole privilege of importing [[tobacco]] to Scotland for a period of 21 years. Continuing from the reign of [[Elizabeth I of England]], the creation of grants and patents reaches a new highwater mark from [[1614]] to [[1621]], during the reign of [[James I of England]].
* [[November 13]] – Italian artist [[Guido Reni]]'s famous ''Pietà'', commissioned by the Senate of [[Bologna]], is placed on the greater altar of the church of Santa Maria della Pietà.
* [[November 14]] – In England, Sir [[Edward Coke]] is dismissed as [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales|Chief Justice of the King's Bench]] by royal prerogative. 
* [[November 16]]
** The [[Tepehuán Revolt]] begins in Nueva Vizcaya with the attack of a Spanish wagon train that is on its way to Mexico City. It tests the limits of Spanish and [[Jesuit]] [[colonialism]], in western and northwestern [[Durango]] and southern [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]], Mexico. <ref>Charlotte M. Gradie, ''The Tepehuan Revolt of 1616'' (University of Utah Press, 2000) p. 32</ref>
** [[Marco Antonio de Dominis]], [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[Archbishop]] of the See of Spalato and [[Primate (bishop)|Primate]] of [[Dalmatia]],  having run afoul of [[Pope Paul V]] over secular matters relating to [[Venice]], submits to King [[James I of England]] and later becomes Dean of Windsor.
* [[November 30]] – [[Cardinal Richelieu]], Armand-Jean du Plessis, is named French [[Secretary of State]] by young king [[Louis XIII]]. Richelieu will change France into a unified centralised state, able to resist both England and the [[Habsburg monarchy|Habsburg Empire]].
* [[November]]
**[[Peter Paul Rubens]] begins work on classical [[tapestry|tapestries]], when a contract is signed in [[Antwerp]] with cloth dyers Jan Raes and Frans Sweerts in Brussels, and the [[Genoa|Genoese]] merchant Franco Cattaneo.
** [[René Descartes]], at age 20, graduates in [[Civil law (legal system)|civil]] and [[canon law]] at the [[University of Poitiers]], where he becomes disillusioned with books, preferring to seek truths from "le grand livre du monde." His thesis defense may be written in December.
** With small profits to show, the [[Virginia Company]] decides to distribute land in [[Virginia]] to [[shareholder]]s according to the number of shares owned. Each stockholder can set up a "particular" plantation and pay associated expenses, receiving {{Convert|100|acre|km2}} of land for each share and {{Convert|50|acre|m2}} for each person transported (the "headrights" system).
** Scholar [[Robert Burton (scholar)|Robert Burton]] is made [[vicar]] of [[St Thomas the Martyr's Church, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Encyclopedia of English Renaissance Literature|series=The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literature|edition=1st|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|location=Chichester|year=2012|doi=10.1002/9781118297353.wbeerlb043 |url=https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118297353.wbeerlb043}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Burton|title=Robert Burton {{!}} English author, scholar, and clergyman|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-09-07|language=en}}</ref>
* [[December 10]] – An [[School Establishment Act 1616|ordinance]] establishes [[Parish#Scotland|parish]] schools in Scotland. The same act of the [[Privy Council]] commends the abolition of [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]].
* [[December 18]] – A widely reported earthquake occurs in [[Leipzig]], Germany (also dated [[December 22]]).<ref>{{cite web|title=A Basic European Earthquake Catalogue and a Database for the evaluation of long-term seismicity and seismic hazard (BEECD)|url=http://emidius.mi.ingv.it/BEECD/app/app_E.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://emidius.mi.ingv.it/BEECD/app/app_E.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|access-date=2008-03-05}}</ref>
* [[December 22]] – An Indian youth (called one of "the first fruits of India") is baptized with the name "Peter" in London at the St. Dionis Backchurch, in a ceremony attended by the [[Lord Mayor of London|Lord Mayor]], the [[Privy Council]], city aldermen, and officials of the [[Honourable East India Company]]. Peter thus becomes the first convert to the [[Anglican Church]] in India. He returns to India as a missionary, schooled in English and Latin.<ref>{{cite book|first=Rozina|last=Visram|title=Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History|url=https://archive.org/details/asiansinbritain40068visr|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Pluto Press|year=2002|isbn=0-7453-1373-6}}</ref>
* [[December 25]]
** "[[Father Christmas]]" is a main character of ''[[Christmas, His Masque]]'', written by [[Ben Jonson]] and presented at the court of King [[James I of England]]. Father Christmas is considered a [[papist]] symbol by [[Puritans]], and later banished from England until the [[English Restoration]]. The traditional, comical costume for this jolly figure, as well as regional names, indicate that he is descended from the presenter of the [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[Feast of Fools]].
** Captain [[Nathaniel Courthope]] reaches the [[nutmeg]]-rich island of [[Run (island)|Run]] in the [[Moluccas]], to defend it against the [[Dutch East India Company]]. A contract with the inhabitants, accepting [[James I of England]] as their sovereign, makes it part of the [[English colonial empire]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Ratnikas |first=Algirdas J. |url=http://timelines.ws/countries/INDONESIA.HTML |title=Timeline Indonesia |publisher=Timelines.ws |access-date=2010-08-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100710081853/http://timelines.ws/countries/INDONESIA.HTML |archive-date=July 10, 2010 |df=mdy }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Giles|last=Milton|title=Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History|location=New York|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|year=1999|isbn=978-0-374-21936-9|url=https://archive.org/details/nathanielsnutmeg00milt}}</ref>
* [[December]] – In the Middle East, traveller [[Pietro Della Valle]] marries Jowaya, daughter of a [[Nestorian Christian]] father and an [[Armenia]]n mother, in [[Baghdad]]. The couple then sets off ([[1617]]) to find the Shah in [[Isfahan]].

=== Date unknown ===
* [[Abbas I's Kakhetian and Kartlian campaigns]] occur as progressive combats. [[Abbas I of Persia]]  captures [[Tbilisi]] following a conflict with the [[Georgians|Georgian]] soldiers and the general populace. After the capture of Tbilisi, Abbas I confronts an [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] army. The battle takes place near [[Lake Sevan|Lake Gökçe]], and results in a [[Safavid dynasty|Safavid]] victory.
* ''Oorsprong en voortgang der Nederlandtscher beroerten'' (''Origin and progress of the disturbances in the Netherlands''), by [[Johannes Gysius]], is published.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/515/|title=Mirror of the Cruel and Horrible Spanish Tyranny Perpetrated in the Netherlands, by the Tyrant, the Duke of Alba, and Other Commanders of King Philip II|website=[[World Digital Library]]|year=1620|access-date=2013-08-25}}</ref>
* The [[Collegium Musicum]] is founded in [[Prague]].
* Physician [[Aleixo de Abreu]] is granted a pension of 16,000 reis, for services to the crown in [[Angola]] and [[Brazil]], by [[Philip III of Spain]], who also appoints him physician of his chamber.
* [[Ngawang Namgyal]] arrives in [[Bhutan]], having escaped [[Tibet]].
* The [[Swiss Guard]] is appointed part of the household guard of King [[Louis XIII of France]].
* Week-long festivities in honor of the Prince of [[Urbano Barberini (1664–1722)|Urbano]], of the [[Barberini family]], occur in [[Florence]], Italy.<ref>From an etching in the ''Guerre de Beauté'', a series of six etchings depicting a celebration which took place in Florence in the year 1616 in honor of the prince of Urbino.</ref>
* Richard Steel and John Crowther complete their journey from Ajmeer in the [[Mughal Empire]] to [[Ispahan]] in [[Persia]].
* [[John Smith (explorer)|Captain John Smith]] publishes his book ''[[A description of New England]]'' in London. Smith relates one voyage to the coast of [[Massachusetts]] and [[Maine]], in [[1614]], and an attempted voyage in [[1615]], when he was captured by French [[Pirate|pirates]] and detained for several months before escaping.
* The [[New England]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Indian]] [[smallpox]] or [[leptospirosis]] epidemic of 1616–[[1619|19]] begins to depopulate the region, killing an estimated 90% of the coastal native peoples.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Timothy|last=Bratton|year=1988|title=Identity of the New England Indian Epidemic of 1616–1619|journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine|volume=62|issue=3|pages=352–383}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Marr|first1=J. S.|last2=Cathey|first2=J. T.|title=New hypothesis for cause of epidemic among native Americans, New England, 1616-1619|journal=[[Emerging Infectious Diseases (journal)|Emerging Infectious Diseases]]|volume=16|issue=2|pages=281–6|date=February 2010|pmid=20113559|pmc=2957993|doi=10.3201/eid1602.090276}}</ref>
* A [[slave]] ship carries [[smallpox]] from the [[Kingdom of Kongo]] to [[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]], Brazil.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Henry F.|last=Dobyns|author-link=Henry F. Dobyns|year=1993|title=Disease Transfer at Contact|journal=Annual Review of Anthropology|volume=22|pages=273–291|doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.22.1.273}}</ref>
* In England, [[louse]]-borne [[epidemic typhus]] ravages the poor and crowded. 
* A fatal disease of cattle, probably [[rinderpest]], spreads through the Italian provinces of [[Padua]], [[Udine]], [[Treviso]] and [[Vicenza]], introduced most likely from [[Dalmatia]] or Hungary. Great numbers of cattle die in Italy, as they had in previous years ([[1559]], [[1562]], [[1566]], [[1590]], [[1598]]) in other European regions when [[Little Ice Age|harvest failure]] also drives people to the brink of starvation (for example, [[1595]]–[[1597|97]] in Germany). The consumption of beef and veal is prohibited, and [[Pope Paul V]] issues an edict prohibiting the slaughter of draught oxen that are suitable for plowing. Calves are also not slaughtered for some time afterwards, so that Italy's cattle herds can be replenished.<ref>{{cite book|first=Clive A.|last=Spinage|year=2003|title=Cattle plague: a history|location=New York|publisher=Springer|isbn=0-306-47789-0}}</ref>
* At the behest of Sir [[Ferdinando Gorges]], Dr. Richard Vines, a physician, passes the winter of 1616–[[1617|17]] at [[Biddeford, Maine]], at the mouth of the [[Saco River]], that he calls Winter Harbor. This is the site of the earliest permanent settlement in Maine, of which there is a conclusive record. Maine will become an important refuge for religious dissenters persecuted by the [[Puritan]]s.<ref>{{cite book|author=Charles L. Butler|title=Biddeford|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CyjtzeigVBcC&pg=PA12|year=2003|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-1303-4|pages=12}}</ref>
* In [[Spanish Florida]], the Cofa Mission at the mouth of the [[Suwannee River]] disappears.
* The first African [[slaves]] are brought to [[Bermuda]], an English [[colony]], by Captain George Bargrave to dive for [[pearl]]s, because of their reputed skill in this activity. Harvesting pearls off the coast proves unsuccessful, and the slaves are put to work planting and harvesting the initial large crops of [[tobacco]] and [[sugarcane]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Virginia|last=Bernhard|year=1999|title=Slaves and Slaveholders in Bermuda, 1616–1782|url=https://archive.org/details/slavesslaveholde00bern|url-access=registration|location=Columbia|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=9780826212276}}</ref> At the same time, some English refuse to purchase Brazilian sugar because it is produced by slave labour.<ref>{{cite book|first=Sidney W.|last=Mintz|year=1986|title=Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History|location=New York|publisher=Penguin|isbn=0140092331|url=https://archive.org/details/sweetnesspowerpl00mint}}</ref>
* Italian [[natural philosophy|natural philosopher]] [[Giulio Cesare Vanini]] publishes a radically [[heterodoxy|heterodox]] book in France, after his English interlude ''De admirandis naturae reginae deaeque mortalium arcanis,'' for which he is condemned and forced to flee Paris. For his opinion that the world is eternal and governed by immanent laws, as expressed in this book, he is executed in [[1619]].
* [[Francesco Albani]] paints the ceiling frescoes of ''Apollo and the Seasons'', at the Palazzo Verospi in [[Via del Corso]], for Cardinal Fabrizio Verospi.
* [[Elizabethan]] [[polymath]] and [[alchemy|alchemist]] [[Robert Fludd]] publishes his first book, ''Apologia Compendiaria, Fraternitatem de Rosea Cruce suspicionis … maculis aspersam, veritatis quasi Fluctibus abluens,'' which was a defense of the ideas of the [[Rosicrucianism|Rosicrucians]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fludd, Robert (1574–1637) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/fludd-robert-1574-1637 |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
* [[Johannes Valentinus Andreae]] claims to be the author of ''[[Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz|Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz Anno 1459]]'' published in [[Strasbourg]].
* [[Witch trials in the early modern period|Witch trials]]:
** [[John Cotta]] writes his influential book ''The Triall of Witch-craft.''
** Elizabeth Rutter is [[Hanging|hanged]] as a [[witch]] in [[Middlesex]], England, Agnes Berrye in [[Enfield Town|Enfield]], and nine women in [[Leicester]] on the testimony of a raving 13-year-old named John Smith, under the [[Witchcraft Act 1603]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Robbins|first=Russell Hope|title=The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology|location=New York|publisher=Bonanza Books|year=1959}}</ref> In [[Orkney]], [[Elspeth Reoch]] is tried. In France Leger (first name unknown) is condemned for [[witchcraft]] on [[May 6]], Sylvanie de la Plaine is burned at Pays de Labourde as a witch, and in [[Orléans]] eighteen witches are killed.
** A second [[witch-hunt]] breaks out in [[Biscay]], Spain. An Edict of Silence is issued by the [[Inquisition]], but the king overturns the Edict, and 300 accused witches are burned alive.
* Latest probable date of [[Thomas Middleton]] composition of ''[[The Witch (play)|The Witch]]'', a tragicomedy that may have entered into the present-day text of [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Macbeth]]''.<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Logan, Terence P. |editor2=Smith, Denzell S. |title=The Popular School: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama|url=https://archive.org/details/popularschool0000loga |url-access=registration |location=Lincoln|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1975|page=[https://archive.org/details/popularschool0000loga/page/69 69]|isbn=9780803208445 }}</ref>
* "Drink to me only with thine eyes" comes from [[Ben Jonson]]'s love poem, ''[[To Celia]]''. Jonson's poetic lamentation ''On my first Sonne'' is also from this year.
* [[Francis de Sales]]' literary masterpiece ''Treatise on the Love of God'' is published, while he is Bishop of [[Geneva]].
* [[Orlando Gibbons]]' anthem ''See, the Word is Incarnate'' is written.
* Italian naturalist Fabio Colonna states that "tongue stones" (glossopetrae) are [[shark]] teeth, in his treatise ''De glossopetris dissertatio''.
* An important English dictionary is published by Dr. [[John Bullokar]] with the title ''[[An English Expositor]]: teaching the interpretation of the hardest words used in our language, with sundry explications, descriptions and discourses''.
* English mathematician [[Henry Briggs (mathematician)|Henry Briggs]] goes to [[Edinburgh]], to show [[John Napier]] his efficient method of finding [[logarithm]]s, by the continued extraction of [[square root]]s.
* Moralist writer John Deacon publishes a [[quarto]] entitled ''[[Tobacco]] Tortured in the Filthy Fumes of Tobacco Refined'' (supporting the views of [[James I of England]]). Deacon writes the same year that [[syphilis]] is a "Turkished", "Spanished", or "Frenchized" disease that the English contract by "trafficking with the contagious courruptions."
* [[Fortunio Liceti]] publishes ''De Monstruorum Natura'' in Italy, which marks the beginning of studies into malformations of the [[embryo]].
* Dutch traders smuggle the [[coffee]] plant out of [[Mocha, Yemen|Mocha]], a port in [[Yemen]] on the [[Red Sea]], and cultivate it at the [[Hortus Botanicus (Amsterdam)|Amsterdam Botanical Gardens]]. The Dutch later introduce it to [[Java]].
* [[Muhammad Baqir Majlisi]], known as ''Allameh Majlesi'', is born in the city of [[Isfahan]].
* Fort San Diego, in [[Acapulco]] Bay, Mexico, is completed by the Spanish as a defence against their erstwhile [[vassals]], the Dutch.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Engel|last=Sluiter|year=1949|title=The Fortification of Acapulco, 1615–1616|journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review|volume=29|issue=1|pages=69–80|doi=10.2307/2508294|jstor=2508294}} Today the fort houses the Acapulco Historical Museum.</ref>
* Anti-Christian persecutions break out in [[Nanjing]], China, and [[Nagasaki]], Japan. The [[Jesuit]]-lead Christian community in Japan at this time is over 3,000,000 strong.
* Master seafarer [[Henry Mainwaring]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] graduate and lawyer turned successful Newfoundland [[pirate]], returns to England, is pardoned after rescuing a Newfoundland trading fleet near Gibraltar, and begins to write a revealing treatise on [[piracy]]. 
* The first [[Thailand|Thai]] embassy to Japan arrives.
* [[William Harvey]] gives his views on the [[circulation of blood]], as [[Lumleian Lecturer]] at the [[Royal College of Physicians]]. It is not until [[1628]] that he gives his views in print.
* The Dutch establish their colony of [[Essequibo (colony)|Essequibo]], in the region of the [[Essequibo River]], in northern South America (present-day [[Guyana]]), for [[sugar]] and [[tobacco]] production. The colony is protected by [[Fort Kyk-Over-Al]], now in ruins. The Dutch also map the [[Delaware River]] in North America.
* The [[Ottoman Empire]] attempts landings at the shoreline between [[Cádiz]] and [[Lisbon]].
* [[Croatia]]n mathematician Faustus Verantius publishes his book ''Machinae novae,'' a book of mechanical and technological inventions, some of which are applicable to the solutions of hydrological problems, and others concern the construction of [[Water clock|clepsydras]], [[sundial]]s, [[Mill (grinding)|mills]], presses bridges and boats for widely different uses.
* [[John Speed]] publishes an edition of his ''[[Atlas]] of Britain'', with descriptive text in Latin.
* [[Pierre Vernier]] is employed, with his father, in making fine-scale [[map]]s of France ([[Franche-Comté]] area).
* Danish [[natural philosopher]] [[Ole Worm]] collects materials that will later be incorporated into his [[Cabinet of curiosities|museum]] in [[Copenhagen]]. His museum is the nucleus of the [[University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum]].
* [[Isaac Beeckman]], Dutch intellectual and future friend of [[René Descartes]], leaves his candle factory in [[Zierikzee]], to return to [[Middelburg, Zeeland|Middelburg]] to study medicine.<ref>His notebooks, not fully published until the 20th century, reveal a coherent [[mechanical philosophy]] of nature with incipient atomism, a force of inertia, and mathematical interpretations of natural philosophy are present. {{cite book|first=K.|last=van Berkel|year=1983|title=Isaac Beeckman (1588–1637) en de mechanisering van het wereldbeeld|location=Amsterdam}}</ref>
* In [[Sardinia]], the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the [[University of Sassari]] is founded.
* [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini]] sculpts ''Bacchanal: A Faun Teased by Children'', at the age of 18 years. This work is now in New York, at the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].
* The [[States of Holland]] set up a commission to advise them on the problem of Jewish residency and worship. One of the members of the commission is [[Hugo Grotius]], a highly regarded jurist and one of the most important political thinkers of his day.
* [[Marie Venier]] (called Laporte) is the first female actress to appear on the stage in Paris.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Searles|first=Colbert|year=1925|title=Allusions to the Contemporary Theater of 1616 by Francois Rosset|journal=Modern Language Notes|volume=40|issue=8|pages=481–483|doi=10.2307/2914581|jstor=2914581}}</ref>
* [[Jesuit]] astronomer [[Christoph Scheiner]] becomes the advisor to [[Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria|Archduke Maximilian]], brother of [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor]] in [[Vienna]]. A lifelong enemy of Galileo, following a dispute over the nature of [[sunspot]]s, Scheiner is credited with reopening the 1616 accusations against Galileo in 1633.
* [[Tommaso Campanella]]'s book ''In Defence of Galileo'' is written.
* [[Istanbul]]'s [[Sultan Ahmed Mosque]] (also known as the ''Blue Mosque'') is completed during the rule of [[Ahmed I]].
* In [[Tunis]], the [[mosque]] of Youssef Deyis is built. Today it has an octagonal [[minaret]] crowned with a miniature green-tiled [[pyramid]] for a roof.
* [[Inigo Jones]] designs the [[Queen's House]] at [[Greenwich]], near London.<ref name="The People's Chronology"/>
* [[Ambrose Barlow]], recently graduated from the College of Saint Gregory, [[Douai]], France, and the Royal College of Saint Alban in [[Valladolid]], Spain, enters the [[Order of Saint Benedict]]. In [[1641]] he will be martyred in England.
* [[John Vaughan, 1st Earl of Carbery]] is appointed to the post of [[comptroller]], in the newly formed household of [[Charles I of England|Prince Charles]] in England; Vaughan later claims that serving the Prince has cost him £20,000.