1606

This article is about the year 1606.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	16th century – 17th century – 18th century
Decades:	1570s  1580s  1590s  – 1600s –  1610s  1620s  1630s
Years:	1603 1604 1605 – 1606 – 1607 1608 1609

1606 by topic:

Arts and Science

Architecture - Art - Literature - Music - Science

Lists of leaders

Colonial governors - State leaders

Birth and death categories

Births - Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments - Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1606 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1606 MDCVI
Ab urbe condita	2359
Armenian calendar	1055 ԹՎ ՌԾԵ
Assyrian calendar	6356
Bengali calendar	1013
Berber calendar	2556
English Regnal year	3 Ja. 1 – 4 Ja. 1
Buddhist calendar	2150
Burmese calendar	968
Byzantine calendar	7114–7115
Chinese calendar	乙巳年 (Wood Snake) 4302 or 4242     — to — 丙午年 (Fire Horse) 4303 or 4243
Coptic calendar	1322–1323
Discordian calendar	2772
Ethiopian calendar	1598–1599
Hebrew calendar	5366–5367
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1662–1663
- Shaka Samvat	1528–1529
- Kali Yuga	4707–4708
Holocene calendar	11606
Igbo calendar	606–607
Iranian calendar	984–985
Islamic calendar	1014–1015
Japanese calendar	Keichō 11 (慶長１１年)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 10 days
Korean calendar	3939
Minguo calendar	306 before ROC 民前306年
Thai solar calendar	2148–2149

1606 (MDCVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (dominical letter A) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday (dominical letter E) of the Julian calendar, the 1606th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 606th year of the 2nd millennium, the 6th year of the 17th century, and the 7th year of the 1600s decade. Note that the Julian day for 1606 is 10 calendar days difference, which continued to be used from 1582 until the complete conversion of the Gregorian calendar was entirely done in 1929.

Events

January–June

• January 26 – Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers the Pitcairn Islands.
• January 27 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators for plotting against Parliament and James I of England begins.
• January 31 – Guy Fawkes is executed.
• February 9 – Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers Mehetia.
• February 12 – Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers Tauere atoll.
• February 26 – Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon makes the first confirmed sighting of Australia by a European.
• March – The Duke of York's ship Duyfken, under Captain Willem Janszoon, explores the western coast of Cape York Peninsula.
• 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 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 – First version of the Union Flag created, to be worn as a national flag by English and Scots ships.
• May – Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers the islands of Vanuatu; believing them to be Australia, he names them La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo.
• May 17 – Supporters of Vasili Shuisky invade the Kremlin and kill Tsar Dimitri II of Russia.

July–December

• August (approx.) – Possible first performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth in London.
• August 14 – A Dutch fleet is defeated by the Portuguese in the Battle of Cape Rachado.
• October – Luís Vaz de Torres is the first European to sail through the Torres Strait.
• November 11 – Peace of Zsitvatorok 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.

Date unknown

• A storm buries the village of St Ismail near modern-day Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales.
• The Jesuit Joannis Stribingius visits Latvia, and describes Latvian mythology.
• The Evangelic Lyceum (Evanjelické lýceum), a Lutheran high school is founded in Bratislava.
• The cryptographic text Steganographia, written by Johannes Trithemius c.1499, is published in Frankfurt.
• Gregor Richter succeeds Martin Möller as the chief pastor of Görlitz.

Births

• January 4 (bapt.) – Edmund Castell, English orientalist (d. 1685)
• February 13 – John Winthrop, the Younger, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1676)
• c. February 28 – William Davenant, English poet and playwright (d. 1668)
• March – Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester (d. 1680)
• March 3 – Edmund Waller, English poet (d. 1687)
• May 12 – Joachim von Sandrart, German art-historian and painter (d. 1688)
• May 23 – Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Spanish writer (d. 1682)
• May 25 – Saint Charles Garnier, Jesuit missionary (d. 1649)
• June 6 – Pierre Corneille, French author (d. 1684)
• June 16 – Arthur Chichester, 1st Earl of Donegall, Irish soldier (d. 1675)
• June 19 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish statesman (d. 1649)
• July 15 – Rembrandt (van Rijn), Dutch painter (d. 1669)
• September 22 – Li Zicheng, Chinese rebel (d. 1645)
• September 27 – Richard Busby, English clergyman (d. 1695)
• November 12 – Jeanne Mance, French settler in Montreal (d. 1673)
• date unknown
  • Leonard Calvert, governor of Baltimore (d. 1647)
  • Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Italian architect and painter (d. 1680)
  • Thomas Harrison, English puritan soldier and Fifth Monarchist (d. 1660)
  • Thomas Herbert, English traveller and historian (d. 1682)
  • John Robartes, 1st Earl of Radnor, English politician (d. 1685)
  • Pierre du Ryer, French dramatist (d. 1658)
  • Tokugawa Tadanaga, Japanese nobleman (d. 1633)
  • Thomas Washbourne, English clergyman and poet (d. 1687)

Deaths

• January 30
  • Everard Digby, English conspirator (executed) (b. 1578)
  • Robert Wintour, English conspirator (executed) (b. 1565)
• January 31
  • Guy Fawkes, English conspirator (executed) (b. 1570)
  • Ambrose Rokewood, English conspirator (executed)
  • Thomas Wintour, English conspirator (executed) (b. 1571)
• March 10 – Yaqob, Emperor of Ethiopia (killed in battle)
• March 16 – Gaspar de Zúñiga y Acevedo, Count of Monterrey, Spanish colonial administrator and Viceroy of Mexico (b. 1540)
• March 23
  • Justus Lipsius, Flemish humanist (b. 1547)
  • Saint Turibius de Mongrovejo, Spanish Grand Inquisitioner and missionary Archbishop of Lima (b. 1538)
• March 25 – François de Bar, French scholar (b. 1538)
• April 3 – Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devon, English politician (b. 1563)
• May 3 – Henry Garnet, English Jesuit (executed) (b. 1555)
• May 17 – False Dmitriy I, pretender to the Russian throne
• May 30 – Guru Arjan Dev, fifth of the Sikh gurus (executed) (b. 1563)
• September 2 – Carel van Mander, Dutch painter and poet (b. 1548)
• September 9 – Leonhard Lechner, German composer and music editor (b. 1553)
• September 28 – Nicolaus Taurellus, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1547)
• October 5 – Philippe Desportes, French poet (b. 1546)
• November 13 – Geronimo Mercuriali, Italian philologist and physician (b. 1530)
• November 20 – (burial date) John Lyly, English writer (b. 1553)
• date unknown – Akaza Naoyasu, Japanese nobleman