Historic Event
Mar 25 Henry Hudson embarks on an exploration for Dutch East India Company to find a passage to Asia
Historic Publication
May 20 Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by publisher Thomas Thorpe
- May 23 Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place
- Jun 17 Netherlands, England and France sign 12 year Covenant
- Jul 6 Majesteitsbrief: Emperor Rudolf II grants Bohemia freedom of religion
- Jul 9 Emperor Rudolf II grants Bohemian protestants freedom of religion
- Jul 10 Catholic German monarchy forms Catholic League
- Jul 20 Emperor Rudolf II grants Silezische protestants freedom of religion
- Jul 26 English mathematician Thomas Harriot is the first person to draw a map of the Moon by looking through a telescope
- Jul 28 Admiral George Somers settles in Bermuda
Historic Event
Jul 29 Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years
Historic Event
Aug 8 Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei's telescope
- Aug 25 Galileo demonstrates his 1st telescope to Venetian lawmakers
- Aug 28 English explorer Henry Hudson, discovers and explores Delaware Bay
- Sep 1 Pieter Both sworn in as 1st governor general of Dutch East Indies
- Sep 4 Navigator Henry Hudson is the first European to discover island of Manhattan [or Sep 11]
- Sep 11 Expulsion order announced against the Moriscos of Valencia; beginning of the expulsion of all Spain's Moriscos
- Oct 12 Children's rhyme "Three Blind Mice" is published in London in a book edited by and possibly written by Thomas Ravenscroft
- Dec 8 Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan opens its reading room, second public library in Europe