1612

Year 1612 (MDCXII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1612

January - June

* January 20 - Matthias becomes Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of Rudolf II.cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|pages=244]
* January 20 - November 4 - A popular uprising in Moscow expels Polish troops.
* March 2 - False Dmitry III is recognised as tsar by the Cossacks.
* April 11 - Edward Wightman, a Baptist, was the last person to be executed for heresy in England by burning at the stake at Lichfield.
* May 10 - Shah Jahan marries Mumtaz Mahal.
* May 23-25 - A Sicilian-Neapolitan galley fleet defeats the Tunisians at La Goulette.
* June 13 - Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor formally elected.

July - December

* July 22 - Northamptonshire Witch Trials: Four women and one man hanged at Abingdon Gallows, Northampton, England.
* November 30 - Battle of Swally: Forces of the British East India Company and Portugal engage off the coast of India, resulting in a British win.
* December 28 - Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune when in conjunction with Jupiter, yet he mistakenly catalogues it as a fixed star because of its extremely slow motion along the ecliptic. Neptune is not truly discovered until 1846, about 234 years after Galileo first sights it with his telescope.

Undated

* Jamestown: John Rolfe exports first crop of improved tobacco (seeds from Trinidad).
* The Pendle witch trials are held in Pendle, Lancashire.
* Axel Oxenstierna becomes Lord High Chancellor of Sweden.
* Nagoya Castle is completed.
* Thomas Shelton's English translation of the first half of "Don Quixote" is published. It is the first translation of the Spanish novel into any language.

Births

* January 17 - Thomas Fairfax, English Civil War general (d. 1671)
* February 6 - Antoine Arnauld, French theologian (d. 1694)
* February 15 - Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, French colonial missionary and first governor of Montréal (d. 1676)
* February 22 - George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, English statesman (d. 1677)
* February 28 - John Pearson, English theologian (d. 1686)
* June 16 - Murat IV, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1640)
* June 23 - André Tacquet, Belgian mathematician (d. 1660)
* June 25 - John Albert Vasa, Polish bishop (d. 1634)
* August 28 - Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (died 1653)
* November 17 - Dorgon, Manchu prince (d. 1650)
* December 4 - Samuel Butler, English satirist (d. 1680)
* December 12 - Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1670)
*"date unknown" - James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish soldier (d. 1650)
*"date unknown" - Anne Bradstreet, Puritan poet (d. 1672)

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Deaths

* January 20 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1552)
* February 12 - Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1538)
* April 11 - Emanuel van Meteren, Flemish historian (b. 1535)
* April 11 - Edward Wightman, English Baptist preacher (burned at the stake) (b. 1566)
* May 24 - Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and spymaster (b. 1563)
* June 8 - Hans Leo Hassler, German composer (b. 1562)
* July 29 - Jacques Bongars, French scholar and diplomat (b. 1554)
* August 4 - Hugh Broughton, English scholar (b. 1549)
* August 12 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer (b. c. 1554)
* September 9 - Nakagawa Hidenari, Japanese warlord (b. 1570)
* September 12 - Tsar Vasili IV of Russia (b. 1552)
* October 7 - Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet (b. 1538)
* November 6 - Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (b. 1594)
* November 12 - John Harington, English writer (b. 1561)

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References