1609

Year 1609 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1609

January - June

* January 15 - One of the world's first newspapers, "Avisa Relation oder Zeitung", is published in Augsburg, Germany.
* February 4 - The last day of Keichō 慶長 13 (according to the Japanese lunar calendar).
* March - Twelve Years' Truce: The Netherlands and Spain agree to a 12-year ceasefire (1609-1621) in the Eighty Years' War.
* April 4 - Felipe III (Philip III), King of Spain, signs an edict to expel of all moriscos from Spain (see September 11).
* April 9 - Spain recognizes Dutch independence.
* May 23 - The Second Charter of Virginia is officially ratified, which is intended to replace the council with a Governor who has absolute control in the colony.

July - December

* July 6 - Bohemia is granted freedom of religion ("Letter of Majesty").
* July 23 - Jamestown: A hurricane at sea separates the 9 ships (600 more settlers) en route, one ship sinks, and the ship "Sea Venture" wrecks at Bermuda.
* July 28 - Bermuda is first settled by survivors of the English "Sea Venture", en route to Virginia.
* August 25 - Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers. He is the first to perform observational astronomy as he observes the moons of Jupiter, after the manner of the ancient Egyptians who named the stars ("astro-nomers"), at the Edfu temple, over 2,000 years earlier.
* August 28 - Henry Hudson is the first European to see Delaware Bay.
* August - Jamestown: Seven ships arrive at the colony, with 200-300 men, women, and children, reporting that the "Sea Venture" wrecked near Bermuda.
* September 2 - Henry Hudson enters New York Bay aboard the "Halve Maen".
* September 10 - Jamestown: Capt. George Percy replaces Captain John Smith as president of the Council, and Smith returns to England.
* September 11 - Valencia expels all the Moriscos (see April 4).
* September 12 - Henry Hudson discovers the Hudson River.
* October 12 - "Three Blind Mice" is published by London teenage songwriter Thomas Ravenscroft.

Undated

* The greatest witch-hunt in history, the Basque witch trials, is held.
* Samuel de Champlain claims the Lake Champlain area of Vermont for France.
* The first rounds in English are published by Thomas Ravenscroft.
* Claudio Monteverdi publishes his first opera, "Orfeo".
* The Douay Rheims Bible is published in England.
* The Dutch East India Company imports tea to Europe.
* The Japanese Shimazu clan conquers Okinawa.
* Warsaw becomes the capital of Poland.
* Many Puritans, conservative English Protestants, settle in Leiden, Holland, in search of religious freedom.
* The Statutes of Iona are passed, marking the end of the bloody feuds between the clans in the Scottish highlands.
* The Catholic League (German) is formed.
* The municipality of Buenavista in Marinduque, Philippines was founded.

cience

* Johannes Kepler publishes his first two laws of planetary motion in "Astronomia Nova".
* Hugo Grotius publishes "Mare liberum".
* Cornelius Drebbel invents the thermostat.

Births

* February 10 - John Suckling, English poet (d. 1642)
* February 18 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and statesman (d. 1674)
* March 22 - John II Casimir of Poland (d. 1672)
* March 28 - King Frederick III of Denmark (d. 1670)
* March 29 - Sarah Boyle, English noblewoman (d. 1633)
* May 16 (or 1610) - Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (d. 1641)
* June 29 - Pierre Paul Riquet, French engineer and canal builder (d. 1680)
* August 6 - Richard Bennett, British Colonial Governor of Virginia (d. 1675)
* August 19 - Jean Rotrou, French poet and tragedian (d. 1650)
* October 5 - Paul Fleming, German poet (d. 1640)
* October 8 - John Clarke, English physician (d. 1676)
* October 26 - William Sprague, English co-founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts (d. 1675)
* November 1 - Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England (d. 1676)
* November 25 - Henrietta Maria of France, queen of Charles I of England (d. 1669)
* November 26 - Henry Dunster, first President of Harvard College (d. 1659)
* December 24 - Philip Warwick, English writer and politician (d. 1683)
*"date unknown"
**Samuel Cooper, English miniature painter (d. 1672)
**Alberich Mazak, Austrian composer (d. 1661)
**Hannibal Sehested, Danish statesman (d. 1666)
**Captain John Underhill, English soldier and colonist (d. 1672)
**Gerrard Winstanley, English Protestant religious reformer (d. 1676)
**Luc d'Achery, learned French Benedictine (d. 1685)
*"probable" - Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède, French novelist and dramatist (d. 1663)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* January 21 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, French Protestant scholar (b. 1540)
* February 17 - Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549)
* March - James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran (b. c. 1537)
* March 9 - William Warner, English poet (b. c. 1558)
* March 22 - Al-Jilani, Persian physician
* March 25 - Olaus Martini, Swedish Archbishop of Uppsala (b. 1557)
* April 4 - Charles de L'Ecluse, Flemish botanist (b. 1526)
* April 8 - Mark Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian, Scottish statesman (b. 1553)
* May 15 - Giovanni Croce, Italian composer (b. 1557)
* July 15 - Annibale Carracci, Italian painter (b. 1560)
* July 20 - Federico Zuccari, Italian painter (b. 1543)
* August 22 - Maharal of Prague, Jewish mystic and philosopher (b. 1525)
* October 1 - Gianmatteo Asola, Italian composer (b. c. 1532)
* October 19 - Jacobus Arminius, Dutch Reformed theologian (b. 1560)
* December 4 - Alexander Hume, Scottish poet (b. 1560)
*"date unknown"
**Yamada Arinobu, Japanese nobleman (b. 1544)
**Barnabe Barnes, English poet (b. 1568)

: "See also ."