History
1612
General
Population: 542 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Thomas Deloney Thomas of Reading (posthumous), Michael Drayton Polyilbion part I, Sanuel Purchas,
Shakespeare Henry VIII, John Webster The White Devil (tragedy), Accademia della Crusca Vocabolario (Italian), Jakob Bohme (mystical philosophy),
Sir John Davies (Irish-English history), Roger Fenton Usurie, Bacon
Art includes El Greco "Baptism of Christ", Reubens "The Conversion of St. Bavon"
Music includes Orlando Gibbons (book of madrigals and motets)
- Mathematics: Bartholomew Pitiscus the German mathematician uses decimal in trigonometric tables - first use in European math
- Religion: King James Bible published
- Science: Simon Marius rediscovers Andromeda nebula (first 963)
Galileo notes Neptune, but it wasn't recognized as a planet due to start of retrograde motion
- Technology: Antonio Neri writes manual on glassmaking
Santorio uses Galileo's thermometer on people
- Deaths: Poet Giovanni Battista Guarini, Composer Giovanni Gabrielli, Emperor Rudolf II, Secretary of State Earl of Salisbury, Henry Prince of Wales,
Artist Federico Barocci, Witch Anne Chattox hanged
Americas
- Earliest colonization of Bermudas from Virginia
Asia
- Ceylon: (Sri Lanka) Treaty between King Kandy and Dutch
- India: English East India Company defeats Portugese fleet at Surat
- Japan: Persecution of Christians until 1639 under leyasu and Hidetada
Europe
- England: Death of Earl of Salisbury – succeeded as secretary of state by Viscount Rochester
Last recorded burning of heretics in country
Death of Henry Prince of Wales and Charles becomes heir
Anne Chattox – Lancashire witch accused of digging up skulls and is hanged
- France: Louvre started
- Holland: Treaty between Dutch and King Kandy of Ceylon
Amsterdam Stock Exchange opens in Netherlands
- Holy Roman Empire: Death of Emperor Rudolf II - Matthias King of Bohemia rules
- Italian States: St. Peter's Basilica completed after 94 years
- Sweden: Gustavus Adolphus king
East
- New Amsterdam: Dutch use Manhattan as fur-trading center
South
- Virginia: End of severe drought since 1606
John Smith creates map
John Rolfe first plants tobacco