1609

Updated on Oct 12, 2024

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1609 (MDCIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (dominical letter D) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday (dominical letter A) of the Julian calendar, the 1609th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 609th year of the 2nd millennium, the 9th year of the 17th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1600s decade. As of the start of 1609, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

January–June

January – The Basque witch trials begin.

January 15 – One of the world's first newspapers, Avisa Relation oder Zeitung, begins publication in Wolfenbüttel (Holy Roman Empire).

January 31 – Bank of Amsterdam is established.

February 4 – The last day of Keichō 慶長 13 (according to the Japanese lunar calendar).

c. March – Hugo Grotius publishes Mare Liberum, his legal text on freedom of the seas, in Leiden.

April 4

King Philip III of Spain signs an edict to expel of all moriscos from his country (see September 11).

English explorer Henry Hudson in the service of the Dutch East India Company sets out from Amsterdam in the Halve Maen.

April 5 – Invasion of Ryukyu in Japan: Soldiers of the Shimazu clan capture the castle on Ryukyu Island, beginning to make the Ryukyu Kingdom a vassal of Satsuma han.

April 9 – By the Treaty of Antwerp the Netherlands and Spain agree the Twelve Years' Truce (1609–1621) in the Eighty Years' War, allowing the Dutch East India Company to trade within the Spanish Empire.

May 20 – London publisher Thomas Thorpe issues Shake-speares Sonnets, with a dedication to "Mr. W.H.", and the poem A Lover's Complaint appended; it is uncertain whether this publication has Shakespeare's authority.

May 23 – The Second Virginia Charter is officially ratified; it is intended to replace the council with a Governor who has absolute control in the colony.

July–December

c. Early July – Samuel de Champlain claims the Lake Champlain area of Vermont for the Kingdom of France.

July 6 – Bohemia is granted freedom of religion (Letter of Majesty).

July 10 – The German Catholic League is formed to counteract the Protestant Union.

July 23 – A hurricane at sea separates the 9 London Company's ships (600 more settlers) en route to relieve the Jamestown settlement, one ship sinks, and the Sea Venture is driven ashore at Bermuda on July 25, thus effectively first settling the colony.

July 30 – At what is now Crown Point, New York, Samuel de Champlain participates in a battle between the Huron and Iroquois, shooting and killing two Iroquois chiefs; this helps set the tone for French–Iroquois relations for the next 100 years.

August 25 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian officials.

August 28 – Henry Hudson is the first European to see Delaware Bay.

August – Seven ships arrive at the colony of Jamestown, Virginia, with 200–300 men, women, and children, reporting 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 11–12 – Henry Hudson in the Halve Maen sails into Upper New York Bay and begins a journey up the Hudson River.

October 12 – A version of the rhyme "Three Blind Mice" is published in London. The editor, and possible author of the verse, is the teenage Thomas Ravenscroft.