1597 - Definition

Events

• January 24 - Battle of Turnhout. Maurice of Nassau defeats a Spanish force under Jean de Rie of Varas in the Netherlands
• The first opera is considered to have been written.
• Bali discovered by the Dutch explorer Cornelis Houtman
• Abbas I ends the Uzbek raids on his lands.

Births

• Pieter Saenredam, Dutch painter

Deaths

• October 9 - Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Ashikaga shogun
• Willem Barents, Dutch navigator and explorer.