1612 - Definition and Overview

Events

• January 20 - Mathias becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
• Antonius Magirus's Koock-boeck ofte Familieren kevken-boeck is published.
• Popular uprising in Moscow expels Polish troops.
• Trial of the witches in Pendle, Lancashire is held.
• December 28 - Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune when it was in conjunction with Jupiter, yet he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star because of its extremely slow motion along the ecliptic. Neptune was not truly discovered until 1846, about 234 years after Galileo first sighted it with his telescope.

Births

• Thomas Fairfax, English general, commander in chief of the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War (d. 1671)
• Samuel Butler, English satirist (d. 1680)
• Anne Bradstreet, English-born American poet (d. 1672)
• Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, French colonial missionary and first governor of Montréal (d. 1676)
• Antoine Arnauld, French theologian (d. 1694)
• James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish soldier (d. 1650)

Deaths

• January 20 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
• May 24 - Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and minister (b. 1563)
• August 12 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer (b. c. 1555)
• November 6 - Henry, Prince of Wales
• Ahmed I - Ottoman emperor
• Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet (b. 1538)