1623 - Definition and Overview

Events

• August 6 - Pope Urban VIII is elected to the Papacy.
• Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Osman II (1618-1622) to Murat IV (1623-1640).
• The Safavids recapture Baghdad.
• England first colonizes Saint Kitts and Nevis.
• Wilhelm Schickard invents his "Calculating Clock", and early mechanical calculator.
• Procopius's long-lost Secret History is rediscovered in the Vatican Library.
• Giambattista Marini publishes his long poem Adone.
• Tommaso Campanella publishes The City of the Sun.
• Johannes Rudbeck founds Rudbeckianska Gymnasiet, first gymnasium in Sweden.
• The Avedis Zildjian Company begins making cymbals at Constantinople.
• Second Thanksgiving celebrated at Plymouth Plantation.
• Erotomania is first mentioned in a psychiatric treatise.

Births

• January 9 - Empress Meisho of Japan
• June 19 - Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher
• August 5 - Antonio Cesti, composer (data of baptism) (+ 1669)
• Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (+ 1673)
• Sir William Petty

Deaths

• March 19 - Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord
• July 4 - William Byrd, composer
• July 8 - Pope Gregory XV
• 12 November - Josaphat Kuncevyc, archbishop from Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, key figure in Union of Brest
• Andrea Andreani, Italian engraver
• William Camden, historian