| January 24 | Jacques Le Maire discovers Street Lemaire/Cape Receiver |
| February 26 | Spanish Inquisition delivers injunction to Galileo |
| March 5 | Copernicus' "de Revolutionibus" placed on Catholic Forbidden index |
| March 20 | Walter Raleigh released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana |
| April 23 | Netherlands buys De Briel/Vlissingen/Fort Rammekens from England |
| April 30 | English King Jacob I leaves Brielle/Vlissingen |
| May 3 | Treaty of Loudun kills French civil war |
| October 25 | VOC-ship "The Eendracht" discovers Dirk-Hartogeiland, Australia |
| November 20 | Bishop Richelieu becomes French minister of Foreign affairs/War |
