| January 1 | Papal Chancery adopts Jan 1 as beginning of the year (was Mar 25) |
| January 6 | Pope Gregory XV forms Congregatio the Propagande Fide |
| January 7 | Germany and Transylvania sign Peace of Nikolsburg |
| February 8 | King James I disbands the English parliament |
| March 12 | Ignatius of Loyola declared a saint |
| March 22 | 1st Indian (Powhattan) massacre of whites Jamestown, Virginia; 347 slain |
| August 10 | County Maine appended on John Mason/Fernandino Gorges |
| September 5 | Richelieu becomes cardinal |
| September 6 | Spanish silver fleet disappears off Florida Keys; 1,000s die |
| October 18 | French King Louis XIII and Huguenots sign treaty of Montpellier |
