1612

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 Pendle Witches in Pendle, Lancashire is held.
• November 30 - Forces of the British East India Company and Portugal engage in the Battle of Swally off the coast of India, which the British win.
• 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

• January 17 - Thomas Fairfax, English Civil War general (d. 1671)
• February 22 - George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, English statesman (d. 1677)
• February 28 - John Pearson, English theologian (d. 1686)
• June 16 - Murad IV, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1640)
• June 23 - André Tacquet, Belgian mathematician (d. 1660)
• June 25 - John Albert Vasa, Polish bishop (d. 1634)
• August 28 - Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (d. 1653)
• November 17 - Dorgon, Manchu prince (d. 1650)
• December 4 - Samuel Butler, English satirist (d. 1680)
• December 12 - Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1670)
• Antoine Arnauld, French theologian (d. 1694)
• Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, French colonial missionary and first governor of Montréal (d. 1676)
• James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish soldier (d. 1650)

See also Category:1612 births.

Deaths

• January 20 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1552)
• February 12 - Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1538)
• April 11 - Emanuel van Meteren, Flemish historian (b. 1535)
• April 11 - Edward Wightman, English Baptist preacher (burned at the stake) (b. 1566)
• May 24 - Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and spymaster (b. 1563)
• June 8 - Hans Leo Hassler, German composer (b. 1562)
• July 29 - Jacques Bongars, French scholar and diplomat (b. 1554)
• August 4 - Hugh Broughton, English scholar (b. 1549)
• August 12 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer
• September 9 - Nakagawa Hidenari, Japanese warlord (b. 1570)
• September 12 - Tsar Vasili IV of Russia (b. 1552)
• October 7 - Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet (b. 1538)
• November 6 - Henry, Prince of Wales (b. 1594)
• November 12 - John Harington, English writer (b. 1561)

See also Category:1612 deaths.