1608
| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
|---|---|
| Centuries: | 16th century – 17th century – 18th century |
| Decades: | 1570s 1580s 1590s – 1600s – 1610s 1620s 1630s |
| Years: | 1605 1606 1607 – 1608 – 1609 1610 1611 |
| 1608 by topic: | |
| Arts and Science | |
| Architecture - Art - Literature - Music - Science | |
| Lists of leaders | |
| Colonial governors - State leaders | |
| Birth and death categories | |
| Births - Deaths | |
| Establishments and disestablishments categories | |
| Establishments - Disestablishments | |
| Works category | |
| Works | |
| Gregorian calendar | 1608 MDCVIII |
| Ab urbe condita | 2361 |
| Armenian calendar | 1057 ԹՎ ՌԾԷ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6358 |
| Bengali calendar | 1015 |
| Berber calendar | 2558 |
| English Regnal year | 5 Ja. 1 – 6 Ja. 1 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2152 |
| Burmese calendar | 970 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7116–7117 |
| Chinese calendar | 丁未年 (Fire Goat) 4304 or 4244 — to — 戊申年 (Earth Monkey) 4305 or 4245 |
| Coptic calendar | 1324–1325 |
| Discordian calendar | 2774 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1600–1601 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5368–5369 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 1664–1665 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1530–1531 |
| - Kali Yuga | 4709–4710 |
| Holocene calendar | 11608 |
| Igbo calendar | 608–609 |
| Iranian calendar | 986–987 |
| Islamic calendar | 1016–1017 |
| Japanese calendar | Keichō 13 (慶長１３年) |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 10 days |
| Korean calendar | 3941 |
| Minguo calendar | 304 before ROC 民前304年 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2150–2151 |
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Year 1608 (MDCVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.
Events
January–June
- January
- At Jamestown, Virginia, Christopher Newport returns in a ship with the First Supply and about 100 new settlers; he finds only 38 survivors.
- Powhatan releases Captain John Smith.
- January 7 – Fire destroys "all the houses in the fort" at Jamestown; the fort is repaired in March.
- January 8 – Ensign Thomas Savage arrives in Jamestown with the First Supply under Christopher Newport.
- January 17 – Emperor Susenyos of Ethiopia defeats an Oromo army at Ebenat; 12,000 Oromo are reportedly killed at a cost of 400 Amhara.
- March 18 – Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia at the ancient city of Axum.
- April 10 – Jamestown, Virginia: Christopher Newport again sails for England.
- May 14 – The Protestant Union is founded in Auhausen.
July–December
- July 3 – Quebec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain.
- July – The English ship Mary and Margaret, captained by Christopher Newport, leaves England bound for Jamestown, Virginia.[1]
- August 24 – The first official English representative to India, Captain William Hawkins, lands at Surat.
- September 10 – John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, and begins expanding the fort.
- September 21 – The University of Oviedo, Spain is founded.
- October 1 – At Jamestown, a second supply ship, the Mary and Margaret, arrives with Christopher Newport, including 70 settlers, bringing the population back up to 120; the passengers include 8 glassmen.
- October 2 – Dutch lens maker Hans Lippershey demonstrates the first telescope in the Dutch parliament.
- December – Jamestown: Christopher Newport returns to England carrying cargo with "tryals of Pitch, Tarre, Glasse, Frankincense, Sope Ashes ..."
Date unknown
- The first cheques are used in the Netherlands.
- Old Bushmills Distillery is founded in Bushmills, County Antrim, Ireland.
- Uniform Land-Tax Law is imposed in Korea.
- Five Royal Schools in Ulster are given Royal Charter by King James I
Births
- January 28 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (d. 1679)
- February 6 – Antonio Vieira, Portuguese writer (d. 1697)
- April 25 – Gaston, Duke of Orléans, third son of King Henry IV of France (d. 1660)
- June – Richard Fanshawe, English diplomat (d. 1666)
- July 13 – Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1657)
- July 14 – George Goring, Lord Goring, English Royalist soldier (d. 1657)
- October 15 – Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician (d. 1647)
- December 6 – George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English soldier (d. 1670)
- December 9 – John Milton, English poet (d. 1674)
- date unknown
- Daniello Bartoli, Italian Jesuit priest (d. 1685)
- John Desborough, English soldier and politician (d. 1680)
- Thomas Fuller, English churchman and historian (d. 1661)
- Edward Rainbowe, English clergyman and a preacher (d. 1684)
- Eudoxia Streshneva, Tsarina of Mikhail I of Russia (d. 1645)
- Torii Tadaharu, Japanese nobleman (d. 1651)
Deaths
- January 29 – Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1557)
- February 13 – Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, Lithuanian prince (b. 1526)
- February 26 – John Still, English bishop (b. c. 1543)
- March 12 – Koriki Kiyonaga, Japanese warlord (b. 1530)
- April 19 – Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, English statesman and poet (b. 1536)
- May 14 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1543)
- June 19 – Alberico Gentili, Italian jurist (b. 1551)
- July 18 – Joachim Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1546)
- August 1 – Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (b. 1575)
- August 13 – Giambologna, Italian sculptor (b. 1529)
- October 11 – Giovanni Ambrogio Figino, Italian painter (b. c. 1549)
- October 17 – Laurence Tomson, English Calvinist theologian (b. 1539)
- October 19
- Martin Delrio, Flemish theologian and occultist (b. 1551)
- Geoffrey Fenton, English writer and politician (b. c. 1539)
- December
- John Dee, British mathematician, astronomer, and geographer (b. 1527)
- William Davison, secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. c. 1541)
- date unknown
- George Bannatyne, collector of Scottish poems (b. 1545)
- William Barclay, Scottish jurist (b. 1546)
- Luca Bati, Italian composer (b. 1546)