1612

Years: 1609 1610 1611 - 1612 - 1613 1614 1615
Decades: 1580s 1590s 1600s - 1610s - 1620s 1630s 1640s
Centuries: 16th century - 17th century - 18th century

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 witches in Pendle, Lancashire is held.
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.

Antoine Arnauld, French theologian (d. 1694)
Anne Bradstreet, English-born American poet (d. 1672)
Samuel Butler, English satirist (d. 1680)
Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, French colonial missionary and first governor of Montréal (d. 1676)
Thomas Fairfax, English general, commander in chief of the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War (d. 1671)
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish soldier (d. 1650)
Saskia van Uylenburg, wife of Rembrandt van Rijn (d. 1642)