1608 : definition of 1608 and synonyms of 1608 (English)

This article is about the year 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

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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
- 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 arrivies 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 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 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 ..."

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)

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 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)
- Laurence Tomson, English Calvinist theologian (b. 1539)
- Fiodor Trubetsky, Polish prince

^ "First Germans at Jamestown 1" (history), Davitt Publications, 2000, webpage: GHfirst.