From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids
1620 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).
Events
- September 6 - English emigrants on the Mayflower depart from Plymouth, England for the future New England and arrive at the end of the year. The Mayflower Compact is signed on November 11.
- September 17 to October 7 - The Battle of Cecora between Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth-Moldavian troops and the Ottoman Empire, ending in a major victory for the Ottomans.
- November 8 - The Battle of White Mountain, the first battle in the Thirty Years' War, takes place near Prague, ending in a decisive Catholic victory in only two hours.
- Francis Bacon publishes the Novum Organum
- Two officers of the British East India Company attempt to claim the Table Mountain region (in present-day South Africa) for England, but fail.
- Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada restores Osaka Castle. Its current appearance dates from this remodeling.
- Modern violin
- Witch hunts begin in Scotland.
- Cornelius Drebbel builds an undersea boat.
- J.P.Donnet, teacher of deaf children in the Spanish court, creates sign alphabet.
- Bonesetting becomes a science.
Births
- February 4 - Gustaf Bonde, Swedish statesman (d. 1667)
- February 15 - François Charpentier, French archaeologist (d. 1702)
- February 16 - Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg (d. 1688)
- March 12 - Johann Heinrich Hottinger, Swiss philologist and theologian (d. 1667)
- July 20 - Nikolaes Heinsius, Dutch scholar (d. 1691)
- July 21 - Jean Picard, French astronomer (d. 1682)
- October 1 - Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (d. 1683)
- October 20 - Aelbert Cuyp, Dutch painter (d. 1691)
- October 31 - John Evelyn, English diarist and writer (d. 1706)
- November 20 - Peregrine White, first English child born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (d. 1704)
- December 18 - Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar (d. 1668)
See also Category:1620 births.
Deaths
- February 19 - Roemer Visscher, Dutch writer (b. 1547)
- March 1 - Thomas Campion, English poet and composer (b. 1567)
- March 17 - St. John Sarkander, Moravian priest, died of injuries caused by torturing (born 1576)
- March 25 - Johannes Nucius, German composer (born c1556)
- May 6 - Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, Palestinian-born Kabbalist (b. 1543)
- May 16 - William Adams, English navigator and samurai (b. 1564)
- August 18 - Wanli Emperor of China (b. 1563)
- September 26 - Taichang Emperor of China (b. 1582)
- October 7 - Stanisław Żółkiewski, Polish military leader (b. 1547)
See also Category:1620 deaths.