1608

Events of 1608

January - At Jamestown, Virginia, Christopher Newport returns in a ship with the first supply and about 100 new settlers: he finds only 38 survivors.
January - Jamestown: Powhatan releases John Smith.
January 7 - Fire destroys "all the houses in the fort" at Jamestown, Virginia. The fort is repaired in March.
March 18 - Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.
April 10 - Jamestown: Christopher Newport again sails for England.
May 14 - Protestant Union is founded in Auhausen.

July 3 - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain.
July 30 - At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
July - English ship Mary and Margaret captained by Christopher Newport leaves England bound for Jamestown, Virginia.

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 - Founding of the University of Oviedo, Spain.
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.
Year end - 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

January - Nikita Kosoj Trubetsky, Polish Prince
January 29 - Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1557)
February 13 - Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, Lithuanian prince (b. 1526)
February 13 - Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury (b. 1527)
February 26 - John Still, English bishop (b. c1543)
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 13 - Giambologna, Italian sculptor (b. 1529)
October 11 - Giovanni Ambrogio Figino, Italian painter (b. c1549)
October 19