1620

Year 1620 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1620

February 4 - Prince Bethlen Gabor signs a peace treaty with Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor.
May 17 - The first merry-go-round is seen at a fair (Philippapolis, Turkey).
June 3 - The oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, is begun at Quebec City, Quebec Canada.

July 3 - Under the terms of the Treaty of Ulm, the Protestant Union declares neutrality and ceases to support Frederick V of Bohemia.
July 15 - The ship Speedwell departs Delfshaven with the Leiden colonists and Pilgrims.
August 5 (O.S.) - The Mayflower and Speedwell depart together from Plymouth, England, but the Speedwell starts to leak again and must stop.
August 7 - The mother of Johannes Kepler is arrested for witchcraft.
August 7 - Battle of Les Ponts-de-Cé, Poitou: French king Louis XIII defeats his mother Marie de' Medici.
September 6 (O.S.) - The Mayflower departs from Plymouth, England, on its 3rd attempt without the Speedwell, arriving on November 11 (Old Style date) at Cape Cod (named from Concord voyage of 1602).
September 17 to October 7 - Battle of Cecora: The Ottoman Empire defeats Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth-Moldavian troops.

November 3 - The Great Patent is granted to Plymouth Colony.
November 8 - Thirty Years' War - Battle of White Mountain: Catholic forces are victorious in only two hours near Prague.
November 21 (N.S.) - The Mayflower arrives inside the tip of Cape Cod, with the Pilgrims and Planters.
November 21 - Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact (11 November, O.S.).

Francis Bacon publishes the Novum Organum (beyond Aristotle's Organon) on logical thinking.
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.
The modern violin is developed.
Witch hunts begin in Scotland.

Cornelius Drebbel, at the Thames, builds an undersea boat (history of submarines).
J.P. Donnet, teacher of deaf children in the Spanish court, creates the sign alphabet.
Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) continues (principally on the territory of today's Germany).

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 (injuries caused by torturing) (b. 1576)
March 25 - Johannes Nucius, German composer (b. c. 1556)
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)