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China. A series of harsh winters kills millions of orange and mandarin trees that had thrived for centuries.

Delft, Netherlands. A giant gunpowder depot explodes near the port, causing fires throughout the city, which takes several years to recover from the disaster.

The Jesuit Giovanni Battista Riccioli published the Almagestum Novum in which he described the lunar topology and distinguished between mountains and plains, introducing many place names still in use today, such as Mare Tranquilitatis, where three centuries later the Apollo 11 mission would arrive, carrying

After the execution of Charles I, the English engaged in heated discussions about desirable forms of government. Many cited the example of the Venetian Republic, with its centuries-long institutions, its curbing of violence, its freedom, its recourse to voting and debate. Their arguments would return

King Charles I is beheaded in England. Civil war had raged since 1642, pitting “knights” against “roundheads” (those without the heavy curls that were fashionable among the aristocracy). The nobility was almost entirely behind the king, while the merchant bourgeoisie, artisans, and small landowners sided

Brazil: Battle of Guarapes where the Portuguese face the Dutch invaders

George Fox has the divine illumination that will lead him to found the Quackers sect.

English Civil War

Fermat wrote to the French monk Marin Mersenne that he had discovered that prime numbers, such as 5, 13, 17, and 29, which, when divided by 4, yield a remainder of 1, can always be written as the sum of two squares. This fact is

India. The English obtain a trading concession in Madras. Then in 1674 they obtain another in what will become Bombay (and later Mumbay), then in 1690 in Fort William (Calcutta). It is a globalization ante litteram: high-quality Asian products flow into Europe in large quantities.

Manila. Trade with China, after several unsuccessful seasons of silver shipments from Acapulco, is stagnant. Hundreds of Chinese traders in the Manila ghetto set fire to the house of Luis Arias de Mora, the agricultural administrator and former Chinese Protector appointed by the Spanish. They

Galileo Galilei publishes “Dialogues on Two New Sciences”

Galileo Galilei, convinced that the speed of light is finite, proposes a method to measure it by synchronizing the flashes of two lanterns on two very distant hills (obviously he fails, since the speed of light is finite, but much higher than he believed).

Fermat discovers the amicable numbers 17296 and 18416 (i.e., numbers for which the sum of the divisors of one equals the other and vice versa).

The Modena Military Academy, one of the most important princely palaces of the 17th century, was built starting in 1634 on the site of the ancient Este castle, which in the Middle Ages stood on the edge of the city. Only following the expansion of

In Japan 300,000 Christians were exterminated, among them many Jesuits and many samurai.

Amsterdam. Birth of the Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza.

Rome. Architect and engineer Giovanni Branca publishes Le Macchine (The Machines), with 77 woodcuts of mechanical devices. One of them (the 25th) is a rotating steam engine for pulverizing gunpowder. It was probably never built; it was merely a thought experiment. There is also another

René Descartes, aka Descartes, moved to the Netherlands, chosen for its climate and reputation for tolerance. He remained in correspondence with several Frenchmen, however. His main correspondent was the Franciscan friar Marinus Mersenne.

William Harvey describes the circulation of the blood in the treatise Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus

Kepler publishes the Rudolphine Tables, a compilation of data from 30 years of observations made by his mentor Tycho Brahe

Highgate, England. Francis Bacon dies. He is considered the first to establish an important idea: in the process of determining laws, negative cases outweigh positive ones. The laws of nature cannot be conclusively verified, but they can, however, be conclusively falsified.

Southern China, near Macau. The Jesuit Adriano de las Cortes, captured as a shipwreck survivor by the Chinese, asks for cold water to drink. After several gestures, they bring him hot water, which the Chinese consider healthier than cold water. He continues to gesture, and

The Ottomans were invaded from the east by the armies of Shah Abbas I, who conquered Baghdad. The ensuing war would continue until 1639.

Johannes Kepler’s mother, Katharina Guldenmann, was imprisoned on charges of witchcraft. Kepler abandoned his career as an astronomer (and astrologer) to become his mother’s defense attorney, winning the case the following year. However, Katharina Guldenmann died shortly after being released from prison.

During the Thirty Years’ War, starvation spread through the countryside in the wake of soldiers marching because of looting to feed the armies; the potato would solve this problem, being able to be picked directly from the ground without being stored, thus avoiding raids.

Thirty Years’ War between Catholics and Protestants and the occupation of Northern France by the English. France, England, Germany, Benelux, Italy, Spain are involved. With the Thirty Years’ War, the Holy Roman Empire in Northern Italy ends.

Indonesia. The Dutch pursue a policy of seeking a monopoly on spices in the area through direct control of production, which entails territorial occupation, carried out by the implacable Jan Pieterszoon Coen. Within ten years, the English were completely expelled, their agencies closed, local populations

Dutch traders begin growing coffee, using seedlings obtained in Yemen.

From Galileo to Newton, the step is short! And the world thanks:Cromwell, Newton, Halley, Francis Drake, Queen Elizabeth; the British Empire is born: colonization of North America, the Indies, and Australia

The Dutch mathematician Willebrord Snell van Royen (known as Snellius) develops the method of triangulation for cartography and geodesy.

Angelo Sala, a Venetian physician, first noted the natural blackening of silver nitrate when exposed to sunlight. A century later, silver salts were used to permanently blacken feathers and furs, and in 1727, Johann Heinrich Schulze of Magdeburg created photographic images of words by placing

Mutineers abandon Hudson at sea. The crew of the Discovery, starving after a winter trapped in Hudson Bay, mutinied, abandoning English captain Henry Hudson and eight others in a lifeboat and never hearing from them again. Hudson had made four expeditions to the New World,

Henry IV, King of France, is assassinated; his wife Marie de’ Medici ascends the throne.

Johannes Kepler noted, in his Dissertation on the Sidereal Messenger, that there was a problem with assuming an infinite world, due to what would become known as Olbers’ Paradox: the brightness of the stars would make the night sky bright, not dark. In reality, we

Galileo publishes Sidereus Nuncius in which he announces his discoveries regarding the Medicean satellites of Jupiter.

Caravaggio dies in Port’Ercole, after having killed Ranuccio da Terni in a brawl four years earlier and then being pardoned by the Pope

The last execution of a witch in the Netherlands. In England it will be in 1685, in Scandinavia in 1699, in France in 1745, in Germany in 1775, in Poland in 1793.

Germany. Astronomer Simon Marius first wrote about his observation of Jupiter’s four Medicean satellites, the day after Galileo Galilei. Their current names—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—were coined by Simon Marius.

Galileo Galilei: observation of Jupiter’s Medici satellites. He initially called them the Stars of Cosimo, but the name was later extended to include the four Medici brothers, one for each satellite: Cosimo, Francesco, Carlo, and Lorenzo. Simon Marius would coin the names Io, Europa, Ganymede,

Germany. Astronomer Simon Marius first observed Jupiter’s four Medicean moons, a few weeks before Galileo Galilei, and gave them their current names: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Simon Marius, however, began tracking these observations on December 29, 1609, according to the Julian calendar used in

Johannes Kepler: “Astronomia Nova”: I, II Kepler’s Law with the elliptical orbit of Mars

William Shakespeare ends “All’s Well that Ends Well”

Holland. The young Delft lawyer, Huig De Groot (Grotius), publishes his masterpiece: Mare Liberum (The Freedom of the Seas), in which he argues for the Dutch right to participate in the East Indies trade. The right to trade is established, and from then on it

Hans Lipperhey patents the “spy glasses,” the optical system that will become the basis of astronomical telescopes.

Hans Lippershey invents the telescope

William Shakespeare finishes “The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra”

The English, upon the return of James Lancaster’s mission, immediately launched a second mission, under the command of Henry Middleton. This time, the English chose a collision course with the Dutch. They arrived in Indonesia just as van der Haghen arrived, but the Dutch were

Venice lost a dozen carracks (large ships) to Spanish-paid privateers, and another dozen to pirates from the northern seas. The English added insult to injury, also competing with the Venetians with cheaper cotton, wine, and fruit.

The Portuguese Empire extends to Brazil, the Atlantic Islands, the African coast, the Indian coast, Indonesia, and Macau.

Thomas Hariot finds the formula for calculating the area of a triangle in spherical geometry

Netherlands. A drastic and far-sighted government intervention put an end to the chaos of the expeditions to the Indies and established, in the form of a joint-stock company, the Verenigde Oost Indische Compagnie (East India Company). This company was granted an exclusive monopoly on the

Netherlands. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) is founded, which will conquer Indonesia. It is the first multinational joint-stock company. It is a federation of six regional chambers: Amsterdam, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Middleburg, Rotterdam, and Delft.

The English, having formed the East India Company (a joint-stock company like its Dutch counterpart), after two consecutive voyages that ended in disaster, made their first successful voyage. Under the command of James Lancaster, they headed directly for the Sultanate of Aceh in Sumatra, the

In the first decade of the 17th century, 20 English ships sailed to Asia, while 59 Dutch ships took the same route. In the following decade, the proportions remained the same, but the numbers exploded: 53 English ships and 148 Dutch ships.

Jubilee celebrated by Clement VIII

William Shakespeare finishes “Julius Caesar” (The Life and Death of Julius Caesar)

The Dutch are the first Europeans to set foot in Bali, Indonesia.

Ferrara. Upon the death of Alfonso II d’Este, Cesare d’Este proclaimed himself Duke of Ferrara on October 29, 1597, despite a papal clause forbidding it. The Pope was greatly annoyed and sent an army of thirty thousand soldiers. Cesare d’Este was forced to bow his

The Duke of Ferrara, Modena (Modona), and Reggio, Alfonso II d’Este, dies. He hasn’t fathered an heir, and appoints Cesare d’Este, son of the Marquis of Montecchio, a lateral branch of the family, as his successor. He proclaims himself Duke of Ferrara on October 29,

Holland. Second great Dutch expedition to the Indies: eight ships commanded by Jacob van Neck. It brought home 10 tons of pepper, as well as nutmeg, mace, and cloves. Its arrival in the port of Amsterdam is immortalized in Hendrick Vroom’s painting “The Return of

Giordano Bruno is handed over from Venice to the Roman Inquisition. A trial begins in Rome that will last seven years.

Giordano Bruno is imprisoned for his ideas in the prisons of the Inquisition of Venice, after having unwisely accepted the Doge’s invitation to visit the city.

Galileo Galilei became a professor of mathematics at the University of Padua and held the chair for 18 years.

Japan, led by shogun Hideyoshi, invades Korea, bringing with it tens of thousands of arquebuses crafted by Japanese blacksmiths. This art had been learned from Europeans only a few decades earlier. The invasion was short-lived, thanks to Chinese intervention on the Koreans’ behalf.

Galileo Galilei becomes professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa

The English Armada, or Counter Armada, led by Francis Drake, attempts, building on the previous year’s success, a counterattack against Spain. The mission fails with heavy losses on the English side. The mission aimed to destroy the Spanish fleet, land in Lisbon and spark a

The first written documentation (by Carolus Clusius) of the existence of the potato on the European continent, comes from Peru.

The Spanish Armada is destroyed in a naval battle with Elizabeth Tudor’s English fleet; the attack with fireships disrupts the Spanish ranks, with a third of the fleet and half the men never returning to Spain. English domination of the seas begins.

The Wabanaki American Indians were among the first to make contact with English, Dutch, and French settlers in what is now New England in the United States and New Brunswick in Canada. Contacts were initially friendly, and some Wabanaki learned English and traveled to Europe

Virginia Dare was the first American citizen born on North American soil (the future United States of America). She was born in Roanoke, Virginia. An initial expedition to establish a permanent colony, which failed, was led by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1583. It is noteworthy

Approximate date of writing of the Voynich Codex, an original 234-page manuscript found in the heart of Europe in 1912, written in a never-deciphered code, concerning botany, female anatomy and astrology; recent studies consider it a laborious medieval hoax

Saturday. Queen Mary Queen of Scots enters the crowded court chamber at Fotheringhay Castle. The throne of Queen Elizabeth, her archenemy, is empty. Mary Queen of Scots is being tried for treason. She is accused of plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth so she could seize

John Davis discovers Baffin Bay while searching for the Northwest Passage

Paraguay, the Jesuits founded the Reducciones de Indios (indigenous communities).

Simone Stevino, of Brugge, establishes the rules for solving equations of degree higher than the third)

Introduction to fractions

Giordano Bruno hypothesizes that the Sun is a star, like the others seen in the sky.

Period of time erased by Pope Gregory XIII to realign the Catholic calendar with the celestial one

Philip II of Spain annexes Portugal and its colonies. Spain’s naval and military power is at its peak. A truly global empire: from Ireland to Sumatra and much of the Americas. The only empire capable of countering this power is the Ottoman Empire. This Spanish