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Isaac Newton demonstrates that white light is composed of many colors that can be separated by a prism.

Trinity College, Cambridge. Sir Isaac Newton is promoted to scholar, or doctoral candidate.

The English occupied the colony of New Netherland, whose capital, New Amsterdam, was located in the great estuary of the Hudson River, on the island the natives called Manhattan (Island with Hills). It had been founded in 1624. The English renamed it New York, in

Count Miklos Zrinyi the Younger, after a victorious campaign to harass the Ottomans, retreats to Croatia, confident that he will be able to return in the spring.

After the Ottoman advance on Vienna, Count Miklos Zrinyi the Younger, grandson of the heroic defender of Szigetvar in 1566, launched continuous attacks on Ottoman lines of communication and supply. He mustered thirty thousand men and succeeded in besieging the Turkish besiegers of Szigetvar, taking

The méthode champenoise was invented in England and registered in the proceedings of the Royal Society. It was then commercialized several years later in France by Dom Pérignon.

Opium consumption (in a solution with tobacco, called madak) was spread by the Dutch to their colony in Taiwan. From there, within a few years, it spread to China, and by the 18th century, opium was being smoked directly. China’s addiction to opium was exploited

England, reign of Charles II Stuart who restores the old monarchical-parliamentary institutions

Modena. Laura Martinozzi, mother of the future Duke Francesco II and temporary administrator of the duchy, gives birth to a daughter, hers and Alfonso IV: Maria Beatrice d’Este, who, at the suggestion of the King of France, Louis XIV, would become Queen consort of England,

European scholars publish the first transcriptions of cuneiform, rediscovered only in 1618 by the Spanish ambassador to Persia. Local populations had always had this script before their eyes for at least three millennia, but no one, as far as we know, had ever bothered to

Cretan War. Second Venetian victory in the Dardanelles, in two consecutive years. According to Hammer, a historian of the Ottoman Empire, it was the worst Ottoman defeat since Lepanto.

John Wallis, in Arithmetica Infinitorum, anticipates infinitesimal calculus.

Christian Huygens publishes the discovery of Titan in “Saturni luna observatio nova”

Cretan War. Venetian victory in the Dardanelles, at home to the Turks.

Nicolas de Bonnefons, valet to King Louis XIV, wrote the cookbook Les delices de la campagne. It was one of the first cookbooks to replace spices with vegetables and fresh herbs. It also emphasizes the natural flavor of meat. Cloves appear in only 9% of

Brazil: The Dutch surrender and cede control of Northeast Brazil to the Portuguese.

The last letter in the correspondence between Pascal and Fermat on Chance. A few weeks later, Pascal sat in a trance for two hours; some thought it was a mystical experience, others that he had definitively left the planet of sanity. However one interprets this

Pascal, Fermat: Calculus of Probability; the lawyer Pierre de Fermat notes in the margin of the Greek-Latin edition of Diophantus’ Arithmetica his famous last theorem (conjecture)

European cuisine changed dramatically, limiting the use of spices, separating flavors, and popularizing coffee, tea, and chocolate—three beverages that would eventually replace spices due to international trade. Coffee came from Yemen and Ethiopia, tea from Sichuan, China, and chocolate from the Amazon basin and Mexico.

The oversupply of pepper on the European market caused a definitive collapse in its price. By the mid-17th century, the price in London had dropped to 7 pence a pound (12 pence = 1 shilling). Pepper consumption had become widespread, and its trade no longer

Portugal, war of independence from Spain.

Modena. The Jewish ghetto in the current historic center was separated. Jews came in large numbers from Ferrara. In fact, in 1492, the rulers of unified Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, issued an edict expelling all Jews from the country. Jews had already been living in

Eastern slopes of the Andes, South America. Jesuit Father Antonio de Calaucha notes the surprising properties of the “fever tree” in preventing malaria. These trees belong to the Chinchona genus, which produce quinine, an antimalarial. In the following years, the use of quinine spread among

China. The Dominican Angelo Cocchi arrives in a daring manner in Fujian aboard a vessel of Chinese fishermen sailing from Taiwan (which in those years was being abandoned by the Spanish to the Dutch). Indeed, on the first night of the voyage, the Chinese crew,

Netherlands. The painter Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft, where he spent his entire life, producing several dozen works but failing to sell a single one. His wife sold some of them after his death to pay off debts, including one to the baker.

China. The Dominicans began to enter China. They chose the back door, Macau, and the clandestine route. Half a century earlier, the Jesuits had chosen the main door: Fujian, with regular government permits, and learned and adopted local customs and traditions, eventually reaching the Emperor’s

Francis Bacon publishes “Nova Atlantis”

Johannes Kepler publishes De Cometis Libellis Tres

King Philip III of Spain rejects Galileo’s idea of estimating longitude by observing the motion of Jupiter’s Medicean satellites.

Cardinal Robert Bellarmine declares that the Copernican System goes against the Holy Scriptures

Sigurta’ Park opens between Mantua and Verona

Copernicus’ De Rivolutionibus is suspended by the Holy Office of the Church until it is corrected (donec corrigatur)

The Accademia dei Lincei publishes “History and Demonstrations on Sunspots” with the imprimatur of the Church.

Galileo Galilei sighted the planet Neptune a second time, unknowingly. It was discovered only in 1846 by the Berlin Observatory, based on the indications provided by Adams and le Verrier. He noted its position, changed from January 6th, in a different color of ink on

Galileo Galilei sighted the planet Neptune for the first time, unconsciously. It was discovered only in 1846 by the Berlin Observatory, according to indications provided by Adams and le Verrier. On December 27, 1612, Galileo drew the positions of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto in surprising

The Dutch discovered an alternative trade route to the East Indies (present-day Indonesia). After passing the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, the route continued southeast, reaching 40 degrees south to catch favorable winds and currents, and finally turned north to reach Java, completely

Beijing, China. Jesuit Matteo Ricci dies. His tomb is still venerated. He bore the Chinese name of Li Madou, meaning “the sage from the West.” Father Ricci continued Marco Polo’s work, but on a different level: a multi-talented intellectual, a formidable math expert, exceptionally curious,

terrible winter on the East Coast of North America. The (few) settlers of Jamestown, the newly founded town on the James River, are nearly decimated by cold and disease, while the men have mostly died defending the fort from the Powhatan Indians (those of Princess

Indonesia. The Dutch establish a permanent trading post at Bantam, on the western tip of the island of Java.

Rosicrucian movement in France and Germany: a secret society with a Christian religious background; they believe in a superior race, claim to be immortal and invisible, and possess the philosopher’s stone; they are strongly anti-Catholic (anti-papal)

London. The Gunpowder Plot (also known as the Jesuit Treason) deals a mortal blow to the Catholic cause in England. At the opening of Parliament, 36 barrels of gunpowder were hidden in the Westminster vaults, which were intended to blow up the king, his family,

England annexes Scotland

Upon the return of the first major successful English expedition from the Indies, the cargo of pepper, to everyone’s surprise, remained largely unsold. The price began to drop dramatically from 8 shillings a pound to 1 shilling a pound, and even at this eight-fold lower

French explorer Samuel Champlain sailed up the St. Lawrence River toward the Great Lakes and named the region Canada. His goal was to establish a series of trading alliances with the local populations. He encountered the Anadabijou of the Montagnais tribe, and then the Mohawks,

Over 3 million porcelain artefacts were imported by sea by the Dutch VOC in the first half of the 17th century.

The Dutch leaving Holland for Asia aboard the ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) initially numbered 8,500 per year, rising to as many as 40,000 annually by the middle of the century. In total, more than a million people, mostly young men, left

London. Queen Elizabeth I grants the East India Company, a joint-stock company, the rights to manage India. The company was modeled after Dutch ones (which in turn had similarities to Venetian commercial practices, such as issuing bonds). But the East India Company goes further: it

In his treatise De magnete, magneticisque corporibus, William Gilbert describes the magnetic properties of the earth and electricity.

Venice. The monetary reserves, set aside for wartime purposes, are estimated to be 12–14 million gold ducats. During the same years, Western Europe was flooded with enormous quantities of American silver.

The historian David Wooton reminds us of the type of knowledge that a typical educated Englishman had, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution: “He believes witches can summon up storms that sink ships at sea… he believes in werewolves, although there happen not to

William Shakespeare ends “Much Ado About Nothing”

With the Devolution of 1598, Ferrara and the territory vacated by the Este family passed under the direct political and administrative control of the Papal States, under whose rule they remained, with the exception of the Napoleonic period, until 1859, when Ferrara became part of

Don Juan de Onate travels for the first time through the semi-desert Jornada del Muerto region of New Mexico. Five centuries later, the region would be the site of the first nuclear explosion in history.

William Shakespeare finishes “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

Galileo Galilei begins a correspondence with Kepler

René Descartes, commonly known as Descartes, was born in a village in Touraine, now called Haye-Descartes. He studied with the Jesuits and remained a Catholic throughout his life, but chose to spend most of his adult life in Protestant Holland. He wrote his most famous

Holland. Cornelis de Houtman sets sail from Amsterdam for the East Indies, leading a small fleet of four ships financed by the city’s merchants. He will reach Indonesia by sailing directly from the Cape of Good Hope to Java, thus avoiding the Portuguese. Two years

Henry IV abjured Calvinism (his famous phrase, “Paris is well worth a Mass!”), and the following year he entered Paris where he was welcomed as the legitimate king.

Within a century of Christopher Columbus’s arrival, the indigenous population of the Americas had collapsed by 95%, reduced to one-twentieth, due to diseases (especially smallpox) brought by Europeans. At Columbus’s arrival, the Indian population was estimated at 20 million in North America, 20 million in

After his father’s death, Galileo Galilei, with the help of a family friend, Guidobaldo Del Monte, was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Padua in the Republic of Venice.

William Shakespeare finishes “Henry VI” (King Henry The Sixth)

Giordano Bruno adopts the Copernican system, admitting the plurality of universes. There is no star that can be said to be at the center because all positions are relative. Our Earth enjoys no exceptional privilege. For all we know, there could be other intelligent life.

The price of wheat in Europe triples compared to 1580, due to an exceptional shortage in the Mediterranean area.

The Invincible Armada, still at full strength, despite repeated attacks by the Royal Navy, docks at Calais

The Invincible Armada enters the English Channel

A fleet of 130 ships sets sail from Spain under the command of the Duke of Medinia Sidonia to rendezvous with the experienced troops of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, and his 300 troop transports at Dunkirk for the invasion of England; the Invincible Armada

Simon Stevin, in the Principles of Statics, adopts the Parallelogram Rule.

Venice. The Mint is entirely freed from debt after several centuries (Venice itself had, in effect, invented the public debt). The government bonds Monte Novissimo and Monte di Sussidio are completely liquidated, and then it is the turn of the historic Monte Vecchio. Holders of

China. Matteo Ricci was perhaps one of the most successful Jesuits in establishing himself in China, arriving in 1583. He collaborated with Paul Xu at the imperial court. By 1630, a dozen Jesuits had been incorporated into the court.

Typhus epidemic among the Aztecs in Mexico

Tycho Brahe observes a supernova, proving that celestial bodies are not immutable; it is one of two supernovae that have appeared in the vicinity of our star in the last few centuries.

Raffaele Bombelli from Bologna publishes Algebra, where he studies complex numbers.

News of the crushing victory at Lepanto reaches Venice.

The Allied and, above all, Venetian victory at the Battle of Lepanto forced the Turks to halt their westward advance, allowing Venice to maintain control of the Ionian islands (Zakynthos and Corfu in particular) and Dalmatia. But Venice’s allies did not want it to grow

Sunday, late morning. Lepanto, now Greece. After an hour of fighting, the Turkish right and central wings are in disarray. Bragadin, and especially Quirini, carry out a brutal massacre of galleys and crews, who can only escape by fleeing ashore. Barbarigo is struck in the

Corfu. The Ottomans prepare to take the fortress and land on the opposite side of the island, beyond the mountain overlooking it. The Venetians fire their cannons at the Turks at such a high angle that, blindly, the balls clear the mountain and rain down

Budva. Podesta Agostino Pasqualino negotiates surrender with the Ottomans. As soon as they depart, the proveditor Zaccaria Salamon disembarks in Budva, reconquers it, and puts to the sword all the Turks he finds there.

Venetian Marco Quirini casts bait at Ottoman ships off the coast of Cyprus. He sinks three of them. Then, as night falls, he disembarks reinforcements and supplies for Farmagosta: 1,319 soldiers, six cannons, four culverins, 1,400 barrels of gunpowder, and dozens of other artillery pieces

Venice. The Senate votes to accept Zane’s resignation and appoints Sebastiano Venier as his replacement to command the war fleet.

Cyprus. On an Ottoman galleon departing from the island loaded with slaves, mostly young Venetian noblewomen destined as gifts to the sultan. During the transshipment of explosives, a tremendous explosion occurs, sinking the galleon, the galley, and the caramussale alongside, along with their entire human