Dutch defeat the Portuguese in a naval battle in the Indonesian Archipelago (the Spice Islands).
Queen Elizabeth dies at age 69. She is succeeded by a Calvinist and devout Presbyterian, King James VI of Scotland, eldest son of Elizabeth's cousin, Mary I, Queen of Scots.
Iranian army defeats an Ottoman army of greater size.
The Dutch defeat a Spanish fleet at Gibraltar.
Frenchmen interested in trading with the Indians and in animal furs build a settlement at Quebec.
The Dutch East India Company builds a factory on India's coast in the southeast,
The first barrels of cured tobacco reach England from the colony of Virginia.
William Shakespeare dies
The Pilgrims in Massachusetts have a meal with the Wompanoag chieftain(Thanksgiving
The Holy Roman Empire is burning hundreds of people being accused of being witches.
The town of Boston is founded.
Roger Williams arrives in what today is Rhode Island
France enters the Thirty Years' War against Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.
A raid by Pequot Indians kills 600 members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
A fort is founded at what today is Montreal.
Cromwell defeats Scottish armies
A war begins between the English and Dutch, inspired by commercial competition.
Under diplomatic pressure from the Dutch, British and Venetians, the Ottomans sign the Treaty of Karlowitz – a dictated treaty.