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Northern Australia is discovered by the Dutch, in what is now known as Cape York Peninsula.
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In a four-hour battle in the Bay of Gibraltar, thirty Dutch ships caught the Spanish fleet off guard. The Spanish ships, which posed a threat to Dutch trade with Asia, were sunk.
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The London Company establishes Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, in southeast Virginia.
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The Laws of Planetary Motion, written by Johannes Kepler, explain how planets move around the sun.
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François Ravaillac, an insane and very religious assassin, assassinates Henry IV of France, a progressive and religiously liberal king.
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The House of Burgesses, America's first representative assembly, convenes in Virginia for the first time. Slaves from Africa are brought to Jamestown for the first time.
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Pilgrims from England founded the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. The Mayflower Compact, an agreement that forms the foundation of the colony's government, is signed by 41 male passengers upon disembarking from their ship, the Mayflower.
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The English take control of New Amsterdam (city and colony) and call it New York.