{{year nav|
Year '1612' ('
MDCXII') was a
leap year starting on Sunday of the
Gregorian calendar (or a
leap year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower
Julian calendar).
Events of 1612
January - June
★
January 20 -
November 4 - Popular uprising in
Moscow expels Polish troops.
★
March 2 -
False Dmitry III is recognised as tsar by the Cossacks.
★
May 10 -
Shah Jahan marries
Mumtaz Mahal.
★
May 23/
25 -
Sicilian-
Neapolitan galley fleet defeats
Tunisians at La Goulette.
July - December
★
November 30 -
Battle of Swally: Forces of the
British East India Company and
Portugal engage off the coast of
India, which the
British win.
★
December 28 -
Galileo Galilei becomes the first
astronomer to observe the
planet Neptune when it was in
conjunction with
Jupiter, yet he mistakenly catalogued it as a
fixed star because of its extremely slow motion along the
ecliptic. Neptune was not truly discovered until
1846, about 234 years after Galileo first sighted it with his
telescope.
Undated
★ Jamestown:
John Rolfe exports first crop of improved tobacco (seeds from
Trinidad).
★ The
Pendle witch trials are held in
Pendle,
Lancashire.
★
Axel Oxenstierna becomes
Lord High Chancellor of Sweden.
★
Nagoya Castle is completed.
★
Thomas Shelton's English translation of the first half of ''
Don Quixote'' is published. It is the first translation of the Spanish novel into any language.
Births
★
January 17 -
Thomas Fairfax, English Civil War general (died
1671)
★
February 6 -
Antoine Arnauld, French theologian (died
1694)
★
February 15 -
Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, French colonial missionary and first governor of Montréal (died
1676)
★
February 22 -
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, English statesman (died
1677)
★
February 28 -
John Pearson, English theologian (died
1686)
★
June 16 -
Murad IV,
Ottoman Sultan (died
1640)
★
June 23 -
André Tacquet, Belgian mathematician (died
1660)
★
June 25 -
John Albert Vasa, Polish bishop (died
1634)
★
August 28 -
Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (died
1653)
★
November 17 -
Dorgon, Manchu prince (died
1650)
★
December 4 -
Samuel Butler, English satirist (died
1680)
★
December 12 -
Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine (died
1670)
★ ''date unknown'' -
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish soldier (died
1650)
: ''See also .''
Deaths
★
January 20 -
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (born
1552)
★
February 12 -
Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (born
1538)
★
April 11 -
Emanuel van Meteren, Flemish historian (born
1535)
★
April 11 -
Edward Wightman, English Baptist preacher (burned at the stake) (born
1566)
★
May 24 -
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and spymaster (born
1563)
★
June 8 -
Hans Leo Hassler, German composer (born
1562)
★
July 29 -
Jacques Bongars, French scholar and diplomat (born
1554)
★
August 4 -
Hugh Broughton, English scholar (born
1549)
★
August 12 -
Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer (born c.
1554)
★
September 9 -
Nakagawa Hidenari, Japanese warlord (born
1570)
★
September 12 - Tsar
Vasili IV of Russia (born
1552)
★
October 7 -
Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet (born
1538)
★
November 6 -
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (born
1594)
★
November 12 -
John Harington, English writer (born
1561)
: ''See also .''