1608 Explained

Year 1608 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1608

January
- At Jamestown, Virginia, Christopher Newport returns in a ship with the first supply and about 100 new settlers; he finds only 38 survivors.
- Powhatan releases Captain John Smith of Jamestown.
January 7 - Fire destroys "all the houses in the fort" at Jamestown, Virginia; the fort is repaired in March.
March 18 - Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.
April 10 - Jamestown: Christopher Newport again sails for England.
May 14 - The Protestant Union is founded in Auhausen.

July 3 - Quebec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain.
July - The English ship Mary and Margaret, captained by Christopher Newport, leaves England bound for Jamestown, Virginia.^[1]
August 24 - The first official English representative to India lands at Surat.
September 10 - John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, and begins expanding the fort.
September 21 - The University of Oviedo, Spain is founded.
October 1 - At Jamestown, a second supply ship, the Mary and Margaret, arrives with Christopher Newport, including 70 settlers, bringing the population back up to 120; the passengers include 8 glassmen.
October 2 - Dutch lens maker Hans Lippershey demonstrates the first telescope in the Dutch parliament.
December - Jamestown: Christopher Newport returns to England carrying cargo with "tryals of Pitch, Tarre, Glasse, Frankincense, Sope Ashes ..."

January 28 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (d. 1679)
February 6 - Antonio Vieira, Portuguese writer (d. 1697)
April 25 - Gaston, Duke of Orléans, third son of King Henry IV of France (d. 1660)
June - Richard Fanshawe, English diplomat (d. 1666)
July 13 - Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1657)
July 14 - George Goring, Lord Goring, English Royalist soldier (d. 1657)
October 15 - Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician (d. 1647)
December 6 - George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English soldier (d. 1670)
December 9 - John Milton, English poet (d. 1674)
date unknown
- Daniello Bartoli, Italian Jesuit priest (d. 1685)
- John Desborough, English soldier and politician (d. 1680)
- Thomas Fuller, English churchman and historian (d. 1661)
- Edward Rainbowe, English clergyman and a preacher (d. 1684)
- Eudoxia Streshneva, Tsarina of Mikhail I of Russia (d. 1645)
- Torii Tadaharu, Japanese nobleman (d. 1651)

January 29 - Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1557)
February 13
- Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, Lithuanian prince (b. 1526)
- Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury (b. 1527)
February 26 - John Still, English bishop (b. c. 1543)
March 12 - Koriki Kiyonaga, Japanese warlord (b. 1530)
April 19 - Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, English statesman and poet (b. 1536)
May 14 - Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1543)
June 19 - Alberico Gentili, Italian jurist (b. 1551)
July 18 - Joachim Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1546)
August 1 - Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (b. 1575)
August 13 - Giambologna, Italian sculptor (b. 1529)
October 11 - Giovanni Ambrogio Figino, Italian painter (b. c. 1549)
October 19
- Martin Delrio, Flemish theologian and occultist (b. 1551)
- Geoffrey Fenton, English writer and politician (b. c. 1539)
December
- John Dee, British mathematician, astronomer, and geographer (b. 1527)
- William Davison, secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. c. 1541)
date unknown
- George Bannatyne, collector of Scottish poems (b. 1545)
- William Barclay, Scottish jurist (b. 1546)
- Luca Bati, Italian composer (b. 1546)
- Laurence Tomson, English Calvinist theologian (b. 1539)
- Fiodor Trubetsky, Polish prince
- Edmund Whitelocke, English soldier and courtier (b. 1565)

"first Germans at Jamestown 1" (history), Davitt Publications, 2000, webpage: GHfirst.