1606

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Events

January–March

January 9 – The Black Nazarene, a statue, arrives in Manila from Mexico.
January 24 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators, for plotting against Parliament and James I of England, begins in London.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They are hanged, drawn and quartered on January 30–31.
January 29 – Explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós of Portugal, accompanied by a party of 160 men on the ships San Pedro, San Pablo and Los Tres Reyes, leads the first Europeans to discover the Pitcairn Islands.
February 9 – Queirós and his crew discover Mehetia, followed three days later by the Tauere atoll.
February 26 – Sailing on the Dutch ship Duyfken, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon and the crew make the first confirmed sighting of Australia by a European, reaching the Cape York Peninsula, at the Pennefather River near what is now Weipa, Queensland. <ref>Norman Davies, Beneath Another Sky: A Global Journey Into History (Penguin Books, 2017)</ref> The Duyfken follows by exploring the western coast.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
March 19 – Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the Fortezza Vecchia Chapel of Saint Francesco, elevates Livorno to the rank of city.

April–June

April 10 – Charter of 1606: The First Charter of Virginia is adopted, by which King James I of England grants rights to the Virginia Company (comprising the London Company and Plymouth Company) to settle parts of the east coast of North America.
April 12 – The first version of the Union Flag is created,<ref name="Pocket On This Day">Template:Cite book</ref> to be worn as a national flag by English and Scottish ships.
April 17 – Venetian Interdict: Pope Paul V places the Republic of Venice under an interdict, as well as excommunicating Leonardo Donato, the Doge of Venice, and members of the Venetian Senate. <ref>"The Impact of Jacques Gillot's Actes du Concile de Trente (1607) in the Debate Concerning the Council of Trent in France", by Tom Hamilton, in The Council of Trent: Reform and Controversy in Europe and Beyond (1545-1700) (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018) p. 376</ref>
May 1 – Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers the islands of Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides). <ref>William Eisler, The Furthest Shore: Images of Terra Australis from the Middle Ages to Captain Cook (Cambridge University Press, 1995) p.47</ref> Believing them to be Australia, he names them {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
May 17 – Russia's Tsar Dmitry I is assassinated in the Kremlin by supporters of Vasili Shuisky.
May 19 – Vasili Ivanovich Shuisky becomes the new Tsar of Russia as Vasili IV.
June or October – Battle of Cape St. Vincent: An improvised Spanish fleet under Luis Fajardo defeats the Dutch fleet under Willem Haultain.
June 21 – Derviş Mehmed Pasha is appointed the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Ahmed I after Sokolluzade Lala Mehmed Pasha dies of a stroke. Derviş Mehmed serves less than six months before Ahmed suddenly has him executed.
June 22 – By Act of Parliament in England, all Roman Catholics in England become required to swear an oath of allegiance to King James I, a Protestant raised in the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. <ref>W. B. Patterson, King James VI and I and the Reunion of Christendom (Cambridge University Press, 2000) p. 80</ref>
June 23 – A treaty is signed in Vienna between the Archduchy of Austria and the semi-independent Principality of Transylvania. Archduke Rudolf agrees to recognize Stephen Bocskai as Prince of Transylvania in return for Bocksay's guarantee of constitutional and religious rights to the ethnic Hungarians within Transylvania's borders.

July–September

July 1 – Scottish minister Patrick Simson and 44 other ministers of the Church of Scotland sign Simson's Protest to the Scottish Parliament against the introduction to Scotland of a hierarchy of bishops.
July 3 – The Russian Orthodox bishop Hermogenes is installed as the new Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, replacing Ignatius.
July 10
- Simion Movilă becomes the new Prince of Moldavia upon the death of his older brother, Ieremia Movilă. Simion will reign for only 14 months before being poisoned on September 14, 1607.
- England deports 47 Roman Catholic priests, including Thomas Garnet, putting them on board a ship bound for Flanders in what is now Belgium. A royal proclamation is read to the group, warning them that they will be put to death if they ever return to the British Isles.
July 14 – The expedition commanded by Portuguese explorer Luís Vaz de Torres, with the ships San Pedrico and Los Tres Reyes Magos, makes the first European sighting of South Pacific islands in New Guinea, starting with Rossel Island and Tagula Island. Discoveries follow on July 18 (Basilaki Island and Sideia Island), July 20 (the Dumoulin Islands and Sariba Island, and July 30 (Doini Island).
July 24 – King Christian IV of Denmark, as the guest of his brother-in-law, King James of England, Scotland and Ireland, is welcomed at London, and the two monarchs are driven by coaches to a banquet at Theobalds House at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. They are entertained by playwright Ben Jonson's play, The Entertainment of the Kings of Great Britain and Denmark.
July 31 – Playwright John Marston presents his own original play to King James and King Christian during the Danish monarch's visit to London.
August 16 – Battle of Cape Rachado: A Dutch fleet is defeated by the Portuguese.
August (approx.) – Possible first performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth in London.<ref name="Shak.Encyc.">Scholars date completion as between 1603 and 1606. Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=CBH>Template:Cite book</ref>
September 20 – The trial of alleged poisoners in the Frankenstein gravediggers scandal begins in the Bohemian town of Frankenstein.

October–December

October 2 – King Charles IX of Sweden founds the city of Vaasa, to the Korsholm Parish in the Coastal Ostrobothnia.<ref>HS: Kaarle IX perusti Vaasan 1606 (in Finnish)</ref>
October – Luís Vaz de Torres is the first European to sail through the Torres Strait.
November 11 – The Peace of Zsitvatorok is signed, between the Ottoman and Holy Roman Empires. The independence of Transylvania is recognized by both sides, and Austria's annual tribute to the Ottomans is abolished.
December 19 – The Susan Constant sets out from the River Thames in England leading the Virginia Company's fleet for the foundation of Jamestown, Virginia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
December 26 – William Shakespeare's play King Lear is given its first recorded performance, staged at the Palace of Whitehall. <ref>"The Tragedy of King Lear", in The New Cambridge Shakespeare, ed. by Jay L. Halio (Cambridge University Press, 1992) p.1</ref>