Events

• 17 January - A court case in Guildford recorded evidence that a certain plot of land was used for playing “kreckett” (i.e., cricket) as early as 1550.
• January 24 - Battle of Turnhout. Maurice of Nassau defeats a Spanish force under Jean de Rie of Varas in the Netherlands
• February 5 - In Nagasaki, Japan, 26 people were martyred. They practiced Catholicism and were taken captive after all forms of Christianity were outlawed the previous year.
• The first opera is considered to have been written.
• Bali discovered by the Dutch explorer Cornelis Houtman
• Abbas I ends the Uzbek raids on his lands.
• Yaqob succeeds his father Sarsa Dengel as Emperor of Ethiopia
• First edition of Francis Bacon's Essays published.

Births

• January 31 - John Regis, French saint (d. 1640)
• February 24 - Vincent Voiture, French poet (died 1648)
• March 1 - Jean-Charles de la Faille, Belgian mathematician (died 1652)
• April 9 - John Davenport, Connecticut pioneer (d. 1670)
• August 21 - Roger Twysden, English antiquarian and royalist (d. 1672)
• December 23 - Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (died 1639)
• Christoval de Acuna, Spanish missionary and explorer (died 1676)
• Johan van Heemskerk, Dutch poet (died 1656)
• Giovanni Batista Hodierna, Italian astronomer (died 1660)
• Willem Kieft, Dutch merchant and director general of New Netherland (died 1647)
• Wang Wei, Chinese poet (died 1647)

See also Category:1597 births.

Deaths

• January 29 - Elias Ammerbach, German organist (born 1530)
• February 5 - Paul Miki, Japanese Catholic saint (born 1564)
• March 11 - Henry Drummond, Scottish evangelical writer and lecturer
• June 20 - Willem Barents, Dutch navigator and explorer
• October 4 - Sarsa Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (born 1550)
• October 9 - Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shogun (born 1537)
• December 21 - Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (born 1521)
• James Burbage, English actor
• Luis Frois, Portuguese missionary (born 1532)
• William Hunnis, English poet
• José de Anchieta, Spanish Jesuit missionary (born 1534)
• Edward Kelley, English spirit medium (born 1555)
• Thomas Nevile, English educator
• Franciscus Patricius, Italian philosopher and scientist (born 1529)
• Rana Pratap Singh, Indian statesman (born 1540)

See also Category:1597 deaths.

1597

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