1603 - Wikiwand

1603 (MDCIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 1603rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 603rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 3rd year of the 17th century, and the 4th year of the 1600s decade. As of the start of 1603, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Thumb — February 25: The first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia is established in Banten.

Quick facts

1603 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1603 MDCIII
Ab urbe condita	2356
Armenian calendar	1052 ԹՎ ՌԾԲ
Assyrian calendar	6353
Balinese saka calendar	1524–1525
Bengali calendar	1009–1010
Berber calendar	2553
English Regnal year	45 Eliz. 1 – 1 Ja. 1
Buddhist calendar	2147
Burmese calendar	965
Byzantine calendar	7111–7112
Chinese calendar	壬寅年 (Water Tiger) 4300 or 4093 — to — 癸卯年 (Water Rabbit) 4301 or 4094
Coptic calendar	1319–1320
Discordian calendar	2769
Ethiopian calendar	1595–1596
Hebrew calendar	5363–5364
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1659–1660
- Shaka Samvat	1524–1525
- Kali Yuga	4703–4704
Holocene calendar	11603
Igbo calendar	603–604
Iranian calendar	981–982
Islamic calendar	1011–1012
Japanese calendar	Keichō 8 (慶長８年)
Javanese calendar	1523–1524
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 10 days
Korean calendar	3936
Minguo calendar	309 before ROC 民前309年
Nanakshahi calendar	135
Thai solar calendar	2145–2146
Tibetan calendar	ཆུ་ཕོ་སྟག་ལོ་ (male Water-Tiger) 1729 or 1348 or 576 — to — ཆུ་མོ་ཡོས་ལོ་ (female Water-Hare) 1730 or 1349 or 577

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Events

January–March

January 24 – Anglo-Spanish War: English Admiral Christopher Newport leads an unsuccessful attempt to take the Spanish-controlled Caribbean island of Jamaica, where he was attempting to pillage the area to obtain supplies. The Spanish defenders repel the fleet, and Newport leads the attackers to the coast of Central America.
February 17 – Anglo-Spanish War: The Battle of Puerto Caballos is fought off of the coast of Guatemala by two Spanish Navy galleons, and eight English Navy and French pirate ships. The English-French soldiers and pirates, commanded by Christopher Newport and Michael Geare, plunder Puerto Caballos over the next two weeks, and the Spanish defenders suffer 230 casualties.^[1]
February 25 – Dutch–Portuguese War: the Portuguese ship Santa Catarina is seized by Dutch East India Company ships off Singapore.
March 15 – French explorer Samuel de Champlain departs from the Channel port of Honfleur in the Calvados département in the Kingdom of France for his first voyage to the settlement of New France in what is now Canada.^[2]
March 24
- Queen Elizabeth I of England dies at Richmond Palace (having ruled since 1558). She is succeeded by her first cousin twice removed, King James VI of Scotland (where he has ruled since 1567), uniting the crowns of Scotland and England.^[3]
- Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shōgun from Emperor Go-Yozei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan. The 265-year-long Edo period begins.
March 30 – The Nine Years War (Ireland) is ended by the submission of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, to the English Crown, and the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont.

April–June

April 27 – The first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia is established in Banten by Vice Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck, who sets up a factory to store and package the trading commodity black pepper.
April 28 – The funeral of Elizabeth I of England is held in Westminster Abbey.^[4]
May 8 – Mozes Székely is installed as the Prince of Transylvania by the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed III. Székely is killed in battle on July 17.
May 13 – In modern-day northern Thailand, the rulers of Chiang Mai retake control of the Nan province and capture its ruler, Cao Cetabut.^[5]
May 14 – Pope Gabriel VIII of Alexandria, leader of the Coptic Christian Church, dies after a reign of almost 16 years. He is succeeded by Pope Mark V.
May 19 – The King's Men, a troupe of English professional actors composed primarily of former members of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, is granted its royal patent by King James. The company will give the first performances of many of the plays of William Shakespeare, who is one of the company's 26 principal actors. Named in order of priority on the patent are manager Lawrence Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage.^[6]
May 26 – The Battle of Sluis is fought at sea off of the Belgian Netherlands as Spanish ships try unsuccessfully to break through a blockade port of the port of Sluis. The Spanish ships are forced to return to port after at least 414 sailors are killed.^[7]
May 29 – A tabagie feast is held in Tadoussac in the modern-day Canadian province of Quebec, as representatives of France (Samuel De Champlain and François Gravé Du Pont, form an alliance with representatives of the Innu, Algonquin and Maliseet tribes.^[8]
June 7 – Prince Şehzade Mahmud of the Ottoman Empire, the 16-year-old son of Sultan Murad III, is executed on orders of his father, on advice of the Grand Vizier, after being accused unjustly of an assassination plot.^[9]

July–September

July 17 – Sir Walter Raleigh is arrested in England on charges of treason and of conspiring with Lord Cobham in the "Main Plot" to overthrow King James for replacement by Lady Arbella Stuart.^[10]
July 25 – The formal coronation of James I as King of England takes place at Westminster Abbey.^[3] Ceremonies are limited because of plague.
August 17 – The Accademia dei Lincei, the oldest scientific academy in the world, is founded in Rome by Federico Cesi.
September 20
- Samuel Champlain arrives back in France.^[11]
- Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618): Led by Iranian Emperor Abbas the Great, the Safavid Army of Iran stages a surprise attack on Tabriz, which had been taken from the Safavids by the Ottoman Empire in 1588. Tabriz is recaptured after 29 days.

October–December

October 6 – On the Philippine island of Luzon, the Sangley Rebellion against Spanish rule ends with the massacre of 20,000 Sangley Chinese residents in Manila.^[12]
October 18 – Yemişçi Hasan Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, is executed on orders of Sultan Mehmed III, after failing to respond more quickly to the Safavid Empire's actions to take Tabriz. The Sultan appoints Yavuz Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt to replace Yemişçi Hasan.
October 21 – Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618): The Safavid Army of Iran, led by Emperor Abbas the Great, recaptures Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire after 15 years of Ottoman occupation.
November 15 – Having recaptured Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire, Abbas the Great leads the Safavids in a siege of Yerevan.
November 17 – Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason, in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle.^[3] He is found guilty, but his life is spared by King James I at this time, and he is returned to imprisonment in the Tower of London.
November – Rokugō rebellion: More than 1,000 rōnin rebel in support of their exiled lord, Onodera Yoshimichi, in Japan.^[13]
December 22 – Sultan Mehmed III of the Ottoman Empire dies, and is succeeded by his son Ahmed I.
December 29 – Yavuz Ali Pasha, who had been appointed by Mehmed III in October as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, arrives at Constantinople to begin service. He dies from illness seven months later.

Ongoing events

Russian famine of 1601–1603.

Date unknown

A rebellion breaks out in Transylvania.
French Huguenot Pierre de Gua is granted royal permission to settle in North America, founding the colony of Acadia.
Yaqob is deposed as Emperor of Ethiopia for the first time by Za Sellase, who appoints his cousin Za Dengel to replace him.
Johann Bayer publishes the star atlas Uranometria, the first to cover the entire celestial sphere.^[14]
Japanese female entertainer Izumo no Okuni originates kabuki dance drama in Kyoto.
The earliest of eight companies that will eventually merge to form the Kikkoman Corporation, the producers of soy sauce, is founded in Japan.