1618

Year 1618 (MDCXVIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1618

January–June

• March 8 – Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion (he soon rejects the idea after some initial calculations were made but on May 15 confirms the discovery).
• May 23 – The Second Defenestration of Prague – Protestant noblemen hold a mock trial and throw two direct representatives of Ferdinand II of Germany (Imperial Governors) and their scribe out of a window into a pile of manure, exacerbating a low-key rebellion into the Bohemian Revolt (1618–1621) precipitating the Thirty Years' War into armed conflict and further polarizing Europe on religious grounds.
• June 14 – Joris Veseler prints the first Dutch newspaper Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. in Amsterdam (approximate date).
• July 20 – Pluto reaches, according to sophisticated mathematical calculations, its second most recent aphelion. The next one occurs in 1866, and the following one will occur 2113.

July–December

• August 29 – Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and Hugo Grotius are imprisoned by Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange.
• September 18 – Beginning of the 13th Baktun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, the final phase of the Great Cycle.
• September 19–November 21 – Thirty Years' War: The Siege of Plzeň occurs.
• October 29 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.
• November 13 – The Synod of Dort has its first meeting.

Undated

• The markgraves of Brandenburg are granted Polish approval to inherit the Duchy of Prussia, creating the state of Brandenburg-Prussia.
• Osman II (1618–1622) succeeds Mustafa I (1617–1623) as Ottoman Emperor.
• The 3,000 seat Teatro Farnese, the first permanent proscenium theatre, is built into the Great Hall of the Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma, Italy.
• The Ming Chinese embassy of the Wanli Emperor presents tea to the Russian tsar.

Births

• January 1 – Bartolomé Estéban Murillo, Spanish painter (d. 1682)
• April 2 – Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian mathematician and physicist (d. 1663)
• April 13 – Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French writer (d. 1693)
• November 3 – Aurangzeb, Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1707)
• November – Simon Arnauld de Pomponne, French diplomat and minister of Louis XIV (d. 1699)
• date unknown
  • Ādiŧyavoṇś, Ayuthian monarch
  • Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, politician (member of the Cabal)
  • Lin Yiu, Chinese poet and painter (d. 1664).
  • Richard Lovelace, English poet (d. c. 1657)

See also Category: 1618 births.

Deaths

• February 20 – Philip William, Prince of Orange (b. 1554)
• March 23 – James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn, Scottish politician (b. c. 1575)
• June 7 – Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, English Governor of Virginia (b. 1577)
• August 23 – Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (b. 1585)
• September 28 – Joshua Sylvester, English poet (b. 1563)
• October 29 – Sir Walter Raleigh, English courtier and settler of Virginia (executed) (b. 1554)
• November 2 – Archduke Maximilian III of Austria (b. 1558)
• December 6 – Jacques-Davy Duperron, French cardinal (b. 1556)
• December 10 – Giulio Caccini, Italian composer (b. 1551)
• probable – Chief Powhatan (proper name Wahunsenacawh), father of Pocahontas (b. c.1547)

See also Category: 1618 deaths.