1620

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	16th century 17th century 18th century
Decades:	1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s
Years:	1617 1618 1619 1620 1621 1622 1623

1620 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1620 MDCXX
Ab urbe condita	2373
Armenian calendar	1069 ԹՎ ՌԿԹ
Assyrian calendar	6370
Balinese saka calendar	1541–1542
Bengali calendar	1027
Berber calendar	2570
English Regnal year	17 Ja. 1 – 18 Ja. 1
Buddhist calendar	2164
Burmese calendar	982
Byzantine calendar	7128–7129
Chinese calendar	己未年 (Earth Goat) 4317 or 4110 — to — 庚申年 (Metal Monkey) 4318 or 4111
Coptic calendar	1336–1337
Discordian calendar	2786
Ethiopian calendar	1612–1613
Hebrew calendar	5380–5381
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1676–1677
- Shaka Samvat	1541–1542
- Kali Yuga	4720–4721
Holocene calendar	11620
Igbo calendar	620–621
Iranian calendar	998–999
Islamic calendar	1029–1030
Japanese calendar	Genna6 (元和6年)
Javanese calendar	1540–1542
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 10 days
Korean calendar	3953
Minguo calendar	292 before ROC 民前292年
Nanakshahi calendar	152
Thai solar calendar	2162–2163
Tibetan calendar	阴土羊年 (female Earth-Goat) 1746 or 1365 or 593 — to — 阳金猴年 (male Iron-Monkey) 1747 or 1366 or 594

November 8: The Battle of White Mountain.

November 21: The Mayflower arrives at Cape Cod.

January–March

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January 7 – Ben Jonson's play News from the New World Discovered in the Moon is given its first performance, a presentation to King James I of England. In addition to dialogue about actual observations made by telescope of the Moon, the play includes a fanciful discussion of a lunar civilization a dance by the "Volatees", the lunar race. ^[1]
January 22 – In France, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, and his wife, the Duchess Marie de Rohan, sign a marriage contract on behalf of their one-year-old daughter to be engaged to the year-old son of Charles, Duke of Guise. ^[2]
January 26 – Karan Singh II becomes the new ruler of the Kingdom of Mewar (in the modern-day state of RajasthaninIndia) upon the death of his father, the Maharana Amar Singh I.
February 4 – Prince Bethlen Gabor secures a peace treaty with Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor.
March 22 – King Karma Phuntsok NamgyalofTibet dies of smallpox after a reign of less than two years, after Ngawang Namgyal of Bhutan casts a tantric spell over him. ^[3]
March 24 – English sailor Owen Fitzpen is captured by Turkish pirates while on a trading voyage in the Mediterranean Sea and sold into slavery. He remains a slave in North Africa for seven years until he and 10 other slaves are able to take over a Turkish ship and sail back to Europe.

April–June

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April 1 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and former King of Bohemia, sends a two-month ultimatum directing King Frederick of Bohemia (who has usurped the throne in the modern-day Czech Republic) to leave Bohemia by June 1. Frederick refuses to depart his capital at Prague.
April 7 – The earliest recorded earthquake in South Africa occurs at Robben Island.
April 20 – Mian Shahul Mouhammed Kalhoro begins his reign at Karachi as the king of Sindh, in modern-day Pakistan, and rules until 1657.
May 17 – The first merry-go-round is seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey.
June 3 – The oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, is begun at Quebec City in modern-day Canada.

July–September

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July 3
- Under the terms of the Treaty of Ulm, the Protestant Union declares neutrality and ceases to support Frederick V of Bohemia.
- Captain Andrew Shilling, on behalf of the English Honourable East India Company, lays claim to Table BayinAfrica.^[4]
July 25 (July 15 OS) – The armed merchant ship Mayflower embarks about 65 emigrants for New England at or near her home port of Rotherhithe on the Thames east of London; about July 29 (July 19 OS) she anchors in Southampton Water.^[5]
August 1 (July 22 OS) – The ship Speedwell departs Delfshaven with English separatist Puritans from Leiden bound to rendezvous with the Mayflower; on August 5 (July 26 OS) she anchors in Southampton Water.^[5]
August 15 (probable date; August 5 OS) – Mayflower and Speedwell depart together from Southampton,^[5] but are forced to put back into Dartmouth, Devon, for repairs to a leak in the latter ship on August 22 or 23 (August 12 or 13 OS).
August 7
- The mother of astronomer Johannes Kepler is arrested for witchcraft.
- In a battle at Les Ponts-de-Cé in France, King Louis XIII defeats troops led by his mother, Marie de' Medici.^[6]
September 2 (August 23 OS) – Mayflower and Speedwell depart together from Dartmouth; they are well out into the Atlantic when the Speedwell is again found to be leaking.^[5]
September 7 (August 28 OS)
- Mayflower and Speedwell return again to England, anchoring at Plymouth; the latter ship is given up as a participant in the voyage and on September 12 (September 2 OS) departs for London, most of her passengers and stores having been transferred to the Mayflower.^[5]
- The Finnish town of Kokkola (Swedish: Karleby) is founded by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.^[7]^[8]
September 16 (September 6 OS) – Mayflower departs from PlymouthinEngland on her third attempt to cross the Atlantic.^[9] The Pilgrims on board comprise 41 "saints" (English separatists largely from Holland), 40 "strangers" (largely secular planters from London), 23 servants and hired workers, together with c. 30 crew.
September 17–October 7 – Battle of Cecora: The Ottoman Empire defeats Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth–Moldavian troops.

October–December

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October 6 – Battle of Amedamit in Gojjam, Ethiopia: The Roman Catholic Ras Sela Kristos, half-brother of Emperor Susenyos, crushes a group of rebels, who are opposed to Susenyos' pro-Catholic beliefs.
November 3 – The Great Patent is granted to Plymouth Colony.
November 8 – Thirty Years' War: Battle of White Mountain – Catholic Habsburg forces are victorious over Bohemian rebels two hours from Prague.^[10]
November 21 (November 11 OS) – The Mayflower arrives inside the tip of Cape Cod (named from the Concord voyage of 1602), at what becomes known as Provincetown Harbor, with the Pilgrims and Planters; 41 Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of the colony, on board the ship.^[11]
November 25 – The wedding of Gustav II Adolf and Maria Eleonora takes place in Sweden.
December 21 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land near what becomes known as Plymouth Rock, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Date unknown

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"A Dutch Ship, putting in this Year [of 1620, before June], sold 20 Negroes to the Colony [asslaves], which were the first of that Generation, that were ever brought to Virginia."^[12]
A severe frost in England freezes the River Thames; 13 continuous days of snow blanket Scotland. On Eskdale Moor, only 35 of a flock of 20,000 sheep survive.^[13]
Witch-hunts begin in Scotland.
History of submarines: Cornelis Drebbel demonstrates the first navigable undersea boat in the Thames in England.
The modern violin is developed.
Juan Pablo Bonet, teacher of deaf children in the Spanish court, creates a sign alphabet.
Francis Bacon publishes the Novum Organum (beyond Aristotle's Organon) on logical thinking.
A Short Account of the Destruction of the IndiesbyBartolomé de las Casas and Origin and progress of the disturbances in the NetherlandsbyJohannes Gysius are re-published in the Netherlands.^[14]
Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada restores Osaka Castle in Japan. Its modern-day appearance dates from this remodeling.

Ongoing

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The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) continues (principally on the territory of modern-day Germany).

Aelbert Cuyp

Winston Churchill

John Evelyn