1606
Rembrandt Born in Leiden
The ninth child of a prosperous miller was baptized in the parish church of Leiden and named Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. He would abandon university at fourteen to paint, master light as no one before him, go bankrupt, and leave behind portraits that seem to think as you look at them.
Willem Janszoon Sights Australia
The Dutch captain Willem Janszoon, probing the Gulf of Carpentaria in the yacht Duyfken, put a boat ashore on the Cape York Peninsula and became the first European to touch the continent later called Australia. He mistook it for a bulge of New Guinea and sailed away unimpressed, leaving the vast southern land to wait another century and a half for European settlement.
Virginia Company Chartered
James I granted two groups of London and Plymouth investors the right to plant colonies along the North American coast between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth parallels. Within months the Virginia Company was outfitting three small ships for a place no Englishman had permanently settled: the Chesapeake. The venture would prove deadlier than any investor imagined and more consequential than any of them dreamed.
Treaty of Zsitvatorok
After fifteen years of inconclusive fighting, Habsburg and Ottoman diplomats signed a peace treaty on the marshy banks of the Zsitva river in Hungary. For the first time, the Porte recognized the Habsburg emperor as a fellow sovereign rather than a mere king. Ottoman universal claims had begun to soften.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1606?
Saeculum lists 4 curated events from 1606. The most significant is Rembrandt Born in Leiden: The ninth child of a prosperous miller was baptized in the parish church of Leiden and named Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.
What era was 1606 part of?
1606 falls within the Renaissance (1501-1650). Reformation, conquest, and the world drawn whole.
Which regions saw notable events in 1606?
The curated events from 1606 span Europe and Oceania.