1616

1616 (MDCXVI) was a leap year beginning on Friday according to the Gregorian calendar.

Events

• 4 February: Juan de Silva, governor of the Philippines, part of Malaca with an expedition of 16 ships and 500 soldiers to end the Dutch pirates who, allied with the Muslims, attack the Spanish possessions of the archipelago. Before, De Silva had asked for the collaboration of the Portuguese, who refused it despite guiding them a common interest.
• The Catholic Church puts the work From revolutionibus orbium coelestium (of Nicolas Copernicus) in the index of forbidden books.
• The French genealogist Pierre D’Hozier begins to investigate extensively the genealogy of the noble families of France.
• March 2nd: The city of Medellin was founded in Colombia.

Births

• January 13: Antonieta Bourignon, a French religious.
• 25 May: Carlo Dolci, Italian painter (f. 1686)
• November 23: John Wallis, English mathematician (f. 1703)
• March 27: María de Jesús Ruano, “La Sabia de Coria”, Franciscan Spanish tertiary (f. 1666).
• William Holder, musical theorist, clergy and English natural philosopher.

Deaths

• April 22: Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish writer (n. 1547).
• April 23: Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, a Peruvian writer (n. 1539).
• April 23: William Shakespeare, English writer (n. 1564).
• July 29: Tang Xianzu, Chinese writer (n. 1550).
• 7 August: Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (n. 1548).