1606 in science
The year 1606 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Cryptography
- The cryptographic text Steganographia, written by Johannes Trithemius c.1499/1500, is published in Frankfurt.
Exploration
- February 26
- * Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon makes the first confirmed sighting of Australia by a European.
- * Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers the Pitcairn Islands.
- March – The Dutch ship Duyfken, under Captain Willem Janszoon, explores the western coast of Cape [York Peninsula].
- May – Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers the islands of Vanuatu; believing them to be Australia, he names them La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo.
- October – Luís Vaz de Torres is the first European to sail through the Torres Strait.
Mathematics
- Giovanni Antonio Magini devises trigonometric tables of high accuracy.
Physics
- Approx. date – Galileo invents a thermometer based on the expansion of gas.
Technology
- The first recorded instance of a bayonet published in the Chinese military treatise.
Births
Deaths
- September 28 – Nicolaus Taurellus, German philosopher and scientist
- November 13 – Girolamo Mercuriale, Italian physician and historian
- Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, Dutch nautical chart maker