1611
Events
January–March
- January 26 - Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully is forced by Queen regent Marie's Regency Council to resign as chief minister of France. He is replaced by Nicolas de Neufville, seigneur de Villeroy.
- February 27 - Sunspots are observed by telescope, by Frisian astronomers Johannes Fabricius and David Fabricius. Johannes publishes the results of these observations, in De Maculis in Sole observatis in Wittenberg, later this year. Such early discoveries are overlooked, however, and the first sighting is claimed a few months later, by Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner.
- March 4 - George Abbot is enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury in England.
- March 9 - Battle of Segaba in Begemder: Yemana Kristos, brother of Emperor of Ethiopia Susenyos I, ends the rebellion of Melka Sedeq.
- March 19–20 - The Moscow Uprising, an armed rising of the inhabitants of Moscow in the Tsardom of Russia against the military Polish–Lithuanian occupation of Moscow, results in the occupying forces starting a major fire in the city and the death of 6–7,000 Muscovites.
April–June
- April 4 - Denmark-Norway declares war on Sweden, then captures Kalmar.
- April 7 - False Dmitry III, the third pretender to the Russian throne to claim to be Prince Dmitry of Uglich, son of Ivan the Terrible, arrives at Ivangorod and proclaims himself as the Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich I.
- April 28 - The Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario is established in Manila, the Philippines.
- April 30 - The priest implicated in the Aix-en-Provence possessions in France is executed.
- May 2 - The Authorized King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time, printed by Robert Barker in London.
- May 9 - At the age of 16, Emperor Go-Mizunoo succeeds his father Emperor Go-Yōzei as Emperor of Japan.
- May 11 - The first known performance of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, probably new this year, is given at the Globe Theatre in London.
- May–December - Entrepreneur Thomas Sutton founds Charterhouse School, on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charterhouse Square, Smithfield, London.
- June 13 - The Siege of Smolensk in Russia by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth succeeds after nearly two years of fighting that started on 29 September 1609. The conquest of the city is made possible by the discovery of a weakness in the walls of the fortress and the detonating of an explosive in a drainage canal.
- June 22 - English explorer and sea captain Henry Hudson, his teenage son John, and seven crewmen are set adrift in or near Hudson Bay, after a mutiny on his ship Discovery. They are never seen again.
July–September
October–December
Date unknown
Births
January–March
- January 3 - James Harrington, English political theorist of classical republicanism
- January 5 - Tsarevich Ivan Dmitriyevich, pretender to the Russian throne
- January 28 - Johannes Hevelius, Polish astronomer
- February 2 - Ulrik of Denmark, Danish prince-bishop
- February 3 - Christian Ulrik Gyldenløve, Danish diplomat and military officer
- February 5 - Philip Sherman, English-born founder of Rhode Island
- February 6 - Chongzhen Emperor of China
- February 19 - Andries de Graeff, Dutch politician
- February 24? - William Dobson, English portrait painter
- February 28 - William Brereton, 2nd Baron Brereton, English politician
- March 1 - John Pell, English mathematician
- March 9 - Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot, French missionary
- March 15 - Jan Fyt, Flemish Baroque painter
- March 17 - Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge, Swedish field marshal
- March 25 - Evliya Çelebi, Ottoman Turk, travels around the Ottoman Empire for 40 years
- March 28
- * Magdalena Elisabeth of Hanau, German noblewoman
- * Henry Sherburne, American colonist
April–June
July–September
- July 15 - Jai Singh I, Maharaja of Jaipur
- July 16 - Cecilia Renata of Austria, queen consort of Poland
- July 21 - Jan van Balen, Flemish painter
- July 23 - Henry Hungerford, English politician
- July 24 - Giancarlo de' Medici, Italian Catholic cardinal
- August 4 - Jan van den Hoecke, Dutch painter
- August 9 - Henry of Nassau-Siegen, German count, officer in the Dutch Army, diplomat for the Dutch Republic
- September 1 - William Cartwright, English dramatist
- September 3 - Toussaint Rose, French writer
- September 4 - George III of Brieg, Duke of Brzeg
- September 8 - Johann Friedrich Gronovius, German classical scholar
- September 11 - Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne
- September 17 - Johann Olearius, German hymnwriter
October–December
- October 1 - Mathias Balen, Dutch writer
- October 11
- * Samuel Enys, English politician
- * Hugues de Lionne, French statesman
- October 22 - Jacques Esprit, French writer
- October 26
- * Ove Bjelke, Norwegian civil servant
- * Antonio Coello, Spanish dramatist and poet
- November 1
- * François-Marie, comte de Broglie, French soldier and commander in the Thirty Years' War
- * Walter J. Johnson, English explorer and fur trader
- November 12 - Joachim Gersdorff, Danish politician
- November 18 - Andreas Tscherning, German poet
- December 23 - Abraham Wright, English theological writer and deacon
- December - Leonora Baroni, Italian singer
Date unknown
Probable
Deaths
January–March
- January 6 - Juan de Ribera, Spanish Catholic archbishop
- January 16 - Niiro Tadamoto, Japanese samurai
- February 7 - Ruprecht von Eggenberg, Austrian general
- February 12 - Henry Lee of Ditchley, English noble
- February 26 - Antonio Possevino, Italian Jesuit protagonist of Counter Reformation, papal diplomat
- March 2 - Ernest II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg,
- March 3 - William Douglas, 10th Earl of Angus, son of William Douglas
- March 5 - Shimazu Yoshihisa, Japanese warlord and samurai
- March 13 - Louis III, Count of Löwenstein since 1541
- March 17 - Princess Sophia of Sweden
- March 20 - Johann Georg Gödelmann, German demonologist
April–June
July–September
- July 9 - János Imreffy, Hungarian politician
- July 26 - Horio Yoshiharu, Japanese warlord
- August - Antoni Clarassó i Terès, Spanish priest
- August 2 - Katō Kiyomasa, Japanese warlord and samurai
- August 9 - John Blagrave, English mathematician
- August 12 - Herman van den Bergh, Dutch soldier in the Eighty Years' War
- August 27 - Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spanish composer
- September 9 - Eleanor de' Medici, Italian noblewoman
- September 17 - Johannes Corputius, Dutch engineer, cartographer and military leader
- September 18 - John Augustus, Count Palatine of Lützelstein, German count
- September 25 - Šurhaci, Chinese prince
October–December
Date unknown