1611

January–June

• February 27 - Sunspots are observed by telescope, by Frisian astronomers Johannes Fabricius and David Fabricius, and 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.
• March 9 - Battle of Segaba in Begemder: Yemana Kristos, brother of Emperor of Ethiopia Susenyos I, ends the rebellion of Melka Sedeq.
• April 4 - Denmark declares war on Sweden, then captures Kalmar.
• April 28 - The Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario is established in Manila, the Philippines.
• May 2 - The Authorized King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, printed by Robert Barker.
• May 9 - In Japan, sixteen-year-old Emperor Go-Mizunoo succeeds Emperor Go-Yōzei.
• June 22 - English explorer and sea captain Henry Hudson, his teenage son John, and six crewmen are set adrift in or near Hudson Bay, after a mutiny on his ship Discovery. They are never seen again.

  July–December

• August 2 - Jamestown: Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Gates returns to Virginia with 280 people, provisions and cattle on six ships and assumes control, ruling that the fort must be strengthened.
• September - Jamestown: Thomas Dale, with 350 men, starts building Henricus.
• October 30 - Gustavus Adolphus succeeds his father Charles IX as King of Sweden.
• November 1 - At Whitehall Palace in London, William Shakespeare's last solo play The Tempest is performed, perhaps for the first time.

  Date unknown

• An uprising occurs in Moscow, Russia against occupying Polish forces, resulting in a major fire.
• Jamestown: John Rolfe imports tobacco seeds from the island of Trinidad ; the native tobacco is Nicotiana rustica.
• The Aix-en-Provence possessions takes place in France.
• Famine in Ethiopia resulting from crop failure due to weather conditions and the outbreak of a plague.
• Thomas Dale founds the city of Henricus on the James River, a few miles south of present day Richmond, Virginia.
• Construction begins on Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan, Persia.
• Thomas Sutton founds Charterhouse School, on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charterhouse Square, Smithfield, London.
• Itoh Gofuku Shop, a predecessor of Matsuzakaya, a famous for department store, founded in Nagoya, Japan.

  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
• 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, travelled around the Ottoman Empire for 40 years
• March 28
• * Magdalena Elisabeth of Hanau, German noblewoman
• * Henry Sherburne, American colonist

  April–June

• April 11 - Karl Eusebius, Prince of Liechtenstein
• April 17 - Simone Pignoni, Italian painter
• May 4 - Carlo Rainaldi, Italian architect
• May 16 - Pope Innocent XI
• May 19 - Joachim Irgens von Westervick, Dano-Norwegian nobleman
• June 15 - Salomon Sweers, Dutch businessman
• June 22 - Pablo Bruna, blind Spanish composer and organist
• June 24 - Johan Oxenstierna, Swedish count and statesman
• June 28 - Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick

  July–September

• July 15 - Jai Singh I, Maharaja of Jaipur
• July 16 - Cecilia Renata of Austria, Queen 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 II, Count of Nassau-Siegen
• 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

• Karl Eusebius, Prince of Liechtenstein
• Diego Quispe Tito, Peruvian painter

  Probable

• Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan, French count and musketeer, on whom the fictional D'Artagnan from the novel The Three Musketeers is based

  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
• March 17 - Princess Sophia of Sweden
• March 20 - Johann Georg Gödelmann, German demonologist

  April–June

• April 23 - Martin Ruland the Younger, German alchemist
• May 19
• * Frederick IX, Margrave of Brandenburg, Grand Master of the Order of Saint John
• * Zhu Zaiyu
• June 8 - Jean Bertaut, French poet
• June 23 - Christian II, Elector of Saxony

  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

• October 3
• * Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain
• * Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, French military leader
• October 11 - Thomas Blague, English priest and writer
• October 30 - King Charles IX of Sweden
• November 6 - Peter Vok, Czech noble
• November 17 - Nicolas Henri, Duke of Orléans, French duke
• November 22 - Thomas Berkeley, English politician

  Date unknown

• Camillo Mariani, Italian sculptor
• Tiryaki Hasan Pasha, Turkish beylerbey
• Henry Hudson, English explorer