1623

Year 1623 (MDCXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1623

January - June

* February - France, Savoy, and Venice sign the Treaty of Paris, agreeing to cooperate in removing Spanish forces from the strategic Alpine pass of Valtelline.
* February 25 - Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria becomes monarch of Pfalz.
* March 5 - The first American temperance law is enacted, in Virginia.
* March 9 - Amboyna massacre: Ten men in the service of the British East India Company, 9 Japanese and 1 Portuguese, are executed by the Dutch East India Company.
* March 20 - Richard Frethorne begins writing a letter to his parents from the Jamestown Settlement.
* April 29 - A fleet of 11 Dutch ships departs for the coast of Peru, seeking to seize Spanish treasure.
* June 14 - The first breach-of-promise lawsuit: Rev. Gerville Pooley, in Virginia, files against Cicely Jordan, but he loses.

July - December

* July - The ship "Anne" arrives from England at "New Plymouth" (Plymouth Colony), carrying more settlers.
* July - The ship "Little James" arrives from England at "New Plymouth" (Plymouth Colony), a week or two after the ship "Anne".
* August 6 - Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) succeeds Pope Gregory XV as the 235th pope.
* November 1 - Fire at Plymouth Colony destroys several buildings.

Undated

* Murat IV (1623-1640) succeeds Osman II (1618-1622) as Ottoman Emperor.
* The Safavids recapture Baghdad.
* England first colonizes Saint Kitts and Nevis.
* Wilhelm Schickard invents his "Calculating Clock", an early mechanical calculator.
* Procopius' long-lost "Secret History" is rediscovered in the Vatican Library.
* Giambattista Marini publishes his long poem "Adone".
* Tommaso Campanella publishes "The City of the Sun".
* Johannes Rudbeck founds Rudbeckianska Gymnasiet, the first gymnasium in Sweden.
* The second Thanksgiving is celebrated at Plymouth Plantation.
* Erotomania is first mentioned in a psychiatric treatise.
* On the coast of Massachusetts Bay, the settlement that will become the City of Gloucester, Massachusetts is first inhabited by Englishmen from Dorchester, England.
* The first European settlement in New Hampshire is founded.

Births

* January 9 - Meishō, empress of Japan (d. 1696)
* April 27 - Johann Adam Reinken, German organist (d. 1722)
* April 30 - François de Laval, first bishop of New France (d. 1708)
* May 27 - Sir William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1687)
* May 30 - John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, English politician (d. 1686)
* June 15 - Cornelis de Witt, Dutch politician (d. 1672)
* June 19 - Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (d. 1662)
* August 5 - (baptism) Antonio Cesti, Italian composer (d. 1669)
* August 23 - Stanisław Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer (d. 1675)
* October 17 - Francis Turretin, Swiss theologian (d. 1687)
*"date unknown"
**Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (d. 1673)
**Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury (d. 1667)

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Deaths

* January 15 - Paolo Sarpi, theologian (b. 1552)
* February 8 - Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, English politician (b. 1546)
* February - Malcolm Macfie, last chief of the Scottish clan Clan Macfie
* March 19 - Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1556)
* March 25 - Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne, duc de Bouillon (b. 1555)
* June 16 - Christian, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, German Protestant military leader (b. 1599)
* July 4 - William Byrd, English composer (born 1543)
* July 8 - Pope Gregory XV (b. 1554)
* August 6 - Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife
* October 21 - William Wade, English statesman and diplomat (b. 1546)
* November 9 - William Camden, English historian (b. 1551)
* November 11 - Philippe de Mornay, French writer (b. 1549)
* November 12 - Josaphat Kuncevyc, Lithuanian archbishop (b. c. 1582)
*"date unknown"
**Andrea Andreani, Italian engraver (b. 1540)

: "See also ."