Events of 1608

January 7: Jamestown fire.

July 3: Champlain

January–June

• January

• *At Jamestown, Virginia, Christopher Newport returns in a ship with the first supply and about 100 new settlers; he finds only 38 survivors.

• *Powhatan releases Captain John Smith of Jamestown.

• January 7 – Fire destroys "all the houses in the fort" at Jamestown, Virginia; the fort is repaired in March.

• January 17 – Emperor Susenyos of Ethiopia defeats an Oromo army at Ebenat; 12,000 Oromo are reportedly killed at a cost of 400 Amhara.

• March 18 – Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia at the ancient city of Axum.

• April 10 – Jamestown: Christopher Newport again sails for England.

• May 14 – The Protestant Union is founded in Auhausen.

July–December

• July 3 – Quebec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain.

• July – The English ship Mary and Margaret, captained by Christopher Newport, leaves England bound for Jamestown, Virginia.

• August 24 – The first official English representative to India lands at Surat.

• September 10 – John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, and begins expanding the fort.

• September 21 – The University of Oviedo, Spain is founded.

• October 1 – At Jamestown, a second supply ship, the Mary and Margaret, arrives with Christopher Newport, including 70 settlers, bringing the population back up to 120; the passengers include 8 glassmen.

• October 2 – Dutch lens maker Hans Lippershey demonstrates the first telescope in the Dutch parliament.

• December – Jamestown: Christopher Newport returns to England carrying cargo with "tryals of Pitch, Tarre, Glasse, Frankincense, Sope Ashes ..."

Undated

• Swedish troops enter Moscow.

• The first cheques are used in the Netherlands.

October 2: Lippershey.

• Old Bushmills Distillery is founded in Bushmills, County Antrim, Ireland.

• Uniform Land-Tax Law is imposed in Korea.

• Five Royal Schools in Ulster are given Royal Charter by King James I

Old Bushmills Distillery.

Births

• January 28 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (d. 1679)

• February 6 – Antonio Vieira, Portuguese writer (d. 1697)

• April 25 – Gaston, Duke of Orléans, third son of King Henry IV of France (d. 1660)

• June – Richard Fanshawe, English diplomat (d. 1666)

• July 13 – Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1657)

• July 14 – George Goring, Lord Goring, English Royalist soldier (d. 1657)

• October 15 – Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician (d. 1647)

• December 6 – George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English soldier (d. 1670)

• December 9 – John Milton, English poet (d. 1674)

• date unknown

• *Daniello Bartoli, Italian Jesuit priest (d. 1685)

• *John Desborough, English soldier and politician (d. 1680)

• *Thomas Fuller, English churchman and historian (d. 1661)

• *Edward Rainbowe, English clergyman and a preacher (d. 1684)

• *Eudoxia Streshneva, Tsarina of Mikhail I of Russia (d. 1645)

• *Torii Tadaharu, Japanese nobleman (d. 1651)

Deaths

• January 29 – Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1557)

• February 13

• *Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, Lithuanian prince (b. 1526)

• *Bess of Hard-dick, Countess of Shrewsbury (b. 1527)

• February 26 – John Still, English bishop (b. c. 1543)

• March 12 – Koriki Kiyonaga, Japanese warlord (b. 1530)

• April 19 – Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, English statesman and poet (b. 1536)

• May 14 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1543)

• June 19 – Alberico Gentili, Italian jurist (b. 1551)

• July 18 – Joachim Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1546)

• August 1 – Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (b. 1575)

• August 13 – Giambologna, Italian sculptor (b. 1529)

• October 11 – Giovanni Ambrogio Figino, Italian painter (b. c. 1549)

• October 19

• *Martin Delrio, Flemish theologian and occultist (b. 1551)

• *Geoffrey Fenton, English writer and politician (b. c. 1539)

• December

• *John Dee, British mathematician, astronomer, and geographer (b. 1527)

• *William Davison, secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. c. 1541)

• date unknown

• *George Bannatyne, collector of Scottish poems (b. 1545)

• *William Barclay, Scottish jurist (b. 1546)

• *Luca Bati, Italian composer (b. 1546)

• *Laurence Tomson, English Calvinist theologian (b. 1539)

• *Fiodor Trubetsky, Polish prince

• *Edmund Whidecock, English soldier and courtier (b. 1565)