Events of 1612

January–June

• January 6 – Axel Oxenstierna becomes Lord High Chancellor of Sweden.

• January 20 – Matthias becomes Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of Rudolf II.

• January 20 – November 4 – A popular uprising in Moscow expels Polish troops.

• March 2 – False Dmitry III is recognised as tsar by the Cossacks.

• April 11 – Edward Wightman, a Baptist, was the last person to be executed for heresy in England by burning at the stake at Lichfield.

• May 10 – Shah Jahan marries Mumtaz Mahal.

• May 23–25 – A Sicilian–Neapolitan galley fleet defeats the Tunisians at La Goulette.

• June 13 – Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor formally elected.

July–December

• July 22 – Northamptonshire Witch Trials: Four women and one man hanged at Abingdon Gallows, Northampton, England.

• November 30 – Battle of Swally: Forces of the British East India Company and Portugal engage off the coast of India, resulting in a British victory.

• December 28 – Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune when in conjunction with Jupiter, yet he mistakenly catalogues it as a fixed star because of its extremely slow motion along the ecliptic. Neptune is not truly discovered until 1846, about 234 years after Galileo first sights it with his telescope.

Undated

• Jamestown: John Rolfe exports first crop of improved tobacco (seeds from Trinidad).

• The Pendle witch trials are held in Pendle, Lancashire.

• Nagoya Castle is completed.

• Thomas Shelton's English translation of the first half of Don Quixote is published. It is the first translation of the Spanish novel into any language.

Births

• January 17 – Thomas Fairfax, English Civil War general (d. 1671)

• February 6 – Antoine Arnauld, French theologian (d. 1694)

• February 15 – Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, French colonial missionary and first governor of Montréal (d. 1676)

• February 22 – George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, English statesman (d. 1677)

• February 28 – John Pearson, English theologian (d. 1686)

• June 16 – Murat IV, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1640)

• June 23 – André Tacquet, Belgian mathematician (d. 1660)

• June 25 – John Albert Vasa, Polish bishop (d. 1634)

• August 28 – Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (died 1653)

• November 17 – Dorgon, Manchu prince (d. 1650)

• December 4 – Samuel Butler, English satirist (d. 1680)

• December 12 – Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1670)

• date unknown – James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish soldier (d. 1650)

• date unknown – Anne Bradstreet, Puritan poet (d. 1672)

Deaths

• January 20 – Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1552)

• February 12 – Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1538)

• April 11 – Emanuel van Meteren, Flemish historian (b. 1535)

• April 11 – Edward Wightman, English Baptist preacher (burned at the stake) (b. 1566)

• May 24 – Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and spymaster (b. 1563)

• June 8 – Hans Leo Hassler, German composer (b. 1562)

• July 29 – Jacques Bongars, French scholar and diplomat (b. 1554)

• August 4 – Hugh Broughton, English scholar (b. 1549)

• August 12 – Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer (b. c. 1554)

• September 9 – Nakagawa Hidenari, Japanese warlord (b. 1570)

• September 12 – Tsar Vasili IV of Russia (b. 1552)

• October 7 – Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet (b. 1538)

• November 6 – Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (b. 1594)

• November 12 – John Harington, English writer (b. 1561)