1597

Events

• January 24 - Battle of Turnhout. Maurice of Nassau defeats a Spanish force under Jean de Rie of Varas in the Netherlands
• February 5 - In Nagasaki, Japan, 26 people were martyred. They practiced catholicism and were taken captive after all forms of christianity were outlawed in 1596. The martyrs were marched to Nagasaki and were crucified.
• The first opera is considered to have been written.
• Bali discovered by the Dutch explorer Cornelis Houtman
• Abbas I ends the Uzbek raids on his lands.

Births

• December 23, Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (d. 1639)
• Pieter Saenredam , Dutch painter

Deaths

• October 9 - Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Ashikaga shogun
• June 20 - Willem Barents, Dutch navigator and explorer.