Editing 1609 (section)

=== January&ndash;March ===
[[File:Avisa-Relation-oder-Zeitung.jpg|thumb|right|110px|[[January 15]]: [[Avisa Relation oder Zeitung|''Avisa'']] newspaper begins publication.]]
* [[January 12]] &ndash; The [[Basque witch trials]] are started in [[Spain]] as the court of the [[Spanish Inquisition|Inquisition]] at [[Logroño]] receives a letter from the commissioner of the village of [[Zugarramurdi]], and orders the arrest of four women, including María de Jureteguía and María Chipía de Barrenetxea.<ref>Carmelo Lison Tolosana, ''Las brujas en la historia de España'' (Witches in the History of Spain) (Temas de Hoy, 1992) pp.89-94</ref>  
* [[January 15]] &ndash; One of the world's first [[newspaper]]s, ''[[Avisa Relation oder Zeitung]]'', begins publication in [[Wolfenbüttel]] ([[Holy Roman Empire]]).<ref>{{cite book|author=Muhammad Riaz|title=Serials Management in Libraries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkmYYOYg-QYC&pg=PA5|year=1992|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=978-81-7156-332-6|pages=5}}</ref>
* [[January 31]] &ndash; The [[Bank of Amsterdam]] is established.
* [[February 4]] &ndash; The last day of [[Keichō|Keichō 慶長 13]] (according to the [[Japanese calendar|Japanese lunar calendar]]).
* [[March 11]] &ndash; The Swedish Army, under the command of General [[Jacob De la Gardie]], begins marching east from [[Vyborg]] (at this time, part of the Swedish Empire, modern-day Russia) in order to defend the Russian Empire against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the course of the [[Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618)|Polish–Muscovite War]]. 
* [[March 19]] &ndash; The [[Battle of Cape Rachado#Shipwrecks and excavation|Dutch warship ''Mauritius'']] sinks off the coast of the Cape of Cape Lopes Gonçalves on the modern-day West African nation of [[Gabon]]. The wreckage of the ''Mauritius'' will not be located until 375 years later, in [[1985]].
* [[March 24]] &ndash; Led by the Grand Hetman of Lithuania, [[Jan Karol Chodkiewicz]], the Lithuanian Navy breaks the blockade of [[Riga]] by sinking two Swedish Navy warships off the coast of [[Salacgrīva]].
* [[March 25]] &ndash; [[John William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg|Johann Wilhelm]], the Roman Catholic Duke of the [[United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg]] in Germany, dies at the capital in [[Düsseldorf]] with no heirs. On April 2, his widow, Duchess Antoinette of Lorraine establishes a regency to determine who the successor will be, prompting the [[War of the Jülich Succession]] between the states of the [[Protestant Union]] and the states of the [[Catholic League (German)|Catholic League]].