1603

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File:Banten-city-Java-1724.jpg

February 25: The first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia is established in Banten.

File:JamesIEngland.jpg

March 24: James I becomes King of England.

File:Tokugawa Ieyasu2.JPG

March 24: Tokugawa Ieyasu becomes Shogun of Japan.

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Events

January–March

January 24 – Anglo-Spanish War: English Admiral Christopher Newport leads an unsuccessful attempt to take the Spanish-controlled Caribbean island of Jamaica, where he was attempting to pillage the area to obtain supplies. The Spanish defenders repel the fleet, and Newport leads the attackers to the coast of Central America.
February 17 – Anglo-Spanish War: The Battle of Puerto Caballos is fought off of the coast of Guatemala by two Spanish Navy galleons, and eight English Navy and French pirate ships. The English-French soldiers and pirates, commanded by Christopher Newport and Michael Geare, plunder Puerto Caballos over the next two weeks, and the Spanish defenders suffer 230 casualties.<ref>Hugh Bicheno, Elizabeth's Sea Dogs: How England's Mariners Became the Scourge of the Seas (Conway, 2012) p. 313</ref>
February 25 – Dutch–Portuguese War: the Portuguese ship Santa Catarina is seized by Dutch East India Company ships off Singapore.
March 15 – French explorer Samuel de Champlain departs from the Channel port of Honfleur in the Calvados département in the Kingdom of France for his first voyage to the settlement of New France in what is now Canada.<ref>Champlain, Samuel de, Concerning the Savages, or, the Voyage of Samuel Champlain, from Brouage, Made in New France in 1603</ref>
March 24
- Queen Elizabeth I of England dies at Richmond Palace (having ruled since 1558). She is succeeded by her first cousin twice removed, King James VI of Scotland (where he has ruled since 1567), uniting the crowns of Scotland and England.<ref name="Pocket On This Day">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shōgun from Emperor Go-Yozei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan. The 265-year-long Edo period begins.
March 30 – The Nine Years War (Ireland) is ended by the submission of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, to the English Crown, and the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont.

April–June

April 27 – The first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia is established in Banten by Vice Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck, who sets up a factory to store and package the trading commodity black pepper.
April 28 – The funeral of Elizabeth I of England is held in Westminster Abbey.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
May 8 – Mozes Székely is installed as the Prince of Transylvania by the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed III. Székely is killed in battle on July 17.
May 13 – In modern-day northern Thailand, the rulers of Chiang Mai retake control of the Nan province and capture its ruler, Cao Cetabut.<ref>Sænluang Ratchasomphan and David K. Wyatt, The Nan Chronicle (SEAP Publications, 1994) p.69</ref>
May 14 – Pope Gabriel VIII of Alexandria, leader of the Coptic Christian Church, dies after a reign of almost 16 years. He is succeeded by Pope Mark V.
May 19 – The King's Men, a troupe of English professional actors composed primarily of former members of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, is granted its royal patent by King James. The company will give the first performances of many of the plays of William Shakespeare, who is one of the company's 26 principal actors. Named in order of priority on the patent are manager Lawrence Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage.<ref>F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964 (Penguin, 1964) p. 168</ref>
May 26 – The Battle of Sluis is fought at sea off of the Belgian Netherlands as Spanish ships try unsuccessfully to break through a blockade port of the port of Sluis. The Spanish ships are forced to return to port after at least 414 sailors are killed.<ref>Cesáreo Fernández Duro, Armada Española desde la unión de los reinos de Castilla y Aragón ("The Spanish Armada after the Union of the Kingdoms of Castille and Aragon") (Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, 1898) p. 223</ref>
May 29 – A tabagie feast is held in Tadoussac in the modern-day Canadian province of Quebec, as representatives of France (Samuel De Champlain and François Gravé Du Pont, form an alliance with representatives of the Innu, Algonquin and Maliseet tribes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
June 7 – Prince Şehzade Mahmud of the Ottoman Empire, the 16-year-old son of Sultan Murad III, is executed on orders of his father, on advice of the Grand Vizier, after being accused unjustly of an assassination plot.<ref>The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire, ed. by Selcuk Aksin Somel (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010) p.41</ref>

July–September

July 17 – Sir Walter Raleigh is arrested in England on charges of treason and of conspiring with Lord Cobham in the "Main Plot" to overthrow King James for replacement by Lady Arbella Stuart.<ref>The Library of Historic Characters and Famous Events of All Nations and All Ages, ed. by A. R. Spofford, Frank Weitenkampf and J. P. Lamberton (Art Library Publishing Company, 1904) pp. 64-65</ref>
July 25 – The formal coronation of James I as King of England takes place at Westminster Abbey.<ref name="Pocket On This Day"/> Ceremonies are limited because of plague.
August 17 – The Accademia dei Lincei, the oldest scientific academy in the world, is founded in Rome by Federico Cesi.
September 20
- Samuel Champlain arrives back in France.<ref>Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603.</ref>
- Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618): Led by Iranian Emperor Abbas the Great, the Safavid Army of Iran stages a surprise attack on Tabriz, which had been taken from the Safavids by the Ottoman Empire in 1588. Tabriz is recaptured after 29 days.

October–December

October 6 – On the Philippine island of Luzon, the Sangley Rebellion against Spanish rule ends with the massacre of 20,000 Sangley Chinese residents in Manila.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
October 18 – Yemişçi Hasan Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, is executed on orders of Sultan Mehmed III, after failing to respond more quickly to the Safavid Empire's actions to take Tabriz. The Sultan appoints Yavuz Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt to replace Yemişçi Hasan.
October 21 – Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618): The Safavid Army of Iran, led by Emperor Abbas the Great, recaptures Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire after 15 years of Ottoman occupation.
November 15 – Having recaptured Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire, Abbas the Great leads the Safavids in a siege of Yerevan.
November 17 – Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason, in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle.<ref name="Pocket On This Day"/> He is found guilty, but his life is spared by King James I at this time, and he is returned to imprisonment in the Tower of London.
November – Rokugō rebellion: More than 1,000 rōnin rebel in support of their exiled lord, Onodera Yoshimichi, in Japan.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
December 22 – Sultan Mehmed III of the Ottoman Empire dies, and is succeeded by his son Ahmed I.
December 29 – Yavuz Ali Pasha, who had been appointed by Mehmed III in October as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, arrives at Constantinople to begin service. He dies from illness seven months later.

Ongoing events

Russian famine of 1601–1603.

Date unknown

A rebellion breaks out in Transylvania.
French Huguenot Pierre de Gua is granted royal permission to settle in North America, founding the colony of Acadia.
Yaqob is deposed as Emperor of Ethiopia for the first time by Za Sellase, who appoints his cousin Za Dengel to replace him.
Johann Bayer publishes the star atlas Uranometria, the first to cover the entire celestial sphere.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Japanese female entertainer Izumo no Okuni originates kabuki dance drama in Kyoto.
The earliest of eight companies that will eventually merge to form the Kikkoman Corporation, the producers of soy sauce, is founded in Japan.