Years: 1599 1600 1601 - 1602 - 1603 1604 1605

Decades: 1570s 1580s 1590s - 1600s - 1610s 1620s 1630s

Centuries: 16th century - 17th century - 18th century 1602 in literature 1602 in music 1602 in science

Events

• February 14 - William Shakespeare First performance of Twelfth Night on Candlemas
• March 20 - The Dutch East India Company is established as The United East India Company by the Dutch States-General
• May 15 - Bartolomew Gosnold becomes the first European to discover Cape Cod.
• June - James Lancaster's East India Company fleet arrives at Achin, Sumatra to deal with the local ruler. Having defeated Portugal's ally, the ruler is happy to do business, and Lancaster seizes a large Portuguese Galleon and loots it.
• The Netherlands begins establishing itself as ruler of Indonesia
• Ben Jonson writes Poetaster
• William Shakespeare writes The Merry Wives of Windsor
• Persia declares war on Ottoman Empire
• Bodleian Library founded
• In Praque , Florian Mathias performs the first successfull bowel surgery – removes a dagger from stomach
• Jesuit missionary Jeronimo de Angeluin arrives in Japan

Births

• February 18 - Per Brahe - Swedish soldier and statesman
• April 30 - William Lilly - English astrologer
• October 12 - William Chillingworth - English churchman
• November 20 - Otto von Guericke - inventor of the vacuum pump; and mayor of Magdeburg
• December 7 - Philippe Delano, Pilgrim founder of the American House of Delano (d. 1681)

Deaths

• October 30 - Jean-Jacques Boissard
• Jean Pithou - French lawyer and author