Year 1609 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1609

January 15: Avisa newspaper.

January - June

• January 15 - One of the world's first newspapers, Avisa Relation oder Zeitung, is published in Augsburg, Germany.
• February 4 - The last day of Keichō 慶長 13 (according to the Japanese lunar calendar).
• March - Twelve Years' Truce: The Netherlands and Spain agree to a 12-year ceasefire (1609-1621) in the Eighty Years' War.
• April 4 - Felipe III (Philip III), King of Spain, signs an edict to expel of all moriscos from Spain (see September 11).
• April 9 - Spain recognizes Dutch independence.
• May 23 - The Second Charter of Virginia is officially ratified, which is intended to replace the council with a Governor who has absolute control in the colony.

July - December

July 23: Hurricane

• July 6 - Bohemia is granted freedom of religion (Letter of Majesty).
• July 23 - Jamestown: A hurricane at sea separates the 9 ships (600 more settlers) en route, one ship sinks, and the ship Sea Venture wrecks at Bermuda.
• July 28 - Bermuda is first settled by survivors of the English Sea Venture, en route to Virginia.
• August 25 - Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
• August 28 - Henry Hudson is the first European to see Delaware Bay.
• August - Jamestown: Seven ships arrive at the colony, with 200-300 men, women, and children, reporting that the Sea Venture wrecked near Bermuda.
• September 2 - Henry Hudson enters New York Bay aboard the Halve Maen.
• September 10 - Jamestown: Capt. George Percy replaces Captain John Smith as president of the Council, and Smith returns to England.
• September 11 - Valencia expels all the Moriscos (see April 4).

August 25: Galileo.

• September 12 - Henry Hudson discovers the Hudson River.
• October 12 - "Three Blind Mice" is published by London teenage songwriter Thomas Ravenscroft.

Undated

• The greatest witch-hunt in history, the Basque witch trials, is held.
• Samuel de Champlain claims the Lake Champlain area of Vermont for France.
• The Dutch East India Company imports tea to Europe.
• The Japanese Shimazu clan conquers Okinawa.
• Warsaw becomes the capital of Poland.
• Many Puritans, conservative English Protestants, settle in Leiden, Holland, in search of religious freedom.
• The Statutes of Iona are passed, marking the end of the bloody feuds between the clans in the Scottish highlands.
• The Catholic League (German) is formed.
• The municipality of Buenavista in Marinduque, Philippines was founded.

Science

• Johannes Kepler publishes his first two laws of planetary motion in Astronomia Nova.
• Hugo Grotius publishes Mare liberum.
• Cornelius Drebbel invents the thermostat.

Births

• February 10 - John Suckling, English poet (d. 1642)
• February 18 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and statesman (d. 1674)
• March 22 - John II Casimir of Poland (d. 1672)
• March 28 - King Frederick III of Denmark (d. 1670)
• March 29 - Sarah Boyle, English noblewoman (d. 1633)
• May 16 (or 1610) - Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (d. 1641)
• June 29 - Pierre Paul Riquet, French engineer and canal builder (d. 1680)
• August 6 - Richard Bennett, British Colonial Governor of Virginia (d. 1675)
• August 19 - Jean Rotrou, French poet and tragedian (d. 1650)
• October 5 - Paul Fleming, German poet (d. 1640)
• October 8 - John Clarke, English physician (d. 1676)
• October 26 - William Sprague, English co-founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts (d. 1675)
• November 1 - Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England (d. 1676)
• November 25 - Henrietta Maria of France, queen of Charles I of England (d. 1669)
• November 26 - Henry Dunster, first President of Harvard College (d. 1659)
• December 24 - Philip Warwick, English writer and politician (d. 1683)
• date unknown
  • Samuel Cooper, English miniature painter (d. 1672)
  • Alberich Mazak, Austrian composer (d. 1661)
  • Hannibal Sehested, Danish statesman (d. 1666)
  • Gerrard Winstanley, English Protestant religious reformer (d. 1676)
  • Luc d'Achery, French Benedictine (d. 1685)
• probable - Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède, French novelist and dramatist (d. 1663)

Deaths

• January 21 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, French Protestant scholar (b. 1540)
• February 17 - Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549)
• March - James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran (b. c. 1537)
• March 9 - William Warner, English poet (b. c. 1558)
• March 22 - Al-Jilani, Persian physician
• March 25 - Olaus Martini, Swedish Archbishop of Uppsala (b. 1557)
• April 4 - Charles de L'Ecluse, Flemish botanist (b. 1526)
• April 8 - Mark Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian, Scottish statesman (b. 1553)
• May 15 - Giovanni Croce, Italian composer (b. 1557)
• July 15 - Annibale Carracci, Italian painter (b. 1560)
• July 20 - Federico Zuccari, Italian painter (b. 1543)
• August 22 - Maharal of Prague, Jewish mystic and philosopher (b. 1525)
• October 1 - Gianmatteo Asola, Italian composer (b. c. 1532)
• October 19 - Jacobus Arminius, Dutch Reformed theologian (b. 1560)
• December 4 - Alexander Hume, Scottish poet (b. 1560)
• date unknown
  • Yamada Arinobu, Japanese nobleman (b. 1544)
  • Barnabe Barnes, English poet (b. 1568)