"Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."
- Text of the Mayflower Compact, 1620.
China's Wanli Emperor dies and is succeeded by his eldest son, the Taichang Emperor, but Taichang falls gravely ill just 10 days after taking the throne. After trying a bunch of medicines which only seemed to make him worse, he tried a mysterious red pill given to him by a minor court official named Li Kezhuo and seemed to make a miraculous recovery. He then took a second red pill and died the next day, to be succeeded by his son, the Tianqi Emperor. This affair became known as the infamous "Case of the Red Pills" (红丸案) and was remembered as one of three notorious "mysteries" of the late Ming Dynasty.
Cornelius Drebbel, a cunning Dutchman working working for the English Royal Navy, successfully builds and launches the first navigable submarine on the River Thames. Based on a 1578 design by William Borne,the Drebbel is a leather-covered wooden frame propelled by oars.
Francis Bacon publishes his influential Novum Organum (so named because he viewed it as an update of Aristotle's treatise on logic, Organon), in which he propounds a method of scientific investigation now known as the "Baconian Method," and an early precursor to the scientific method.
In the year AD 1620...
These people were born in 1620:
These people died in 1620:
1619 - 1620 - 1621
How They Were Made