Letter Office of England & Scotland started
Flintlock small arms invented around this time (replaces matchlock)
Galileo summoned by Inquisition for publishing in favour of Copernican theory
Parliament dissolved by King Charles I - did not meet for another 11 yea
Writs issued by Charles I that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date
Death of King James VI & I
The size of bricks standardised in England around this time
Monopoly Act in England: patents protected
Edmund Gunter introduces the surveyor's chain (measurement of length)
First English newspaper appeared - Weekly News'
Chimneys to be made of brick and to be four and a half feet above the roof
(Dec 16 old style): The Mayflower reaches America - founds Plymouth, New England (had initially set sail from Southampton on Aug 5)
Manufacture of coke (the fuel, not the drink!) patented by Dud Dudley
(Nov 24 old style): Colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas)
Sir Walter Raleigh beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I