Thou knowest how dry a cinder this world is,
And learnst thus much by our anatomy,
That 'tis in vain to dew, or mollify it
With thy tears, or sweat, or blood.
--John Donne, from his poem "An Anatomy of the World,"
providing the original origin of the phrase "blood, sweat, and tears"
In the year AD 1611...
- The King James Bible is published for the first time, printed in London by Robert Barker.
- The Kalmar War breaks out between Denmark and Sweden over control of Lapland, and will last for three years. The Danes quickly invade Sweden and capture the fortress city of Kalmar after a siege.
- English settlers in Jamestown, Virginia capture three Spanish spies sent to reconnoiter the new colony, including Don Diego de Molina, who later makes it back to Spain and urges King Phillip III to send an army to destroy Jamestown.
- Korean poet Heo Gyun writes a famous book of food criticism entitled Domundaejak, literally "licking one's lips at the butcher's door."
- After wintering in northern Canada while waiting for the ice to clear, English explorer Henry Hudson decides to press on in search of the Northwest Passage. However most of his crew desires to return home to England and mutinies. Hudson and his teenage son are set adrift in a small boat in the middle of the eponymous Hudson Bay, along with 7 other crewmen too sick to be of use or too loyal to Hudson, and all nine are never seen again.
- William Shakespeare's last and most mature play, The Tempest, is performed for the first time.
- Frisian astronomers David Fabricius and son Johannes Fabricius become the first to observe sunspots.
These people were born in 1611:
These people died in 1611:
1610 - 1611 - 1612
17th century
How They Were Made