1602 (idea)

• Crop failures in Russia cause a massive famine that leads to the deaths of aproximately 1 million peasants, and will kill over 100,000 in Moscow alone by the end of 1603.
• The Dutch East India Company is chartered by the States-General of the Netherlands to expand Dutch trade in Asia.
• Duke of Savoy Charles Emmanuel I's attempt to conquer Geneva by suprise attack is thwarted.
• Spanish troops surrender to Lord Mountjoy at Kinsale, ending an attempted invasion of Ireland in support of the rebellion begun by the Earl of Tyrone.
• Prince Sigismund Báthory of Transylvania abdicates in favor of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II for the second and final time.
• The Danish crown grants a monopoly on all trade to and from Iceland to a Copenhagen trading company, a policy that devastates the Icelandic economy.
• English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold explores the coasts of what are now Maine and Massachusetts, naming Cape Cod and several islands and establishing a fort at Cuttyhunk, westernmost of the Elizabeth Islands.
• Spanish navigator Sebastián Vizcaíno explores the California coast, discovering and naming San Diego, Santa Catalina Island, Santa Barbara, and Monterey Bay.
• Sir Thomas Bodley establishes the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.
• Jesuit missionary to Beijing Matteo Ricci draws the "Gonyomangookjundo," a room-sized multi-sheet wall map of the world on rice paper.

These people were born in 1602:

• French statesman Jules Mazarin, who would virtually rule France from 1643 until his death in 1661.
• German physicist Otto von Guericke.
• Japanese painter Kano Tanyu, reviver of the Kano school of Japanese painting.
• Italian opera composer Pietro Francesco Cavalli.
• Spanish playwright and novelist Juan Pérez de Montalván.
• Italian sculptor Giacomo della Porta.
• French painter Philippe de Champaigne.
• French engraver and painter Abraham Bosse.
• English statesman and antiquarian Sir Simonds D'Ewes.

These people died in 1602:

• English composer Thomas Morley, one of the foremost members of the English Madrigal School.
• Persian scholar Abulfazl, adviser and biographer to Mughal emperor Akbar, murdered at the instigation of Akbar's heir Jahangir.
• Irish chieftan "Red" Hugh O'Donnell.
• Italian painter Agostino Carracci.

1601 - 1602 - 1603

17th century