Events January–March January 3 – A fleet of Spanish ships, commanded by Lorenzo de Zuazola to travel to the Philippines, runs into a violent storm after its departure from Cadiz, with the loss of many lives, including Zuazola. January 7 – Ben Jonson's play News from the New World Discovered in the Moon is given its first performance, a presentation to King James I of England. In addition to dialogue about actual observations made by telescope of the Moon, the play includes a fanciful discussion of a lunar civilization a dance by the "Volatees", the lunar race. January 22 – In France, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes and his wife, the Duchess Marie de Rohan, sign a marriage contract on behalf of their one-year-old daughter to be engaged to the year-old son of Charles, Duke of Guise. January 26 – Karan Singh II becomes the new ruler of the Kingdom of Mewar (in what is now the state of Rajasthan in India) upon the death of his father, the Maharana Amar Singh I. February 4 – Prince Bethlen Gabor signs a peace treaty with Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. March 22 – King Karma Phuntsok Namgyal of Tibet dies of smallpox after a reign of less than two years, after Ngawang Namgyal of Bhutan casts a tantric spell over him. March 24 – English sailor Owen Fitzpen is captured by Turkish pirates while on a trading voyage in the Mediterranean Sea and sold into slavery. He remains a slave in North Africa for seven years until he and 10 other slaves are able to take over a Turkish ship and sail back to Europe. April–June April 1 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and former King of Bohemia, sends a two-month ultimatum directing King Frederick of Bohemia (who had usurped the throne in what is now the Czech Republic) to leave Bohemia by June 1. Frederick refuses to depart his capital at Prague. April 7 – The earliest recorded earthquake in South Africa occurs at Robben Island. April 20 – Mian Shahul Mouhammed Kalhoro begins his reign at Karachi as the king of Sindh, in what is now Pakistan, and rules until 1657. May 17 – The first merry-go-round is seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey). June 3 – The oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, is begun at Quebec City in what is now, Canada. July–September