Major Events
- Feb 25 Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria becomes monarch of Palts
- Mar 5 1st American temperance law enacted, Virginia
- Apr 29 11 Dutch ships depart for the conquest of Peru
- Jun 14 1st breach-of-promise lawsuit: Rev Gerville Pooley, Virginia files against Cicely Jordan, he loses
- Aug 6 Maffeo Barberini elected Pope Urban VIII
- Nov 1 Fire at Plymouth, Massachusetts, destroys several buildings
- Dec 5 First copies purchased of William Shakespeare's First Folio, collecting his plays posthumously into one volume, bought by Edward Dering
Blaise PascalMore People Born in 1623
Who Died in 1623
- Jan 14 Paolo Sarpi, Italian church historian and politician, dies at 70
- Feb 8 Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, English politician, dies at 80
- Mar 19 Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1556)
- Jul 4 William Byrd, British composer (Ave verum corpus), dies at 80
- Jul 8 Gregory XV [Alessandro Ludovisi], Italian Catholic pope (1621-23) and Archbishop of Bologna, dies at 69
More 1623 Deaths
James I and VI