    __notoc__ year 1612 (mdcxii) was a leap year starting on sunday of the gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on wednesday of the 10-day slower julian calendar. == events == === january&ndash;june === * january 6 &ndash; axel oxenstierna becomes lord high chancellor of sweden. he persuades the riksdag of the estates to grant the swedish nobility the right and privilege to hold all higher offices of government. * january 20 &ndash; matthias becomes holy roman emperor upon the death of rudolf ii. * january 20&ndash;november 4 &ndash; an uprising in moscow expels polish troops. * march 2 &ndash; false dmitry iii is recognised as tsar by the cossacks. * april 11 &ndash; edward wightman, a radical anabaptist, is the last person to be executed for heresy in england, by burning at the stake in lichfield. * may 10 &ndash; shah jahan marries mumtaz mahal. * may 23&ndash;may 25 &ndash; a sicilianâneapolitan galley fleet defeats the tunisians at la goulette. * june 13 &ndash; matthias, holy roman emperor formally elected. === july&ndash;december === * july 22 &ndash; four women and one man are hanged following the northamptonshire witch trials in northampton, england. * august 20 &ndash; ten 'pendle witches' are hanged having been found guilty of practising witchcraft in lancashire, england. * august 26 &ndash; a scottish mercenary force is destroyed in norway at the battle of kringen. * november 29 &ndash; treaty of nasuh pasha: signed between ottoman empire and safavid empire * november 30 &ndash; battle of swally: forces of the british east india company and portugal engage off the coast of india, resulting in a british victory. * december 15 &ndash; simon marius, is first to observe andromeda galaxy through a telescope. * december 28 &ndash; galileo galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet neptune when in conjunction with jupiter, yet he mistakenly catalogues it as a fixed star because of its extremely slow motion along the ecliptic. neptune is not truly discovered until 1846, about 234 years after galileo first sights it w
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