Europeans first landed in Australia after Don Quixote was published.
Cervantes' novel came out in 1605; the Dutchman Willem Janszoon reached the Australian coast aboard the Duyfken in 1606.
The events
- Janszoon lands in Australia1606 · Cape York Peninsula, Australia. In 1606 the Dutch ship Duyfken under Willem Janszoon, searching for gold and spices south of New Guinea, sailed along the west coast of Cape York. It is the first documented European landing in Australia. The encounter with Aboriginal people ended in a clash, and Janszoon judged the coast swampy and barren, assuming it was part of New Guinea.
- Cervantes's Don Quixote1605 · Madrid. The first part of Miguel de Cervantes's novel about the knight of La Mancha appeared in Madrid; the second followed in 1615. A parody of chivalric romances, it is often called the first modern novel.
More amazing facts
- 1603 · 1629 Kabuki, where men play every role, was invented by a woman.
- 1603 · 1721 Edo, the future Tokyo, had over a million people by the 1720s, one of the largest cities in the world.
- 1604 · 1609 The last supernova seen in our galaxy blazed five years before Galileo turned a telescope to the sky. Kepler's star appeared in 1604, and no Milky Way supernova has been reliably seen since.
- 1605 · 1616 Cervantes and Shakespeare died in April 1616 on nearly the same calendar date — but Spain used the Gregorian calendar and England did not, so over a week really separates them.
- 1605 The Mughal emperor Jahangir hung a "chain of justice" with 60 bells outside his palace.
- 1606 · 1770 The Dutch landed in Australia 164 years before Cook.