1587 CE

Sir Walter Raleigh appoints John White to be the Governor of the Roanoke Colony, to be established later in the year by English colonists on Roanoke Island off the coast of the modern-day U.S. state of North Carolina. White and 121 other colonists depart from Portsmouth on three ships on May 8 and arrive at Croatoan Island on July 22. Roanoke Colony: A group of English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island off North Carolina, to re-establish the deserted colony. Governor John White leaves the Roanoke Colony to get more supplies from England.

In the 1580s, the 16th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

March 6 – In west Africa, Álvaro II Nimi a Nkanga becomes the new ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, with a capital at São Salvador in what becomes the city of M'banza-Kongo in the northern part of the Republic of Angola, and including parts of the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Alvaro II claims the throne upon the dath of his father, Álvaro I Nimi a Lukeni lua Mvemba.source
August 18 – According to legend, Saul Wahl is named king of Poland; he is deposed the following day.source
August 27 – Governor John White leaves the Roanoke Colony to get more supplies from England.source
September 28 – At Gremi in the modern-day Republic of Georgia, King Alexander II of Kakheti signs an oath of allegiance to Feodor I, the Tsar of all Russia.source
Guillaume Du Bartas was sent on a diplomatic mission to Scotland.France source

Conflict & Security

April 20 (14th waxing of Kason 949 ME) – Burmese–Siamese War (1584–1593): Burma's siege of Ayutthaya (now in Thailand), capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, fails after six months as the troops of Burma's King Nanda Bayin begin their withdrawal.source
June 11 (Tensho 15, 6th day of 5th month) – Most of Kyushu is surrendered to Toyotomi Hideyoshi by Yoshihisa Shimazu, 32 days after Hideyoshi's siege of Kagoshima began (on the 3rd day of the 4th month). Hideyoshi follows on July 24 (19th day of the 6th month of Tensho 15) with an order banishing all European Christian missionaries from the province.source
October 7 – Sigismund Vasa and a fleet of Swedish ships land in Poland to confront an invasion by Maximilian III and an Austrian Army.source
October 14 – War of the Polish Succession (1587–1588): Archduke Maximilian of Austria begins the siege of Kraków, while Jan Zamoyski, hetman of the Polish Army, begins the defense of the city.source
20 October – Huguenot and Royalist forces clashed at the Battle of Coutras. Hugeunots under Henry of Navarre won the battle.France source
26 October – Royalist forces commanded by Henry I, Duke of Guise won the Battle of Vimory.France source
November 22 – A final Austrian attack on Kraków by Archduke Maximilian III is repelled by the Polish defenders.source
November 29 – Maximilian III withdraws his forces and the siege of Kraków ends.source

Exploration & Expansion

January 7 – Sir Walter Raleigh appoints John White to be the Governor of the Roanoke Colony, to be established later in the year by English colonists on Roanoke Island off the coast of the modern-day U.S. state of North Carolina. White and 121 other colonists depart from Portsmouth on three ships on May 8 and arrive at Croatoan Island on July 22.source
January 14 – In Japan, Chancellor of the Realm Toyotomi Hideyoshi ends Portugal's control of the port of Nagasaki after six years. Omura Sumitada had leased the fishing village to Portuguese Jesuits on August 15, 1580.source
March 15 – English sailor Sir Francis Drake accepts a privateering commission from Queen Elizabeth to disrupt shipping routes in order to slow supplies from Italy and Andalucia to Lisbon, to trouble enemy fleets in their home ports, to capture Spanish treasure ships and to attack the Spanish Armada if it were to sail for England. On 12 April, his fleet sails from Plymouth.source
April 29 – Singeing the King of Spain's Beard: On his expedition against Spain, English sailor Sir Francis Drake leads a raid in the Bay of Cádiz, sinking or capturing at least 30 ships of the Spanish fleet, delaying by a year the sailing of the Spanish Armada for England.source
May 8 – The second expedition to establish an English colony at Roanoke Island in North America departs from England with two ships, supplies, and 121 people under the command of John White.source
May 19 – John Davis sets out from Dartmouth, Devon, for a third attempt to find the Northwest Passage.source
July 22 – Roanoke Colony: A group of English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island off North Carolina, to re-establish the deserted colony.source
October 18 – Landing of the first Filipinos: The first Filipinos in North America land in Morro Bay, near San Luis Obispo in modern-day California.source
November 4 – During the circumnavigation of the world by Thomas Cavendish, the English ships capture the Spanish galleon Santa Ana and its treasure of 100 troy pounds of gold (worth 122,000 Spanish pesos) and a total treasure worth 2.1 million pesos.source

Religion & Belief

February 27 – Sir Anthony Cope, a member of the English Parliament, is imprisoned in the Tower of London after presenting a Puritan revision of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir John Puckering. He is released on March 23.source
June 20 – Gabriel VIII becomes the new Pontiff of the Coptic Christian Church in Egypt, being enthroned as Pope Gabriel VIII and filling a vacancy that had existed for nine months since the death of Pope John XIV of Alexandria. Gabriel will reign until his death on May 14, 1603.source
October 1 – Shāh ‘Abbās I "The Great" succeeds as Shahanshah of Iran.source
November 14 – Davide Vacca is elected to a two-year term as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa in Italy in a vote by the Grand Council of the Republic.source
St. Dominic's Church, Macau is established.source
Hailuoto, an island in the Bothnian Bay, is separated from the grand parish of Saloinen into an independent parish.source
Pope Sixtus V establishes the canon law office of 'Promoter of the Faith' (promotor fidei), popularly known as the "Devil's advocate" (advocatus diaboli).source
Collège de France instituted Arabic lessons, with Arnoult de Lisle being the first professor of the chair of Arabic.France source
Jami Masjid constructed in HajipurIndia source
Nara Narayan ruler of the Koch Kingdom comes to an end with his death (reigned since 1540)India source

Technology & Infrastructure

Construction of Couvent des Feuillants was started.France source

Science & Discovery

The chapbook Historia von D. Johann Fausten, printed by Johann Spies in Frankfurt, is the first published version of the Faust story.source

Climate & Environment

February 12 – A period of exceptionally severe cold begins in western Europe and lasts until February 24.source
A severe famine breaks out in Ming dynasty China.source

Culture & Society

February 5 (1st waxing of Tabaung 948 ME) – King Nanda of Burma appoints his eldest son and heir apparent, Minye Kyawswa II, as Viceroy of Ava, later part of upper Burma, with a capital at Inwa (located in the modern-day Mandalay Region of Myanmar).source
August 19 – Polish and Lithuanian nobles elect Sigismund III Vasa, King of Sweden, as the ruler of the after the death in December of the previous King of Poland and Duke of Lithuania, Stephen Báthory.source
August 22 – A small group of nobles who oppose Sigismund Vasa as King vote to proclaim Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria, as ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a decision supported by the Primate of Poland, Stanisław Karnkowski. The divide begins the War of the Polish Succession.source
September 9 – In the Burgundian Netherlands (part of modern-day Belgium), the faculty at the University of Leuven publishes a condemnation of the 34 propositions drawn up by the Jesuit scholar Michel Baius, leading to a campaign by traditional Belgian Catholics against the Jesuits.source
September 22 – The coronation of Vincenzo Gonzaga as Duke of Mantua in Italy takes place.source
October 31 – Leiden University Library opens its doors, after its founding in 1575.source
December 27 – Sigismund III Vasa is formally crowned as King Zygmunt Waza of Poland and Duke of Lithuania in a coronation ceremony at Kraków.source
The Rose (theatre), the first on Bankside in London, is built by Philip Henslowe and functioning by the year's end.source
Everard Digby's De Arte Natandi, the first treatise on swimming in England, is published.source

Births

January 6 – Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, Spanish politician (died 1645)source
January 8 – Jan Pieterszoon Coen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (died 1629)source
January 12 – John Winthrop, English Puritan lawyer (died 1649)source
April 18 – Sir Charles Morrison, 1st Baronet, Member of the Parliament of England (died 1628)source
June 5 – Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, English colonial administrator and admiral (died 1658)source
12 June - Gustav of Sweden, child of Charles IX (died in infancy)Sweden source
June 24 – William Arnold, American settler (died 1676)source
August 16 – Khusrau Mirza, Mughal prince (died 1622)source
August 18 – Virginia Dare, Virginia colony settlersource
September 3 – Countess Juliane of Nassau-Siegen, Landgravine of Hesse-kassel (died 1643)source
September 18 – Francesca Caccini, Italian composersource
October 23 – Sir Gilbert Gerard, 1st Baronet of Harrow on the Hill, English politician (died 1670)source
November 17 – Joost van den Vondel, Dutch dramatist and poet (died 1679)source
November 17 – Charles Lallemant, French Jesuit (died 1674)source
17 November – Charles Lallemant, French Jesuit (died 1674)France source
November 25 – Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet, English politician (died 1666)source
Cahir O'Doherty, last Gaelic Lord of Inishowen (died 1608)Ireland source
Approximate date – Thomas Young, Presbyterian minister (died 1655 in England)Scotland source

Deaths

January 31 – Juraj Drašković, Croatian Roman Catholic cardinal (born 1525)source
January – Thomas Seckford, English official (born 1515)source
February 8 – Mary, Queen of Scots, the monarch of Scotland from 1542 to 1567, is beheaded in front of 300 witnesses at Fotheringhay Castle, seven days after the signing of a death warrant by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England. Mary has been convicted of treason for her role in the Babington Plot, a conspiracy to overthrow the English government and to assassinate Elizabeth.source
February 8 – Mary, Queen of Scots (executed) (born 1542)source
8 February – Mary, Queen of Scots (born 1542)Scotland source
8 February – the captive Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England on the orders of her cousin Elizabeth I of England for being implicated in the Babington Plot against her.Scotland source
March 30 – Ralph Sadler, English statesman (born 1507)source
April 8 – John Foxe, English author (born 1516)source
April 11 – Thomas Bromley, English lord chancellor (born 1530)source
April 16 – Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (born c. 1510)source
May 29 – Ignatius Ni'matallah, Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch (born c. 1515)source
June 11 – Ōtomo Sōrin, Japanese Christian daimyō (born 1530)source
June 23 – Ōmura Sumitada, Japanese Christian daimyō (born 1533)source
October 19 – Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1541)source
October 20 – Anne de Joyeuse, Duke of Joyeuse, French commander, (born 1560)source
October 20 – Battle of Coutras: Huguenot forces under Henry of Navarre defeat Royalist forces under Anne de Joyeuse, favorite of King Henry III of France; Joyeuse is killed.source
20 October – Anne de Joyeuse, French noble and commander (born 1560)France source
Nara Narayan, last ruler of the Koch Kingdom diesIndia source