1592 CE
The Japanese capture the Korean capital Hanyang, causing Seonjo to request the assistance of Ming dynasty Chinese forces, who recapture the city a year later. Sigismund III Vasa becomes the new King of Sweden upon the death of his father, King John III. Edmund MacGauran, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh arrives at Drogheda from Bilbao (having escaped attack by pirates) with a promise from King Philip II of Spain to send troops to support a rebellion in Ireland next summer. At Christmas, he holds a conference of seven northern bishops in the Franciscan friary in Donegal which proposes formation of a Catholic confederacy or league among the nobility and clergy of Ulster and Connacht under the leadership of Tyrconnell.
In the 1590s, the 16th century.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- 6 January – Hugh Roe O'Donnell and the brothers Art and Henry O'Neill escape from Dublin Castle. With the assistance of Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, O'Donnell reaches refuge in the stronghold of Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne at Glenmalure in the Wicklow Mountains, but loses both big toes to frostbite, while Art O'Neill dies of exposure (See: Art O'Neill Challenge). Hugh's father, Aodh mac Maghnusa Ó Domhnaill, abdicates as An Ó Domhnaill (The O'Donnell) and King of Tír Chonaill in his son's favour at the instance of his second wife (Hugh's mother) Iníon Dubh.Irelandsource
- 5 June – Parliament of Scotland meets.Scotlandsource
- June – The Mines and Metals Act grants Scottish landowners freedom to mine, subject to a levy to the Crown. Lord Menmuir was made Master of Metals in June.Scotlandsource
- December 4 – Yu Sŏngnyong becomes the new Yeonguijeong (Chief State Councillor of the government of the Korean Empire, similar to Prime Minister) and serves until 1598.source
- The German Duchy Palatine Zweibrücken becomes the first territory in the world with compulsory education for girls and boys.source
Conflict & Security
- April 13 – The Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98) begin with the Siege of Busanjin.source
- April 20 – King Henry IV of France ends the siege of Rouen, the Spanish-held capital of Normandy, five months after its November 11 commencement, as the Spanish Navy arrives to relieve the city.source
- April 24 – Battle of Sangju: The Japanese are victorious over the Koreans fighting for the Kingdom of Joseon.source
- April 28 – Battle of Ch'ungju: Japan inflicts a decisive defeat on Korea.source
- May 7 – Battle of Okpo: The Korean navy is victorious over Japan.source
- May 20 –August 19 – Battle of Flores (Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)), a series of naval engagements in the Azores in which the English are victorious, taking the great Portuguese carrack Madre de Deus on or about August 3.source
- May 29 – Battle of Sacheon: Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin destroys all 13 Japanese ships taking part, using his improved turtle ship for the first time in battle.source
- June 2 – Battle of Dangpo:The Korean navy is again victorious over Japan.source
- June 10 – The Siege of Bihać begins in the Kingdom of Croatia, by Telli Hasan Pasha (Hasan Predojević) of the Ottoman Empire. Bihać is captured on June 19 and is lost for Croatia forever.source
- July 20 – The Japanese capture the Korean capital Hanyang, causing Seonjo to request the assistance of Ming dynasty Chinese forces, who recapture the city a year later.source
- July 30 – Alonso de Sotomayor petitions the viceroy of Peru for more troops to help resist attacks by Indians and English pirates.source
- August 14 – Battle of Hansan Island: The Korean navy defeats the Japanese.source
- September 1 – Battle of Busan: The Korean fleet makes a surprise attack on the Japanese but fails to break their supply lines to Busan.source
- October 5 – Siege of Jinju: The Korean navy is victorious over the Japanese.source
- November 4 (2nd waxing of Natdaw, 954 ME) – In a war between what are now the nations of Myanmar and Thailand, the Army of Burma, led by King Nanda Bayin Burma (Toungoo) begins its invasion of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (Siam), defended by King Naresuan.source
- December 1591 to May 1592 – Siege of RouenFrancesource
- December – Edmund MacGauran, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh arrives at Drogheda from Bilbao (having escaped attack by pirates) with a promise from King Philip II of Spain to send troops to support a rebellion in Ireland next summer. At Christmas, he holds a conference of seven northern bishops in the Franciscan friary in Donegal which proposes formation of a Catholic confederacy or league among the nobility and clergy of Ulster and Connacht under the leadership of Tyrconnell.Irelandsource
- 21 to 24 May – Battle of CraonFrancesource
Exploration & Expansion
Religion & Belief
- January 29 – Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini of San Pancrazio is elected as the new Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church after Ludovico Madruzzo and Giulio Antonio Santori withdraw following 19 rounds of voting by the 54 cardinals present. Cardinal Santori had received 28 votes on the first ballot, eight short of the necessary two-thirds majority required, and fewer on the rounds that followed. Aldobrandini is crowned the next day as Pope Clement VIII, the 231st pope. Clement succeeds Pope Innocent IX, who died on December 30, 1591. He immediately recalls the Sixtine Vulgate.source
- April 4 – The future Henry IV of France, King designate of Henry III of France, announces in a declaration, so-called "Expedient," his intention to take instruction in, and convert to, the Catholic religion.source
- June – James VI enacts the "Golden Act" recognising the power of Presbyterianism within the Scottish church.Scotlandsource
- November 3 – The city of San Luis Potosí is founded.source
- November 9 – The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, an updated edition of the Latin language translation of the Bible, is promulgated by the Roman Catholic Church.source
- November 12 – The Collegium Melitense is founded in Malta by Bishop Garagallo.source
- 17 November - John III is succeeded by his son, the Polish electoral monarch Sigismund III Vasa, which create a personal union between Protestant Sweden and Catholic Poland. This is opposed by both the Royal Council and Duke Charles, who unite against him.Swedensource
Technology & Infrastructure
Science & Discovery
- March 14 – Ultimate Pi Day: the largest correspondence between calendar dates and significant digits of pi since the introduction of the Julian calendar according to the American method of writing the number of the month prior to the day.source
- December – Spanish blanks plot discovered.Scotlandsource
Health & Medicine
- May 7 – The Malta plague epidemic begins when galleys from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany arrive on the island with 100 prisoners of war from Egypt, and 20 ill crewmembers; over the next 18 months, 3,000 people on Malta die of the bubonic plague.source
- August – 1592–1593 London plague breaks out in England.source
- December 21 – The city of London begins publishing the Bill of Mortality, the first regular data of deaths from an epidemic, as the government reports its weekly survey of the number of burials in the 113 parishes of London of deaths from bubonic plague. The death statistics continue to be published until December 18, 1595.source
- William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I of England, is taken seriously ill.source
- The Population Census Edict is promulgated in Japan by Toyotomi Hidetsugu.source
Crime & Justice
- February 7 – George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, sets fire to Donibristle Castle in Scotland and murders James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray.source
- 7 February – George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, sets fire to Donibristle Castle and murders James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray.Scotlandsource
- 28 June – the outlawed Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, attempts to capture Falkland Palace and the king, accompanied by Walter Scott of Harden and James Scott of Balwearie, with the English border reivers Richie Graham of Brackenhill and Thomas Musgrave of Bewcastle, and others.Scotlandsource
- August – Margaret Vinstarr helps her lover John Wemyss of Logie escape from Dalkeith Palace.Scotlandsource
- September 7 – The captured Madre de Deus enters Dartmouth harbour in England and is then subjected to mass theft.source
Disasters & Accidents
- The Confucian shrine of Munmyo in Korea is destroyed by fire.source
Culture & Society
- March 3 – Trinity College Dublin, Ireland's oldest university, is founded.source
- 8 July - The King's brother Duke Charles, is wed to Christina of Holstein-Gottorp in a ceremony attended by noted German travel writer and poet Michael Heberer, who pens a record of the events.Swedensource
- November 17 – Sigismund III Vasa becomes the new King of Sweden upon the death of his father, King John III.source
- Negotiations begin for the annulment of the childless marriage of Henry IV of France and Marguerite of Valois.source
- Henry Constable's Diana, one of the first sonnet sequences in English, is published in London.source
Births
- January 5 – Shah Jahan, 5th Mughal Emperor of India from 1628 to 1658 (died 1666)source
- 5 January – Shah Jahan, Emperor and poet (died 1666).Indiasource
- January 22 – Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher and scientist (died 1655)source
- 22 January – Pierre Gassendi, philosopher, scientist, mathematician and astronomer (died 1655)Francesource
- February 22 – Nicholas Ferrar, English trader (died 1637)source
- March 28 – Comenius, Czech teacher and writer (died 1670)source
- April 11 – John Eliot, Member of Parliament, Statesman, Vice-Admiral of Devon (died 1632)source
- April 22 – Wilhelm Schickard, German inventor (died 1635)source
- August 13 – William, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German count (died 1642)source
- August 28 – George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (died 1628)source
- September 15 – Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo (died 1653)source
- September 18 – Jean Guyon, French colonist (died 1663)source
- November 4 – Gerard van Honthorst, Dutch painter (died 1656)source
- November 28 – Hong Taiji, Emperor of China (died 1643)source
- December 6 – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle (died 1676)source
- December 29 – Johannes Matthiae Gothus, Swedish academic (died 1670)source
- 29 December - Johannes Matthiae Gothus, professor (died 1670)Swedensource
- George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly (died 1649)Scotlandsource
Deaths
- January 5 – William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, German nobleman (born 1516)source
- January 22 – Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France (born 1554)source
- January 27 – Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (born 1538)source
- 7 February – James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray (born c.1565)Scotlandsource
- February 29 – Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer (born 1540)source
- March 5 – Michiel Coxie, Flemish painter (born 1499)source
- May 17 – Paschal Baylon, Spanish mystic and saint (born 1540)source
- June 17 – Ernst Ludwig, Duke of Pomerania (born 1545)source
- July 26 – Armand de Gontaut, Baron of Biron, French soldier (born 1524)source
- August 25 – William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) (born 1532)source
- September 3 – Robert Greene, English writer (born 1558)source
- September 13 – Michel de Montaigne, French essayist (born 1533)source
- 13 September – Michel de Montaigne, philosopher and essayist (born 1533)Francesource
- October 19 – Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, English politician (born 1528)source
- 3 November – Sir John Perrot, former Lord Deputy of Ireland, dies in the Tower of London awaiting sentence for a conviction for high treason.Irelandsource
- November 17 – King John III of Sweden (born 1537)source
- 17 November - John III, monarch (born 1537)Swedensource
- December 3 – Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma (born 1545)source