date: June 21

text: June 21 (8 Cemazi ul-evvel 988 AH) – England signs a commercial treaty with the Ottoman Empire, and Sultan Murad III sends a letter to Queen Elizabeth I informing her, "Just as the merchants of Poland and France and Venice come and go, the merchants of your domain also shall bring wares to our Well-Protected Domains and take away wares." In return, Murad III is able to purchase English metals (iron, brass and tin) for his war with Iran.


date: September 29

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: September 29 – Five of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic (with the exception of Zeeland and Holland) sign the Treaty of Plessis-les-Tours, recognizing Francis, Duke of Anjou as the Republic's sovereign.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Lorenzo Suárez de Mendoza, the Spanish Count of Coruña, arrives in Mexico City to take office as the Viceroy of New Spain, administering Mexico and Central America on behalf of King Philip II.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: February 16

section: Conflict & Security

text: February 16 – The massacre of 20 artists at the Mardi Gras festivities, at the annual Carnaval de Romans during the festival, takes place in France at Romans-sur-Isère.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: March 3

text: March 3 – George de Lalaing, Count of Rennenberg defects from the Union of Utrecht and the Dutch Republic, and turns over the province of Groningen to King Philip II of Spain.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – English Fury at Mechelen: English and Scottish mercenaries, assisting the Dutch Republic, storm the Spanish Netherlands city of Mechelen (in modern-day Belgium), killing 60 civilians and plundering the town's houses and churches.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Rebels of the Dutch Union of Utrecht, aided by French soldiers, make a surprise attack on the Spanish Netherlands city of Diest in the Duchy of Brabant, and overwhelm the strategic location, now in Belgium, in one day.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Battle of Alcântara: Spanish armies, led by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, defending the claim of King Philip II of Spain to the Portuguese throne, defeat the armies of Portuguese claimant António, Prior of Crato.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – The Siege of Steenwijk in the Dutch Republic is started by the Spanish Netherlands. The siege will last four months and the Spanish troops will capture Steenwijk on February 23.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The War of the Portuguese Succession comes to an end as Spanish forces crush the final Portuguese resistance in the last stronghold in mainland Portugal, Porto. For the next 60 years, Portugal will be ruled by the Kings of Spain.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Second Desmond Rebellion: The Siege of Smerwick (now Ard na Caithne in County Kerry, Ireland) ends after three days when their commander surrenders to the English. Members of a group of at least 400 freelance soldiers, and perhaps as many as 700, for the Papal States are summarily executed on orders of the English Lord Deputy of Ireland, Baron Grey de Wilton.


date: September 26

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: September 26 – Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England from his voyage of circumnavigation (westbound) on the Golden Hind, the second completed in a continuous voyage, and the first under its original commander.


text: The Old City of Zamość is established in Poland, by Jan Zamoyski.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: February 28

section: Religion & Belief

text: February 28 – Three Jesuit priests from Portuguese Goa, including Rodolfo Acquaviva, arrive in Agra on the mainland of India as guests of the Mughal Emperor, Akbar the Great, who is curious about Christianity. The Emperor grants land to the Jesuit fathers for the building of the first Roman Catholic Church in the Mughal Empire.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Michel de Montaigne signs the preface to his most significant work, Essays. They are published later this year.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Stephen Báthory is formally crowned as Grand Duke of Lithuania at the Vilnius Cathedral.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The Ostrog Bible, the first complete printed Bible translation into a Slavic language (Old Church Slavonic), is first printed at Ostroh in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (modern-day Ukraine) by Ivan Fyodorov.


text: The first session of the Jewish Vaad (Council of Four Lands) is held in Lublin, Poland; 70 delegates of Jewish local qahals meet to discuss taxation, and other issues important to Jewish communities.


date: December 31

section: Crime & Justice

text: December 31 – James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, formerly the regent for King James VI of Scotland, is arrested during a meeting of Scotland's Privy Council at Holyrood on the accusation of James Stewart, Earl of Arran that the Earl of Morton had participated in the 1567 murder of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots and father of King James. Morton is taken to Dumbarton Castle and convicted of conspiracy to murder, and executed on June 2.


date: April 6

section: Climate & Environment

text: April 6 – The Dover Straits earthquake occurs.


text: The Billy Mitchell volcano, on the island of Bougainville, undergoes a catastrophic eruption (VEI 6).


date: May

section: Culture & Society

text: May – The Lipizzan stud is established by Charles II, Archduke of Austria.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – The Book of Concord, a collection of Lutheran confessional documents, is published.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Portuguese succession crisis of 1580: António, Prior of Crato, a grandson of the late King Manuel by Manuel's second son, the Duke of Beja is proclaimed King of Portugal by his supporters in the city of Santarém, and popular acclamation follows in Lisbon and other locations. Portugal's parliament, the Cortes, refuses to acknowledge Antonio and he is defeated 32 days later at Alcântara.


date: January 12

section: Births

text: January 12 – Jan Baptist van Helmont, Flemish chemist (d. 1644)

source_section: Births


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Gundakar, Prince of Liechtenstein, court official in Vienna (d. 1658)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland, English noble (d. 1629)


date: February

text: February – John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol, English diplomat (d. 1653)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Augusta of Denmark, Duchess Consort of Holstein-Gottorp (1596-1616) (d. 1639)


text: April 8 – William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, English noble, courtier and patron of the arts (d. 1630)


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, French noble (d. 1637)


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Fadrique de Toledo, 1st Marquis of Villanueva de Valdueza, Spanish noble and admiral (d. 1634)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Godefroy Wendelin, Flemish astronomer (d. 1667)


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Peter Claver, Spanish Jesuit priest (d. 1654)


text: June 26 – Gaspar de Borja y Velasco, Spanish Catholic cardinal (d. 1645)


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish writer (d. 1645)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (d. 1637)


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Samuel Argall, English adventurer and naval officer (d. 1626)


date: January 18

section: Deaths

text: January 18 – Archangelo de' Bianchi, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1516)

source_section: Deaths


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Portuguese succession crisis of 1580: The death of Henry, King of Portugal, with no direct heirs, leads to conflict between his potential successors, including King Philip II of Spain and Infanta Catherine, Duchess of Braganza.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, English nobleman (b. 1511)


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Dorothea of Denmark, Electress Palatine, Princess of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (b. 1520)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – In the Kingdom of Golconda (part of the modern-day Indian state of Telangana), 15-year-old Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah is proclaimed as the new Sultan upon the death of his father, Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah Wali.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Luís de Camões, Portuguese poet (b. c. 1524)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Andrea Palladio, Italian architect (b. 1508)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Jerónimo Osório, Portuguese historian (b. 1506)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Antonín Brus of Mohelnice, Moravian Catholic archbishop (b. 1518)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Catherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, English noblewoman (b. 1519)


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Honorat II of Savoy, French Navy admiral (b. 1511)


date: September

text: September – Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, French royal mistress and cultural patron (b. 1508)


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Anna of Austria, Queen of Spain (b. 1549)


text: December 1 – Giovanni Morone, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1509)


date: January 14

text: January 14 – The Treaty of Drohiczyn is concluded, ending the Livonian War and adding the conquered city of Riga to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – The Treaty of Plessis-les-Tours between the Duchy of Anjou and most of the states of the Dutch Republic is ratified at Bourdeaux, granting Francis, Duke of Anjou executive authority over the Republic with the title "Protector of the Liberty of the Netherlands".


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Iberian Union: Philip II of Spain is crowned Philip I of Portugal.


date: July 22

text: July 22 - At a meeting of the States General of the Union of Utrecht at Antwerp, the representatives vote to proclaim their independence from Spain in the Act of Abjuration, abjuring loyalty to Philip II of Spain as their sovereign, and appointing Francis, Duke of Anjou, as the new sovereign of the Netherlands; public practice of Roman Catholicism is forbidden.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – The Act of Abjuration is signed at The Hague by representatives of eight Dutch provinces as a declaration of independence from Spanish rule and a secession from the Union of Utrecht. The signing confirms a decision made in a July 22 meeting of the States General in Antwerp. King Philip II of Spain refuses to acknowledge the Abjuration.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Martín Enríquez de Almanza arrives in Lima and becomes the new Viceroy of Peru, replacing Francisco de Toledo, who was summoned home by King Philip II.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – (7th waxing of Tabaung 942 ME) Prince Shin Thissa, later to become King of Burma in 1599 as Nyaungyan Min, receives his first executive job when he is appointed to be Governor of Nyaungyan by his father, King Bayinnaung.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – The Spanish Army is forced to abandon the siege of Steenwijk in the Netherlands after more than four months.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – (10th waning of Nayon 943 ME) In Burma, Thiri Thudhamma Yaza of Martaban becomes the new Viceroy of Martaban (now Mottama in the Mon State of Myanmar) after the demise of Minye Nandameit.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Capture of Breda: After a surprise attack the day before, Spanish troops under the command of Claude de Berlaymont, Lord of Haultepenne, take the walled city Breda in the Netherlands. Once inside the gates, the Spanish troops overcome the defenders and carry out the massacre of 584 citizens in the "Haultepenne Fury".


text: August 28 – The army of King Stephen Báthory of Poland begins its siege of the Russian garrison of Pskov.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – A mercenary army of Sweden, under Pontus De la Gardie, captures Narva from Russia.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – In Japan, warlord Oda Nobunaga invades the Iga Province. With 42,000 troops under his command against 10,000 defenders led by Takino Jurobei, Nobunaga controls most of central Japan within eight days.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – The Tenshō Iga War ends in Japan with the surrender of Kashiwara Castle to Oda Nobunaga.


text: John Dee practices angel magic with Barnabas Saul, but with no success.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Following his circumnavigation of the world, Francis Drake is knighted by Elizabeth I of England.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – The Parliament of England's Act against Reconciliation to Rome imposes heavy fines, for practising Roman Catholicism.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – The Knights Hospitaller depose Jean de la Cassière as Grandmaster and appoint Mathurin Romegas in his place.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Jean de la Cassière is restored as Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller, by Pope Gregory XIII.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – In England, Jesuit priest Edmund Campion is executed for treason.


text: Guru Arjan Dev becomes the fifth Guru of Sikhs, succeeding his father Guru Ram Das.


text: The last Bishop of Meissen, John IX of Haugwitz, resigns his office in the wake of the Reformation.


section: Economy & Finance

text: The Ming Dynasty Chancellor of China, Chief Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, imposes the Single Whip Reform, by which taxes are assessed on properties recorded in the land census, and paid in silver, as the accepted medium of exchange.


section: Science & Discovery

text: July 26 – A meteorite strikes the Earth in Thuringia in the Holy Roman Empire.


date: June 14

section: Health & Medicine

text: June 14 – The representatives of the States General of the Netherlands vote to declare that the throne of the Union of Utrecht is vacant because of the erratic behavior of King Philip II.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, the last regent for Scotland from 1572 to 1578 during the minority of King James VI, is beheaded at Edinburgh using the "Scottish Maiden", after being convicted of conspiracy in the 1567 murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, consort of Mary, Queen of Scots and father of King James."


date: July 14

text: July 14 – English Jesuit Edmund Campion is arrested.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Ballet Comique de la Reine, the first narrative ballet, devised by Louise of Lorraine, wife of Henry III of France, and choreographed by Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, opens in its first performance at the court of Catherine de' Medici, in the Louvre Palace in Paris, as part of the wedding celebrations for Marguerite of Lorraine.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – James Ussher, Anglo-Irish priest and scholar (d. 1656)


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Countess Palatine Dorothea of Simmern, Princess consort of Anhalt-Dessau (d. 1631)


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1603–1655) (d. 1655)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic prelate and cardinal (d. 1653)


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Vincent de Paul, French Roman Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor (d. 1660)


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria, Austrian archduchess (d. 1597)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Edward Barrett, 1st Lord Barrett of Newburgh, English politician (d. 1645)


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Louis Günther I, Count of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1630–1646) (d. 1646)


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Brian Twyne, English archivist (d. 1644)


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Jeremias Drexel, Jesuit writer of devotional literature and a professor of the humanities and rhetoric (d. 1638)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Juan Damián López de Haro, Spanish Catholic bishop of Puerto Rico (d. 1648)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician (d. 1638)


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (d. 1641)


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Philip III, Landgrave of Hesse-Butzbach (1609–1643) (d. 1643)


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Chandrasen Rathore, ruler of the Kingdom of Marwar (now part of the state of Rajasthan in India) dies at the age of 39, leaving a power vacuum that allows the Mughal Empire to take control of the kingdom.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Francisco Foreiro, Portuguese Dominican theologian and biblist (b. 1523)


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Zsigmond Báthory, the 8-year-old son of Kristóf Báthory, ruler of the Principality of Transylvania, is elected by the Diet of Transylvania as the new voivode at the request of Kristóf, who dies 12 days later.


date: August

text: August – King Mayadunne of Sitawaka (b. 1501)


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Guru Ram Das, fourth Sikh Guru (b. 1534)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Peter Niers, notorious German bandit (date of birth unknown)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, English earl (b. 1545)


text: October 9 – Saint Louis Bertrand, Spanish missionary to Latin America, patron saint of Colombia (b. 1526)


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Mathurin Romegas, French rival Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. c.1525)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Ralph Sherwin, English Roman Catholic priest and saint (b. 1550)


text: December 1 – Alexander Briant, English Jesuit priest and saint (b. 1556)


text: December 1 – Edmund Campion, English Jesuit priest and saint (b. 1540)


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Maria of Austria, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I (b. 1531)


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Jean de la Cassière, French-born Maltese 51st Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1502)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Russia cedes its conquered areas in Livonia (Northern Latvia and Southern Estonia), to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Battle of Temmokuzan: Unable to reverse the collapse of Takeda clan, Takeda Katsuyori and his household commit suicide.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Siege of Takamatsu: In Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi departs from the Himeji Castle in the modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture and begins his march westward with 20,000 soldiers to the Bitchū Province in the modern-day Okayama Prefecture. Along the way, he stops at the Kameyama Castle where he makes a rendezvous with the Ukita clan and 10,000 additional forces before proceeding toward the Takamatsu Castle.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The Siege of Takamatsu begins as Hideyoshi attacks the forces of Shimizu Muneharu, who has twice as many soldiers. Hideyoshi orders an engineering project to block the Ashimori River and divert its waters to flood Takamatsu Castle.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Siege of Takamatsu: Heavy rains and the dikes built by Hideyoshi's forces turn the area around Takamatsu Castle into a lake.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – (2nd day of the sixth month, Tenshō 10) The Honnō-ji Incident occurs in Kyoto in Japan, as Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga, on the verge of unifying Japan under his rule, is assassinated following a betrayal by a rebel subject, Akechi Mitsuhide.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Shimizu Muneharu surrenders Takamatsu Castle to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and, in return for the pledge that the castle's defenders will be spared, commits the ritual suicide of seppuku.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Battle of Yamazaki: Counterattacking forces led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi decisively defeat Akechi Mitsuhide's smaller army; Akechi is killed while retreating to his domain.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Battle of Ponta Delgada (War of the Portuguese Succession): Spanish admiral Santa Cruz decisively defeats a larger mercenary fleet from France, England, supporters of the Portuguese claimant António, Prior of Crato, and the Dutch Republic, under Filippo di Piero Strozzi (who is killed) off the Azores, the first engagement between large fleets of galleons, operating at any great distance from the mainland.


date: October 26

text: October 26 (Julian) (November 5 Gregorian) – General Yermak Timofeyevich completes the Russian conquest of Siberia in the Battle of Chuvash Cape as Kuchum Khan abandons Qashliq, the capital of the Khanate of Sibir. The Qashliq fortress will be torn down and a new town, Tobolsk will be built 11 mi further up the Irtysh river.


text: The Cagayan battles in the Philippines, the only recorded clashes between Spanish regular soldiers and samurai warriors.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.


text: Jesuit Matteo Ricci is allowed to enter the country.


text: The sultanate of Morocco begins to press southward, in search of a greater share of the trans-Saharan trade.


date: February 24

text: February 24 (Julian) (March 6 Gregorian) – Pope Gregory XIII proclaims the Gregorian calendar, to come into effect in October. Under the order, the date on the Julian calendar will be advanced by 10 days in order to synchronize the calendar date back to the equinoxes and solstices, since the gap has been increasing by one day every 100 years since the 6th century and is 10 days off schedule.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Scryer Edward Kelley arrives at John Dee's house in London. They practice angelic magic together and Dee develops the Enochian language.


date: October 4

text: October 4 (Julian) (October 14 Gregorian) – The Julian calendar is discarded at the end of the day in Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain as Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In the nations where the calendar is accepted, Thursday, October 4 is followed the next day by Friday, October 15.


text: The temple complex of Kumbum is founded in Tibet.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Raid of Ruthven in Scotland: Presbyterian nobles led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie kidnap King James VI of Scotland, the kingdom's 16-year-old ruler, while he is hunting in Perthshire. The Earl of Gowrie imprisons the King at Ruthven Castle as part of a coup d'etat to reform the Scottish government.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Ruthven and his co-conspirators arrange for John Maxwell, 8th Lord Maxwell, heir to former regent James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, to be installed as Scotland's regent. Douglas had been executed in 1581 for the 1567 murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and father of King James VI, who is imprisoned at Ruthven's castle.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – 1582 Ancuancu earthquake: Ancuancu (in modern-day La Paz Department, Bolivia) is struck by an earthquake that reportedly buries all of the inhabitants, except for one chief, who reportedly loses the ability to speak. On the place where the village had stood, the Jacha Kalla (Achocalla) valley is formed as a result of the earthquake.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – The University of Würzburg is refounded.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – François, Duke of Anjou, arrives in the Netherlands, where he is personally welcomed by William the Silent.


date: March

text: March – The New Testament of the Douai Bible, the translation into English by Father Gregory Martin from Latin of the New Testament, for use in the Roman Catholic Church, is published. Martin had started his work on October 16, 1578.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – King James VI of Scotland signs a charter creating the Tounis College, which becomes the University of Edinburgh.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Ten years before he begins writing his first known plays, William Shakespeare, 18 years old, marries pregnant 26-year-old Anne Hathaway in England.


date: December 9

text: December 9 (Julian) (December 19 Gregorian) – France discards the Julian Calendar at the end of the day and adopts the Gregorian Calendar at midnight. Sunday, December 9 is followed the next day in France by Monday, December 20.


text: The earliest reference is made to the publishing of private newspapers in Beijing.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Alonso de Contreras, Spanish privateer and writer (d. 1641)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Magdalene of Brandenburg, Landgravine consort of Hesse-Darmstadt (1598–1616) (d. 1616)


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Giovanni Lanfranco, Italian painter (d. 1647)


date: February 22

text: February 22 – John Ratcliffe, English politician and soldier (d. 1627)


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Daniel Featley, English theologian and controversialist (d. 1645)


date: March 22

text: March 22 – John Williams, Welsh clergyman and political advisor to King James I (d. 1650)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Justus de Harduwijn, Dutch Catholic priest and poet (d. 1636)


date: June 28

text: June 28 – William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English nobleman and politician (d. 1662)


date: August 17

text: August 17 – John Matthew Rispoli, major Maltese philosopher of great erudition (d. 1639)


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Humilis of Bisignano, Italian Franciscan friar and saint (d. 1637)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Taichang Emperor, of the Ming Dynasty of China (d. 1620)


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Archduchess Eleanor of Austria (d. 1620)


date: October 21

text: October 21 – John Ernest of Nassau-Siegen, German general (d. 1617)


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey, English adventurer and soldier (d. 1642)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Ukita Naoie, Japanese daimyō of Ukita clan.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Sakuma Nobumori, Japanese retainer and samurai (b. 1528)


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Elisabeth of Hesse, Electress Palatine by marriage (1576-1582) (b. 1539)


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Juan Jauregui, attempted assassin of William I of Orange (b. 1562)


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Philip de' Medici, Italian noble, Grand Prince of Tuscany (b. 1577)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Francisco de Toledo, Spanish soldier and politician (b. 1515)


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Charlotte of Bourbon, Princess consort of Orange, married to William I of Orange (b. 1547)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Oda Nobutada, Japanese samurai, oldest son of Nobunaga (b. 1557) (forced suicide)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Akechi Mitsuhide, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1528)


date: July 3

text: July 3 – James Crichton, Scottish scholar (b. 1560)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Kawajiri Hidetaka, Japanese samurai (b. 1527)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Louis, Duke of Montpensier (b. 1513)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – George Buchanan, Scottish humanist scholar (b. 1506)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Teresa of Ávila, Spanish Carmelite nun, poet and saint (b. 1515)


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Queen Elizabeth dissolves the English Parliament which had been convened in 1572 but last met in 1581.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – The Kingdom of England establishes its first diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on the site of the modern-day city of St. John's, claims the island of Newfoundland on behalf of England, marking the beginning of the British Empire.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Gerolamo Chiavari is elected to a 2-year term as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa to succeed Gerolamo De Franchi Toso.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Francis, Duke of Anjou, attacks Antwerp.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – In the Netherlands, the Siege of Eindhoven by the Spanish Army begins. The walled city will fall in April.


text: April 23 – After a siege of 75 days, Dutch Republic commander Hendrik van Bonnivet surrenders Eindhoven to the Spanish Netherlands.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – In a clash between a 50,000-man Persian Empire force and the Ottoman Empire for control of the Caucasus region in modern-day Russia, the Ottomans are routed.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – In modern-day Russia, on the Caspian Sea, the three-day "Battle of Torches" ends as Ottoman Empire troops defeat forces of the Persian Empire.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Battle of Shizugatake in Japan: Shibata Katsuie is defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who goes on to commence construction of Osaka Castle.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Spanish troops under the command of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma overwhelm a combined army of Dutch, French and English soldiers at the Battle of Steenbergen in the modern-day Netherlands. The multinational force sustains 3,200 people killed or wounded.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Ten months after being taken hostage on August 23, 1582 in the Raid of Ruthven, the 17-year-old King James VI of Scotland is able to escape Falkland Prison and flees to safety in St. Andrews.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Cuncolim Revolt: The first documented battle of India's independence against a European colonial ruler is fought by the Desais of Cuncolim in Goa, against the Portuguese.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Jan van Hembyze becomes the last leader of the Calvinist Republic of Ghent after a coup d'etat against the ruling Count of Flanders. Hembyze's action leads days later to the siege of Ghent by Spanish General Alexander Farnese.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Cologne War: The Siege of Godesberg (begun on November 18) concludes when Catholic forces under Prince-elector-archbishop Ernest of Bavaria capture the strategic position, from defenders of the Calvinist convert Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – A Burmese Army force of 16,000 men, commanded by Thado Dhamma Yaza II of Prome and Nawrahta Minsaw of Lan Na to suppress the rebellious of the Shan States in the modern-day Yunnan province of China, is welcomed by King Nanda Bayin at the royal capital, Pegu, after a successful punitive expedition. The commanders bring with them the rebel chief from the Sanda state.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – English ship Delight, with Humphrey Gilbert's expedition, becomes the first of over 350 ships over time to run aground and be wrecked on Sable Island in the North Atlantic.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – English ship Squirrel, the flagship of explorer, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, sinks in a storm with all hands along with all but one of Gilbert's colonial expedition. Gilbert and his men had been returning from North America after claiming Newfoundland in the name of Queen Elizabeth.


text: The Ottoman fleet crosses into the Western Mediterranean and raids the Italian coastline. In Corsica, the towns of Sartene and Arbellara are sacked (summer).


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, newly converted to Calvinism, formally marries Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben, a former canoness of Gerresheim, while retaining his position as Archbishop-Elector of Cologne.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Ernest of Bavaria is elected as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne, in opposition to Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg. The opposition rapidly turns into armed struggle, the Cologne War within the Electorate of Cologne, beginning with the Destruction of the Oberstift.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – In South America, the Third Council of Lima comes to an end after two months after being convened to provide a consistent doctrine for the Roman Catholic Church in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Among other things, the Council approves the treatment of the native population "not like slaves but as free men" as part of evangelism and conversion to Christianity, as well as the use of the Quechua language and the Aymara language to spread the gospel. The use of Spanish is ordered for church services, and Latin is forbidden.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – In India, the city of Allahabad (modern-day Prayagraj in the state of Uttar Pradesh) is founded as a strategic fortress by Akbar, Emperor of the Mughal Empire.Surendra Nath Sinha (1974).


date: October 16

text: October 16 – King Philip II of Spain orders the transfer of Abada the rhinoceros from the Casa de Campo public park of Madrid, to the menagerie at his residence at El Escorial.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Francis Throckmorton, instigator of the Throckmorton Plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England, is arrested. Convicted of treason, he is executed on July 10, 1584.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Willem IV van den Bergh, the Stadtholder of Guelders for the Dutch Republic is arrested along with his family and charged with treason on suspicion of having allowed the Spanish Army to seize Zutphen. Imprisoned for five months, he is released in March after promising to retire from public service.


text: The current building housing the Bunch Of Grapes pub is built on Narrow Street in Limehouse, London. Referred to by Charles Dickens in Our Mutual Friend as "The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters", it still stands in the 21st century, much rebuilt and renamed 'The Grapes'.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Duchy of Savoy adopts the Gregorian Calendar, replacing the Julian Calendar.


date: March 10

text: March 10 (February 28 O.S.) – The Queen Elizabeth's Men troupe of actors is founded in England by order of Queen Elizabeth to Edmund Tilney, the royal Master of the Revels.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – The first installment of the translation by Jurij Dalmatin of the Bible into the Slovene language, Bibilija, tu je vse svetu pismu stariga inu noviga testamenta (The Bible, featuring the complete Old and New Testaments), is published in Wittenberg.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Petru Cercel enters Bucharest, and becomes Prince of Wallachia.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – King James VI of Scotland orders a gift to Colonel William Stewart in recognition of Stewart's rescue of the King from prison. Colonel Stewart is presented with some of the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots (the King's mother).


date: October 14

text: October 14 – In Scotland, the University of Edinburgh holds its first classes, accepting more than 80 students as "Tounis College". In continuous operation for more than 440 years, the University will have more than 41,000 students.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Peter the Lame becomes Prince of Moldavia (in modern-day Romania) for the third and last time, reigning until 1591.


text: The world's oldest, intact, surviving amusement park, Dyrehavsbakken, is founded north of Copenhagen.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Peter Bulkley, English and later American Puritan (d. 1659)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Johann Heinrich Alting, German Lutheran theologian (d. 1644)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, English diplomat, poet, and philosopher (d. 1648)


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Franciscus Quaresmius, Italian writer and orientalist (d. 1650)


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Orazio Grassi, Italian Jesuit priest, architect and scientist (d. 1654)


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Susanna Hall, Daughter of William Shakespeare (d. 1649)


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (d. 1654)


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Joachim Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1603–1625) (d. 1625)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Christian II, Elector of Saxony from 1591 to 1611 (d. 1611)


date: September 29

text: September 29 – John VIII, Count of Nassau-Siegen (1623–1638) (d. 1638)


date: September

text: September – Girolamo Frescobaldi, Italian composer (d. 1643)


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Archduke Maximilian Ernest of Austria, Austrian archduke (d. 1616)


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar, Spanish poet (d. 1641)


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Orlando Gibbons, English composer (d. 1625)


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Pier Francesco Orsini, Italian condottiero and art patron (b. 1523)


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Hubert Goltzius, Dutch Renaissance painter-engraver (b. 1526)


date: April

text: April – Lucas David, Prussian historian (b. 1503)


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1525)


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Shibata Katsuie, Japanese military commander (b. 1522)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – In England, the first known life insurance policy is issued. The Royal Exchange of London accepts a premium from William Gibbons, agreeing to pay a group of 30 beneficiaries a total of £383, 6s. 8d if he dies on or before June 17, 1584. Gibbons dies on May 29, 1584, and the Royal Exchange refuses to pay until a court rejects the insurer's argument that a month is actually four weeks or 28 days.


date: June

text: June – Babullah of Ternate, Sultan of Ternate (b. 1528)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1519)


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Marcantonio Maffei, Italian archbishop and cardinal (b. 1521)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Catherine Jagiellon, queen of John III of Sweden (b. 1526)


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, Irish rebel (b. c. 1533)


text: November 24 – Philippe Hurault de Cheverny is appointed as the new Chief Minister of France by King Henri III upon the death of René de Birague, who had governed for nine years. Hurault will serve until 1589.


text: November 24 – René de Birague, French cardinal and chancellor (b. 1506)


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Ivan Fyodorov, Russian printer


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Walk (modern-day Valka and Valga, towns in Latvia and Estonia respectively), receives city rights from Polish king Stefan Bathory.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – In the wake of the Throckmorton Plot to overthrow her government, Queen Elizabeth convenes a new session of the English House of Commons since 1581. John Puckering is appointed by her as the Speaker of the House of Commons, which has 460 members. The parliament passes the Safety of the Queen Act and the Jesuits Act 1584,


date: December 31

text: December 31 – The Treaty of Joinville is signed secretly between the French Catholic League and the Spanish citizens .


text: Ratu Hijau becomes queen regnant of the Malay Patani Kingdom.

source_section: Events › Date is unknown


text: The city of Arkhangelsk was established in the Russian Empire.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – (6th waning moon of the Magha, BE 2126) In what is now Thailand, Prince Naresuan, the Uparaja of the Ayutthaya Kingdom and the son of King Mahathammarachathirat carries out the orders of Burma's King Nanda Bayin, and leads an army to suppress a rebellion by the Viceroy of the Ava Kingdom, Thado Minsaw. Arriving in April, Naresuan learns that King Nanda has ordered Naresuan to be assassinated, and begins his own rebellion against Burma, the Burmese–Siamese War.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – (1st waning of Kason 946 ME) In what is now Myanmar, Prince Naresuan of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (now Thailand) suppresses the rebellion of Thado Minsaw of the Ava Kingdom.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – (Tenshō 12, 18th day of the 3rd month) In Japan, the Battle of Komaki begins as fight between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu when Ieyasu, commander of 100,000 men, begins the occupation of the Komakiyama Castle, prompting Hideyoshi to advance from Osaka with 30,000 troops.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – (Tenshō 12, 8th day of the 4th month) The conflict between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu culminates in the Battle of Nagakute.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – The Siege of Antwerp by the Spanish Army begins and lasts for 13 months until Antwerp's surrender on August 17, 1585.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Willem van Oranje, the leader of the Dutch Republic as Stadtholder of Holland, is assassinated in Delft. Balthasar Gérard, who bought two wheel-lock pistols and then made an appointment with at the Prinsenhof, shoots William in the chest at close range and fatally wounds him, making William the first head of state to be assassinated with a handgun.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Russian conquest of Siberia: Russian General Yermak Timofeyevich, who had been dispatched by Ivan the Terrible in 1582 to conquer the Khanate of Sibir, is killed along with all but one member of his invading force in an ambush commanded by Kuchum Khan, the ruler of Siberia.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – In what is now Belgium, the Calvinist Republic of Ghent comes to an end after seven years when its capital, Ghent, falls following a siege of 13 months. Jan van Hembyze, leader of the republic since October 1583, surrenders the city to Alexander Farnese, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – At the Battle of Slunj in the Kingdom of Croatia, an Ottoman invasion led by Ferhad Pasha Sokolović is turned back by Croatian forces, aided by troops of the Habsburg monarchy.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Albert Fontenay sends an enciphered letter to Mary, Queen of Scots that will become the chief evidence against her in her trial for treason during the Babington Plot. After becoming a witness for the English government in return for immunity from prosecution, Jérôme Pasquier will decipher the letter in 1586, leading to Mary's conviction for an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and to overthrow the English government.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Walter Raleigh sends Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to explore the Outer Banks of Virginia (modern-day North Carolina), with a view to establishing an English colony; they locate Roanoke Island.


text: Belgian cartographer and geographer Abraham Ortelius features Ming dynasty-era Chinese carriages with masts and sails, in his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum; concurrent and later Western writers also take note of this peculiar Chinese invention.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – After being falsely accused of various charges, Jeremias II Tranos, leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is deposed by his fellow bishops and exiled to the island of Rhodes. Jeremias is replaced by Pachomius II Patestos.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – In Lima in the Viceroyalty of Peru, Italian printer Antonio Ricardo receives official permission to set up the first printing press in South America, and prints the first publication there, Pragmatica, a four-page outline of how the new Gregorian calendar (adopted 1582) works.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – (Tenshō 12, 16th day of the 7th month) The Tenshō embassy, Japan's first diplomatic mission to Europe, arrives in Portugal with four teenagers— Julião Nakaura, Mancio Itō, Martinho Hara and Miguel Chijiwa— who had become converts to Christianity.


text: This year, according to Italian heretic Jacopo Brocardo, is regarded as an apocalyptic inauguration of a major new cycle.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Roman Catholic priest George Haydock, imprisoned in the Tower of London since 1582, states during an interrogation that he claimed that Queen Elizabeth, leader of the Church of England, was a heretic. Convicted of treason, he is executed on February 12.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Sir Walter Mildmay is given a royal licence to found Emmanuel College, Cambridge in England.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – The city of Karlstad, Sweden gaines city status by Duke Charles.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – The Maronite College is established in Rome.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Philip, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (d. 1663)


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Grégoire de Saint-Vincent, Flemish Jesuit mathematician (d. 1667)


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English parliamentary general (d. 1648)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Agnes of Brandenburg, Duchess of Pomerania, later Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg (d. 1629)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Emanuel Scrope, 1st Earl of Sunderland, English statesman (d. 1630)


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, English soldier (d. 1643)


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, English politician (d. 1640)


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Thomas van Erpe, Dutch Orientialist, cartographer (d. 1624)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke (d. 1650)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Catherine of Sweden, Countess Palatine of Kleeburg (d. 1638)


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Barbara Sophie of Brandenburg, duchess consort and later regent of Württemberg (d. 1636)


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Queen Inmok, Korean royal consort (d. 1632)


date: December 16

text: December 16 – John Selden, English jurist (d. 1654)


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Philipp Julius, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1625)


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Spanish constiquador (b. 1496)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Martha Leijonhufvud, politically active Swedish noble (b. 1520)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Yi I of Joseon, Korean Confucian scholar (b. 1536)


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (b. 1530)


date: March 28

text: March 28 (O.S. March 18) – Ivan the Terrible, ruler of Russia since 1533, dies; he is succeeded as Tsar by his son, Feodor.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Ikeda Tsuneoki, Japanese daimyō and military commander (in battle) (b. 1536)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – With the death of the Duc d'Anjou, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre becomes heir-presumptive to the throne of France.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Francis Throckmorton, conspirator against Queen Elizabeth I of England (executed; b. 1554)


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Balthasar Gérard, French assassin of William the Silent (executed; b. 1557)


date: July 23

text: July 23 – John Day, English Protestant printer (b. 1522)


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Jan Kochanowski, Polish writer (b. 1530)


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Richard Gwyn, Welsh Catholic martyr, canonised


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Charles Borromeo, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal, canonised (b. 1538)


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Giovanni Francesco Commendone, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1523)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – The Treaty of Nemours forces King Henry III of France to capitulate to the demands of the Catholic League, triggering the Eighth War of Religion (also known as the War of the Three Henrys) in France.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Queen Elizabeth I of England agrees to establish a protectorate over the Netherlands.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – The Treaty of Nonsuch is signed, committing England to support the Dutch Revolt, thus entering the Eighty Years' War.


text: The Kingdom of Luba is founded by Kongolo Mwamba in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – The Spanish Army, commanded by Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, obtains the surrender of Brussels after a siege that began the year before.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Spain seizes English ships in Spanish ports, precipitating the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).


date: June

text: June – Toyotomi Hideyoshi begins the invasion of the Japanese island of Shikoku with an army of 113,000 men on 703 ships. The troops are divided into three groups, with 60,000 commanded by Hashiba Hidenaga and Hashiba Hidetsugu toward the provinces of Awa and Tosa; 23,000 under Ukita Hideie at the province of Sanuki; and 30,000 under Kobayakawa Takakage and Kikkawa Motoharu for the province of Iyo.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Invasion of Shikoku: The final battle of the invasion, the siege of Ichinomiya Castle, begins.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – (11th day of the 7th month of Tenshō 13) Invasion of Shikoku: In Japan, Chōsokabe Motochika surrenders the island of Shikoku to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, after a 26 day siege of the Ichinomiya Castle by 40,000 men.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – In the Ottoman Empire, the rebellion of An-Nasir al-Hasan bin Ali in Yemen is ended when An-Nasir is betrayed and turned over to the Turkish Ottoman governor. An-Nasir spends one year in prison in Sanaa and then brought to Turkey.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – In Arnhem in the Netherlands, the siege of IJsseloord is completed after nine days as English and Dutch forces recapture the city from Spanish occupiers.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – In Mexico City, Álvaro Manrique de Zúñiga becomes Viceroy of New Spain after being appointed by King Philip II of Spain.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Anglo-Spanish War: The island of Santiago in Cape Verde is captured by Francis Drake.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Enraged by the disrespect shown to him by Yousuf Shah Chak, the Mughal Emperor, Akbar, orders the invasion of Kashmir with 5,000 men.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Aboard the English ship Tiger, Roanoke expedition leader Ralph Lane negotiates an agreement with the Secotan people, who are represented by Granganimeo, the brother of the Secotan leader, King Wingino. Although the Secotans grant Lane's request to allow the English to live on Roanoke Island, he is told that they will receive no assistance from the natives, because of problems the previous year with Walter Raleigh.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – English explorer John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in Baffin Island, in his quest for the Northwest Passage.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – The Roanoke colonists complete their construction of a fort under the direction of Ralph Lane to make the first permanent English settlement in North America.


text: History of chocolate in Spain: First recorded commercial importation of chocolate to Europe, from Veracruz in Mexico to Seville in Spain.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Robert Nutter, Thomas Worthington, and 18 other Roman Catholic priests are "perpetually banished" from England by order of Queen Elizabeth, placed on the ship Mary Martin of Colchester, and transported to France.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Pachomius II is deposed by fellow bishops from his position as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and replaced by the Metropolitan of Philippoupolis, Theoleptus II.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The papal conclave begins at the Vatican in Rome on Easter Sunday, with only 42 of the 60 cardinals attending. Early voting favors Cardinals Pier Donato Cesi and Guglielmo Sirleto, neither of whom receives a majority.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Cardinal Felice Piergentile of the church of San Girolamo dei Croati is unanimously elected as the 227th Pope, and takes the regnal name Pope Sixtus V.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The coronation of Pope Sixtus V takes place in Rome.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – English Catholic priest John Adams is banished from England along with 72 other Catholic priests, and transported by ship to Boulogne in France.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – King Henry III of Navarre, who is also the heir presumptive to France's King Henry III, is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Sixtus V, who effectively declares that French Catholics are not required to recognize his claim to the throne.


text: The Frankfurt Stock Exchange was founded.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – The 9.2 magnitude Aleutian Islands earthquake unleashes a tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, killing many people in Hawaii and reportedly striking Japan.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan, and serves a foreshock and a trigger to a deadly 7.9 magnitude earthquake on January 18 that will kill 8,000 people.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – King Johan III of Sweden, widowed since 1583, marries Gunilla Bielke in a ceremony at Västerås, which the King's siblings refuse to attend. The coronation of Queen consort Gunilla takes place the next day. Over the next seven years, she works on changing the Catholic government's attitude towards Protestants.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Hadim Mesih Pasha is appointed the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Murad III.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Sir Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baronet, English politician (d. 1645)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Mary Ward, English Catholic Religious Sister (d. 1645)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Hamnet Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's only son (d. 1596)


text: February 2 – Judith Quiney, William Shakespeare's youngest daughter (d. 1662)


date: April 28

text: April 28 – George Goring, 1st Earl of Norwich, English soldier and politician (d. 1663)


text: May 1 – Sophia Olelkovich Radziwill, Polish-Lithuanian noble (d. 1612)


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Peruvian and Paraguayan linguist (d. 1652)


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, French statesman and 4th Prime Minister of France (d. 1642)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Anna of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1618)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Cornelius Jansen, French bishop of Ypres and religious reformer (d. 1638)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Jan Brożek, Polish mathematician, physician and astronomer (d. 1652)


date: December 4

text: December 4 – John Cotton, clergyman in England and the American colonies, founder of Boston (d. 1652)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – William Drummond of Hawthornden, Scottish poet (d. 1649)


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Christian, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen (1588–1637) (d. 1637)


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, English admiral (b. 1512)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Rembert Dodoens, Flemish physician and botanist (b. 1517)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück and Paderborn (b. 1550)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Jacques de Savoie, Duke of Nemours, French nobleman and soldier (b. 1531)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland, English nobleman and conspirator, suicide (b. 1532)


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, English nobleman, soldier and politician (b. 1527)


date: August 5

text: August 5 or August 6 – Yermak Timofeyevich, Cossack leader and explorer of Siberia


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Johannes Crato von Krafftheim, German humanist and physician (b. 1519)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha, Ottoman (Turkish) grand vizier (b. 1526)


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Tachibana Dōsetsu, Japanese daimyō (b. 1513)


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Thomas Tallis, English composer (b. c. 1510)


text: December 4 – John Willock, Scottish reformer (b. c. 1515)


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Pierre de Ronsard, French poet (b. 1524)


text: Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, Vietnamese administrator, educator, poet, sage and later a saint of the Cao Dai religion (b. 1491)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Pau Claris i Casademunt, Catalan ecclesiastic (d. 1641)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Johann Hermann Schein, German composer of the early Baroque era (d. 1630)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Niccolò Cabeo, Italian Jesuit writer, theologian (d. 1657)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Pietro Della Valle, Italian composer (d. 1652)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Christopher Levett, English explorer (d. 1630)


date: April 12

text: April 12 (bapt.) – John Ford, English dramatist and poet (d. c. 1639)


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Saint Rose of Lima, Spanish colonist in Lima (d. 1617)


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon, English noble (d. 1643)


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Thomas Hooker, prominent Puritan colonial leader (d. 1647)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, English courtier (d. 1646)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Francis West, Deputy Governor of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia (d. 1634)


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Sir John Wray, 2nd Baronet, English politician (d. 1655)


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Niccolò Zucchi, Italian astronomer and physicist (d. 1670)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Georg Calixtus, German Lutheran theologian who looked to reconcile all Christendom (d. 1656)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Augustus, Elector of Saxony (b. 1526)


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Margaret Clitherow, English Roman Catholic nun, saint and martyr (b. 1556)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran reformer (b. 1522)


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1529)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Martín de Azpilcueta, Spanish theologian and economist (b. 1491)


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Primož Trubar, Carniolan Protestant reformer (b. 1508)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Richard Maitland, Scottish statesman and historian (b. 1496)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Prince Masahito, member of the Japanese imperial family (b. 1552)


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Sir Anthony Babington, English Catholic conspirator (executed) (b. 1561)


text: September 20 – Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (executed) (b. 1558)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, French Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1517)


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Elizabeth of Denmark, Duchess of Mecklenburg, Danish princess (b. 1524)


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Philip Sidney, English poet, courtier and soldier (b. 1554)


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Stefan Batory, King of Poland (b. 1533)


date: March 6

text: 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.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – According to legend, Saul Wahl is named king of Poland; he is deposed the following day.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Governor John White leaves the Roanoke Colony to get more supplies from England.


date: September 28

text: 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.


date: February 8

text: 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.


date: April 20

text: 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.


date: June 11

text: 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.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Sigismund Vasa and a fleet of Swedish ships land in Poland to confront an invasion by Maximilian III and an Austrian Army.


date: October 14

text: 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.


date: October 20

text: 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.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – A final Austrian attack on Kraków by Archduke Maximilian III is repelled by the Polish defenders.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Maximilian III withdraws his forces and the siege of Kraków ends.


date: January 7

text: 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.


date: January 14

text: 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.


date: March 15

text: 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.


date: April 29

text: 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.


date: May 8

text: 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.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – John Davis sets out from Dartmouth, Devon, for a third attempt to find the Northwest Passage.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Roanoke Colony: A group of English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island off North Carolina, to re-establish the deserted colony.


date: October 18

text: 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.


date: November 4

text: 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.


date: February 27

text: 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.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Shāh ‘Abbās I "The Great" succeeds as Shahanshah of Iran.


date: November 14

text: 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.


text: St. Dominic's Church, Macau is established.


text: Hailuoto, an island in the Bothnian Bay, is separated from the grand parish of Saloinen into an independent parish.


text: Pope Sixtus V establishes the canon law office of 'Promoter of the Faith' (promotor fidei), popularly known as the "Devil's advocate" (advocatus diaboli).


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


date: February 12

text: February 12 – A period of exceptionally severe cold begins in western Europe and lasts until February 24.


text: A severe famine breaks out in Ming dynasty China.


date: February 5

text: 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).


date: August 19

text: 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.


date: August 22

text: 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.


date: September 9

text: 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.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – The coronation of Vincenzo Gonzaga as Duke of Mantua in Italy takes place.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Leiden University Library opens its doors, after its founding in 1575.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Sigismund III Vasa is formally crowned as King Zygmunt Waza of Poland and Duke of Lithuania in a coronation ceremony at Kraków.


text: The Rose (theatre), the first on Bankside in London, is built by Philip Henslowe and functioning by the year's end.


text: Everard Digby's De Arte Natandi, the first treatise on swimming in England, is published.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, Spanish politician (d. 1645)


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Sir Charles Morrison, 1st Baronet, Member of the Parliament of England (d. 1628)


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Richard Newport, 1st Baron Newport, English politician (d. 1651)


date: May

text: May – Esaias van de Velde, Dutch landscape painter (died 1630)


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Willem Bontekoe, skipper in the Dutch East India Company (d. 1657)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, English colonial administrator and admiral (d. 1658)


date: June 24

text: June 24 – William Arnold, American settler (d. 1676)


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Khusrau Mirza, Mughal prince (d. 1622)


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Virginia Dare, Virginia colony settler


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Countess Juliane of Nassau-Siegen, Landgravine of Hesse-kassel (d. 1643)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire, English politician (d. 1669)


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Sir Gilbert Gerard, 1st Baronet of Harrow on the Hill, English politician (d. 1670)


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Joost van den Vondel, Dutch dramatist and poet (d. 1679)


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet, English politician (d. 1666)


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Juraj Drašković, Croatian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1525)


date: January

text: January – Thomas Seckford, English official (b. 1515)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Dorothea of Saxony, Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (b. 1563)


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Ralph Sadler, English statesman (b. 1507)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – John Foxe, English author (b. 1516)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Thomas Bromley, English lord chancellor (b. 1530)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (b. c. 1510)


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Ignatius Ni'matallah, Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch (b. c. 1515)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Ōtomo Sōrin, Japanese Christian daimyō (b. 1530)


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Godfried van Mierlo, Dutch Dominican friar and bishop (b. 1518)


text: September 3 – Henry Cheyne, 1st Baron Cheyne, English politician and baron (b. 1540)


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1541)


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Anne de Joyeuse, Duke of Joyeuse, French commander, (b. 1560)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Alfonso d'Este, Lord of Montecchio, Italian nobleman (b. 1527)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – At Rouen, King Henry III of France gives in to the latest demands of the Catholic League and the Duke of Guise, and signs the Edict of Union, agreeing not to allow French Protestants to participate in government, in return for being able to return to Paris.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – War of the Polish Succession: The Battle of Pitschen takes place at Pitschen (modern Byczyna in Poland) with Polish and Lithuanian troops commanded by the Polish hetman Jan Zamoyski defending against an invading Austrian force commanded by Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria. After his army is routed, Archduke Maximilian surrenders and is taken as a prisoner of war, and will be held for more than a year until his release is compelled by the intervention of Pope Sixtus V.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – In modern-day Sri Lanka, the siege of Colombo by King Rajasinha I of Sitawaka ends when Portuguese Admiral Pedro Teixeira arrives with a fleet of 80 ships and frees the capital of Portuguese Ceylon. King Rajasinha and his troops flee back to his capital at Seethawakapura.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Day of the Barricades in Paris: Henry I, Duke of Guise seizes the city, forcing King Henry III to flee.


date: August 8

text: August 8 (July 29 Old Style) – Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is defeated by the English naval force off the coast of Gravelines, in the Spanish Netherlands (modern France).


date: August 19

text: August 19 (August 9 Old Style) – Speech to the Troops at Tilbury by Queen Elizabeth I.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – The Ganja Fortress in modern-day Azerbaijan is captured by Ottoman general Serdar Ferhad Pasha.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Dutch General Charles III de Croÿ captures the German city of Bonn in the Electorate of Cologne.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Dutch Republic and English forces capture Bergen op Zoom, a fortress in the Spanish Netherlands, after a siege of 41 days.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from the Tagus estuary, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sedonia and Juan Martínez de Recalde, heading for the English Channel (it will take until May 30 for all of the ships to leave port).


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Sailing across the South Atlantic Ocean towards England, near the end of their voyage around the world, Thomas Cavendish and his East India Company fleet stumble across the Portuguese-controlled island of Saint Helena. While Saint Helena has been under the control of Portugal for 80 years, England had been unaware of its existence.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Twenty days after departing from Spain, the Spanish Armada receives a foreshadowing of disaster to come during the summer as a storm scatters part of the fleet, postponing the invasion. Alonso de Guzmán y Sotomayor, Duke of Medina Sidonia and commander of the Spanish expedition, returns the fleet to the port of Coruna for repairs, and writes a letter to King Philip, urging him to abandon plans for invasion of England, and to reach an honorable settlement, but the King refuses. The Spanish expedition resumes on July 21.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – The first engagement between the English and Spanish fleets (off Plymouth) results in a victory for the English, under command of Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – The English fleet defeats the Spanish fleet, off the Isle of Portland.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – The English fleet defeats the Spanish fleet off the coast of Flanders.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – The Duke of Medina Sidonia, commander of the Spanish Armada, decides to return the fleet to Spain after two days of trying to reach the coast of Flanders to meet up with the army of the Duke of Parma.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The fleeing Spanish Armada sails past the Firth of Forth, and the English call off their pursuit, entirely avoiding the storm which destroys most of the Spanish fleet as it attempts to round Scotland and the west coast of Ireland.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – English captain Thomas Cavendish completes his circumnavigation in a record time of 781 days, returning to Plymouth more than two years after setting off on July 21, 1586. The previous record had been 1,018 days by the expedition of Sir Francis Drake from 1577 to 1580. By the time of his return, Cavendish has only his flagship, Desire, after having started with two other vessels (the warship Content and the 40-ton supply ship Hugh Gallant).


text: The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I of England is created, to celebrate the English defeat of the Spanish Armada, and to assert the strength of Elizabeth herself.

source_section: Events › Unknown


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Pope Sixtus V issues the papal bull Immensa aeterni Dei, a major reorganization of the Roman Curia creating 15 congregations of cardinals, including the Congregation of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Church list of forbidden books; the Congregation of the Inquisition; and the Congregation of the Vatican Press.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The ascension of Shah Abbas I as Emperor in Iran, of the Safavid Empire, is made official on the first day of the New Year on the Zoroastrian Calendar. Abbas has ruled since October 16, 1587.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – The Order of Augustinian Recollects is formally recognised as a separate province from the Order of Saint Augustine, an event later known as the Día de la Recolección or Day of Recollection.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Henry III of France strikes his ultra-Catholic enemies, having the Duke of Guise and his brother, Louis II de Lorraine, cardinal de Guise, killed, and holding the Cardinal de Bourbon a prisoner. As a result, large parts of France reject Henry III as their king, forcing him to side with Henry of Navarre.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – The first biography of Nicolaus Copernicus (d.1543) is completed by Bernardino Baldi.


date: August 29

text: August 29 (8th day of the 7th month, Tensho 16) – In Japan, the Chancellor of the Realm, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, issues an edict for the katanagari (the :sword hunt), the confiscation of swords from any persons thought to be opposed to his rule.


date: November 15

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: November 15 – The English Navy ship Great Spaniard, formerly the Spanish Armada ship San Salvador until its capture on August 1, sinks off of the coast of England's Isle of Purbeck, with the loss of 23 of the 57 crew. The survivors are rescued by an English man-o-war boat.


text: William Morgan's Welsh translation of the Bible is published.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Elizabeth Stanley, Countess of Huntingdon, English noblewoman and writer (d. 1633)

source_section: Births › January–June


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Georg II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl, German nobleman (d. 1644)


date: March

text: March – Johann Heinrich Alsted, German theologian (d. 1638)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Ole Worm, Danish physician and antiquary (d. 1654)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – George Wither, English poet and satirist (d. 1667)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Wolrad IV, Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg (1588–1640) (d. 1640)

source_section: Births › July–December


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Henri, Prince of Condé (d. 1646)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Marin Mersenne, French theologian (d. 1648)


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Edward Vaux, 4th Baron Vaux of Harrowden, English baron (d. 1661)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Luke Wadding, Irish Franciscan friar and historian (d. 1657)


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Matthias Gallas, Austrian soldier (d. 1647)


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Isaac Beeckman, Dutch philosopher and scientist (d. 1637)


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Adolf Frederick I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1592–1628 and again 1631–1658) (d. 1658)


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Constance of Austria, Queen of Poland (d. 1631)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz, Spanish admiral (b. 1526)


text: February 9 – The sudden death of Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz, in the midst of preparations for the Spanish Armada, forces King Philip II of Spain to re-allocate the command of the fleet.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Johann Weyer, Dutch physician and occultist (b. 1515)


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Christian IV becomes king of Denmark–Norway, upon the death of his father, Frederick II.


text: April 4 – King Frederick II of Denmark (b. 1534)


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Paolo Veronese, Italian painter (b. c. 1528)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Robert Crowley, London stationer (b. 1517)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Mimar Sinan, Ottoman architect (b. 1489)


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Josias I, Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg, Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg (1578-1588) (b. 1554)


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English politician (b. 1532)


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Tilemann Heshusius, German Gnesio-Lutheran theologian (b. 1527)


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Edward James, English Catholic martyr (executed at Chichester)


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Bernardino Telesio, Italian philosopher and natural scientist (b. 1509)


text: December 24 – Louis II, Cardinal of Guise, French Catholic cardinal (b. 1555)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – The College of Sorbonne votes a resolution that it is just and necessary to depose King Henry III of France, and that any private citizen is morally free to commit regicide.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – England prohibits the construction of a cottage on any property that isn't at least four acres in size, with the passage of the Erection of Cottages Act 1588.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – The Treaty of Bytom and Będzin is signed between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Austria, ending the War of the Polish Succession. Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria, renounces his claims to the thrones of Poland and Lithuania and acknowledges Sigismund III Vasa of Sweden as the heir to the throne.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Jan Zamoyski, the Hetman of Poland since 1581, establishes the largest family trust in the Kingdom. The Zamoyski family trust will last for more than 350 years until being abolished in 1944.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – The Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier is set up as the third of the five admiralties in the Dutch Republic.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – The Earl of Bothwell, accused of treason against the Crown of Scotland, surrenders along with the Earl of Huntly and is imprisoned at Holyrood Palace. Convicted on May 24, the conspirators are never sentenced and set free by King James VI.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – On the island of Sumatra in what is now Indonesia, the Sultan of Aceh Darussalam, Ali Ri'ayat Syah II, is assassinated by a group of nobles dissatisfied with his rule. He becomes the fourth Sultan in a row to be murdered. Sayyid al-Mukammal is approved by the nobles as the new Sultan of Aceh.


text: July 17 – (Tensho 17, 5th day of 6th month); The Battle of Suriagehara takes place in Japan between the Date and Katakura clans and the Ashina, Satake and Nikaido clans. Date Masamune leads the two clans to victory over Satake Yoshinobu.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Abbas the Great, who has recently become the Safavid Emperor of Persia, arranges the assassination of his benefactor, the Viceroy Murshid Qoli Khan at a banquet.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Battle of Arques: King Henry IV of France's forces defeat those of the Catholic League, under Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne (younger brother of Henry I, Duke of Guise).


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Japanese warlord Date Masamune and his forces capture the Sukagawa Castle, defended by his aunt Onamihime Nikaido, after her assistant Hodohara Yukifuji betrays her.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Henry IV of France is repulsed in an attempt to capture Paris from the Catholic League.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – King Philip of Portugal issues an order to the Viceroy in Portuguese India (Goa) for the arrest of explorer João da Gama, but da Gama continues toward Mexico without being aware of the order.


text: March 6 – Ralph Fitch becomes the first known person from England to set foot on the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and stays five days.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – An English Armada, led by Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys, and largely financed by private investors, sets sail to attack the Iberian Peninsula's Atlantic coast, but fails to achieve any naval advantage.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The English Armada, commanded by Sir Francis Drake, returns to Portsmouth after almost three months of pillaging the Spanish kingdoms.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – King James VI of Scotland sails to Norway to meet his bride, Anne of Denmark as part of a fleet of six Scottish Navy ships, and is accompanied by Lord Maitland of Thirlestane, the Lord Chancellor of Scotland.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Job of Moscow is elected as the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Jeremias II Tranos is appointed as the Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, by Ottoman Sultan Murad III.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – King James VI of Scotland, the future James I of England, contracts a proxy marriage with the 14-year-old Anne of Denmark at Kronborg. The formal ceremony takes place on November 23 at the Old Bishop's Palace in Oslo.


date: December 25

text: December 25 (Christmas Day) – The monks of the Pechenga Monastery, the northernmost in the world, are massacred by Swedes, led by a Finnish peasant chief, in the course of the Russo-Swedish War.


text: Hiroshima is founded, by the Japanese warlord Mōri Terumoto.


date: January 17

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: January 17 – The French city of Chartres closes its gates to King Henry III and subsequently recognizes 65-year-old Charles I, Cardinal de Bourbon as King Charles X.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – In Spain, María Pita leads the defense of La Coruña against the English Armada after her husband is killed by a crossbow."


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Alleged serial killer and accused werewolf Peter Stumpp 'the Werewolf of Bedburg' is tortured and executed.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – The reign of Catherine de' Medici as Countess of Auvergne ends after 64 years and she is succeeded by her grandson, Charles de Valois.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Valkendorfs Kollegium is founded in Copenhagen, Denmark.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Girolamo Bargagli's play The Pilgrim Woman is given its first performance, premiering in Florence, three years after Bargagli's death.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – At Oslo, Patrick Vans, Lord Barnbarroch ratifies the marriage contract between King James VI of Scotland, and Anne of Denmark.


text: San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, is completed by Domenico Fontana.


text: The Hofbräuhaus is founded, by William V, Duke of Bavaria, in Munich.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Ivan Gundulić, Croatian poet (d. 1638)


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Peter Melander Graf von Holzappel, Protestant military leader in the Thirty Years' War (d. 1648)


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Henry Vane the Elder, English politician (d. 1655)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Gisbertus Voetius, Dutch theologian (d. 1676)


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset, English noble (d. 1624)


date: April 20

text: April 20 – John Casimir, Count Palatine of Kleeburg, son of John I (d. 1652)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, French writer (d. 1674)


date: June 9

text: June 9 – John of St. Thomas, Portuguese philosopher (d. 1644)


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Gabriel Báthory, Prince of Transylvania (d. 1613)


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Agostinho Barbosa, Portuguese bishop in Italy and writer on canon law (d. 1649)


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Maria Magdalena of Austria (d. 1631)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Pedro de Villagómez Vivanco, Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Lima, then Bishop of Arequipa (d. 1671)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Giuseppe Marcinò, Italian priest, member of the Order of Friars Minor - or Capuchins (d. 1655)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Muhammad Parviz, Mughal emperor (d. 1626)


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Magnus Heinason, Faroese naval hero (b. 1545)


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Philothei, Greek Orthodox religious sister, martyr and saint (b. 1522)


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Alessandro Farnese, Italian cardinal (b. 1530)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Heo Nanseolheon, Korean poet (b. 1563)


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Tansen, Indian musician (b. c.1493/1500)


text: April 26 – Benedict the Moor, Italian Franciscan friar and saint (b. 1526)


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Ercole Grimaldi becomes the new Lord of Monaco upon the death of his older brother Charles II.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Lady Saigō, Japanese concubine (b. 1552)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Petrus Peckius the Elder, Dutch jurist, writer on international maritime law (b. 1529)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Maria of the Palatinate-Simmern, Duchess consort of Södermanland (1579–1589) (b. 1561)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Jacques Clément, French assassin of Henry III of France (b. 1567)


date: August 2

text: August 2 – Following the death of Henry III of France, his army is thrown into confusion and an attempt to retake Paris is abandoned. Henry of Navarre succeeds to the throne as King Henry IV of France, but is not recognized by the Catholic League, who acclaim the imprisoned Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, as the rightful King of France, Charles X.


text: October 31 – Peter Stumpp, German alleged serial killer "the Werewolf of Bedburg" (b. 1535)


date: December 10

text: December 10 – In India, Man Singh I becomes the new raja of the Kingdom of Amber (now part of the Rajasthan state) upon the death of his father, Bhagwant Das.


text: In India, the reign of Shivashri Satakarni, as King Satavahana of Andhra, begins.

source_section: Events › By place › India


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Lady Bian, wife of Cao Cao (d. 230)


text: Gordian I, Roman emperor (d. 238)


text: Annia Aurelia Fadilla, daughter of Marcus Aurelius


text: Lu Zhi, Chinese general (d. 192)


text: Liang Ji, Chinese general and regent


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Luis de Velasco y Castilla, Marquess of Salinas, becomes the new Viceroy of New Spain, a colony comprising most of Central America, Mexico and what is now a large part of the southwestern United States. Velasco will govern until 1595, and then again from 1607 to 1611.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – The Treaty of Constantinople is signed between the Ottoman Empire (in modern-day Turkey) and the Safavid Empire (modern-day Iran), ending a 12-year war between the two nations.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – The Cortes of Castile approves a new subsidy, the millones.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Japan's first diplomatic representatives to Europe, Itō Mancio, Michele Chijiwa, Giuliano Nakaura and Martino Hara, return to Japan after eight years, having departed on February 20, 1582.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – A truce is signed between representatives of the Holy Roman Empire (ruled by Emperor Rudolf II) and the Ottoman Empire (ruled by Sultan Murad III).


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort, the German-born commander of the Spanish Imperial Army captures the German fortress of Rheinberg after a four-year long siege during the Eighty Years' War.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, takes Breda, by concealing 68 of his best men in a peat-boat, to get through the impregnable defenses.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Battle of Ivry: Henry IV of France again defeats the forces of the Catholic League, under Charles, Duke of Mayenne.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Ten armed English merchant vessels of the Levant Company are intercepted by 12 galleys of the Spanish Navy while attempting to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar after trading in the Mediterranean Sea. Levant Company's Benedict Barnham, on the flagship Salomon, leads the corporate fleet in a six-hour battle and heavily damages the Spanish ships, clearing the way for the company ships to return home.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – King Henry of Navarre, claimant to the throne of France, begins an unsuccessful attempt to besiege Paris, at the time controlled by the Catholic League. By August 30, Henry is forced to raise the siege, when Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma comes to its rescue with a Spanish army.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – The Japanese samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi sends an army of 15,000 men, led by generals Maeda Toshiie and Uesugi Kagekatsu, in an attack on the Hachiōji Castle in what is now Tokyo. The castle is lightly defended, by only 1,300 men, because the samurai Hōjō Ujiteru has most of his troops engaged in defending Hideyohsi's siege of Odawara. The castle is captured after one day, and later destroyed on orders of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – In Japan, the siege of Odawara, part of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign to eliminate the clan of samurais led by Hōjō Ujinao, ends with the surrender of Odawara, part of Toyotomi's unification of the country.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to lift the siege of Paris.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – (5th waxing of Tazaungmon 952 ME) – In what is now Myanmar, King Nanda Bayin of Burma sends a 10,000-man army, led by the Viceroy Thado Dhamma Yaza III of Prome, and General Natshinnaung to suppress a rebellion in the Shan state of Mogaung.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Saadian invasion of the Songhai Empire: An army of 20,000 troops, led by Judar Pasha is dispatched from Marrakesh in the Saadi Sultanate (now Morocco), on orders of Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur. The Saadi Army's objective is to conquer the Songhai Empire, led by the Emperor Askia Ishaq II, in North Africa, corresponding to what is now the Republic of Mali.


date: November 22

text: November 22 (12th waning of Tazaungmon 952 ME) – Burmese King Nanda Bayin sends a his son, the Crown Prince Mingyi Swa and 20,000 troops to what is now Thailand.


text: The Spanish are pushed out of southern Gelderland by the Dutch forces.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – García Hurtado de Mendoza becomes the new Viceroy of Peru (nominally including most of South America except for Brazil). He will serve until 1596.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Construction of the Fortezza Nuova around the city of Livorno begins in Italy in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany on the orders of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and continues for more than 14 years.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – John White, governor of the Colony of Roanoke, returns to Roanoke after having left the North American colony in 1587 to get supplies. Upon arrival at, the crew of the ships Hopewell and Moonlight find that the Roanoke Colony is deserted, with the only clues to where the colonist went being the word "CRO" carved into a tree, and the word CROATOAN (believed to be a reference to Hatteras Island, where the colonists formerly lived).


date: October 24

text: October 24 – After an unsuccessful search of the "lost colony" of Roanoke, English officer John White and the surviving crew of the ships Hopewell and Moonlight return to England.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Anne of Denmark is crowned queen consort of Scotland, at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Two days before the scheduled papal conclave begins, Enrique de Guzmán, 2nd Count of Olivares, Spain's ambassador to the Papal States, presents the cardinals with the recommendations of King Philip II of Spain, a set of candidates whom the Spanish cardinals will support, and 30 whom they are instructed not to vote for.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – The second papal conclave in less than four weeks opens at the Apostolic Palace in Rome, 23 days after the previous conclave had been concluded, and 53 cardinals arrive.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Niccolò Sfondrato, Cardinal-priest of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, is elected as the new pope and takes the name Pope Gregory XIV. Sfondrato is selected as a compromise candidate after Gabriele Paleotti falls 3 votes short of being elected.


text: Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria Meletius I succeeds Silvester.


text: October 13 – German astronomer Michael Maestlin becomes the first person to record an observation of the occultation of the planet Mars by the planet Venus.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – North Berwick witch trials: Agnes Sampson is questioned by King James VI of Scotland, and confesses to practising witchcraft. She will be executed on January 28.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – The estimated 6.0 magnitude Neulengbach earthquake causes significant damage and some loss of life, in Lower Austria and Vienna; the effects are felt as far as Bohemia and Silesia.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – The day after his 12th birthday, Ferdinand of Habsburg becomes the new Archduke of Inner Austria (Innerösterreich) upon the death, in Graz, of his father Charles II. A regency council rules in the place of Ferdinand until 1596.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Simon Vouet, French painter (d. 1649)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Benedetta Carlini, Italian mystic (d. 1661)


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford (d. 1676)


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Spanish and Portuguese historian and poet (d. 1649)


date: March

text: March – Roger Ludlow, one of the founders of the colony (later the state) of Connecticut (d. 1664)


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset (d. 1632)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Philip Bell, British colonial governor (d. 1678)


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana, Italian singer and composer (d. 1662)


date: August 9

text: August 9 – John Webster, colonial settler and governor of Connecticut (d. 1661)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier (d. 1649)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – María de Zayas, Spanish writer (d. 1661)


date: October 11

text: October 11 – William Pynchon, English colonist and fur trader in North America (d. 1662)


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Juan Alonso de Cuevas y Davalos, Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Mexico and Antequera (d. 1665)


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Daniel Seghers, Flemish Jesuit brother and painter (d. 1661)


text: January 20 – Giambattista Benedetti, Italian mathematician and physicist (b. 1530)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Catherine of Ricci, Catholic prioress and saint (b. 1522)


date: February 12

text: February 12 – François Hotman, French Protestant lawyer and writer (b. 1524)


text: February 12 – Blanche Parry, personal attendant to Elizabeth I of England (b. c. 1508)


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Asahi no kata, Japanese lady, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's half-sister (b. 1543)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, English nobleman and general (b. 1528)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Francis Walsingham, English spymaster (b. 1530)


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Charles de Bourbon French cardinal and pretender to the throne (b. 1523)


date: July 1

text: July 1 (13th waning of 1st Ashadha, 952 CS) – Naresuan Maharat becomes the new ruler of Thailand as Sanphet II of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, upon the death of his father, Sanphet I.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – After the eight day conclave, Giovanni Battista Castagna, the Cardinal-Priest of San Marcello al Corso receives the necessary two-thirds majority despite support for Cardinal Marco Antonio Colonna. Castagna becomes Pope Urban VII but contracts malaria and dies 12 days later.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Archduchess Anna of Austria, Duchess of Bavaria (b. 1528)


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Bernardino de Sahagún, Franciscan missionary (b. 1499)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert, Dutch politician and theologian (b. 1522)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, English statesman (b. 1528)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Peter the Lame, ruler of the Principality of Moldavia (part of modern-day Romania and of Moldova) abdicates in Iași after having reigned for most of the previous 17 years. Peter's downfall comes after he is unable to raise the money paid as tribute to the Ottoman Empire. He is replaced by Aaron the Tyrant (Aron Vodă).


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Battle of Tondibi: In Mali, forces sent by the Saadi dynasty ruler of Morocco, Ahmad al-Mansur, and led by Judar Pasha, defeat the Songhai Empire, despite being outnumbered by at least five to one.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Japanese tea-master Sen no Rikyū commits seppuku, on the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Sir John Norreys, with an expeditionary force sent by Queen Elizabeth I of England, takes the town of Guingamp in Brittany after a brief siege, on behalf of Henry of Navarre.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Zutphen is captured by the Dutch and English, under Maurice of Nassau.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Deventer is captured by the Dutch, under Maurice of Nassau.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – The siege of the Spanish Netherlands city of Delfzijl is started by Maurice, Prince of Orange, stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who leads a Dutch and English Army against the Spanish defenders. Delfzijl falls after six days, and is surrendered on July 2.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – A Crimean army, led by the Tatar Khan Ğazı II Giray, begins a siege of Moscow.