1580s

• 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.[1]
• March 1 – Michel de Montaigne signs the preface to his most significant work, Essays. They are published later this year.[2]
• March 25 – Iberian Union: King Philip II of Spain becomes King of Portugal under the name Philip I, following the death without heirs of King Henry of Portugal, in a personal union of the crowns, thus maintaining Portuguese independence (in Europe and throughout the Portuguese Empire).[1] The Philippine Dynasty rule lasts until 1640.
• April 6 – The Dover Straits earthquake occurs.[3]
• May – The Lipizzan stud is established by Charles II, Archduke of Austria.
• June – England signs a commercial treaty with the Ottoman Empire.[4]
• June 11 – Juan de Garay founds Buenos Aires.
• June 25 – The Book of Concord, a collection of Lutheran confessional documents, is published.

• 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.[5]
• 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.[6]
• September 26 – Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England from his voyage of circumnavigation (westabout) on the Golden Hind,[7] the second completed in a continuous voyage, and the first under its original commander.

• The Billy Mitchell volcano, on the island of Bougainville, undergoes a catastrophic eruption (VEI 6).
• 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.
• The Old City of Zamość is established in Poland, by Jan Zamoyski.
• Jesuit missionaries arrive at the court of Akbar, ruler of the Mughal Empire.[8]
• A group of English merchants gains the right to trade in Ottoman territory, in return for supplying the sultan with iron, steel, brass and tin for his war with Persia.
• An influenza pandemic sweeps the world, starting in Asia and moving rapidly through Africa, Europe, and eventually the Americas. More than 10% of the population of Rome dies, and whole towns in Spain are depopulated.[9]

• March 18 – The Parliament of England's Act against Reconciliation to Rome imposes heavy fines, for practising Roman Catholicism.[10]
• March 25 – Iberian Union: Philip II of Spain is crowned Philip I of Portugal.
• April 4 – Following his circumnavigation of the world, Francis Drake is knighted by Elizabeth I of England.[7]

• July 14 – English Jesuit Edmund Campion is arrested.
• July 26
  • The Northern Netherlands (Union of Utrecht) proclaim their independence from Spain in the Act of Abjuration, abjuring loyalty to Philip II of Spain as their sovereign, and appointing Francois, Duke of Anjou, as the new sovereign of the Netherlands; public practice of Roman Catholicism is forbidden.
  • Capture of Breda: Spanish troops take Breda by surprise.
  • A meteorite makes landfall in Thuringia, Holy Roman Empire.[11]
• August 28 – The army of King Stephen Báthory of Poland begins its siege of the Russian garrison of Pskov.
• Summer (probable) – Yermak begins the Russian conquest of the Khanate of Sibir, with a band of 1,636 men.
• September – A mercenary army of Sweden, under Pontus De la Gardie, captures Narva from Russia.
• October 10 – King Bayinnaung, who created the largest empire in mainland southeast Asia, dies at age 65.
• 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.
• November 4 – Jean de la Cassière is restored as Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller, by Pope Gregory XIII.
• December 1 – In England, Jesuit priest Edmund Campion is executed for treason.[12]

• The Knights Hospitaller depose Jean de la Cassière as Grandmaster, and appoint Mathurin Romegas.
• 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.
• Oda Nobunaga invades Iga Province.
• The Trier witch trials begin.
• John Dee practices angel magic with Barnabas Saul, but with no success.
• Guru Arjan Dev becomes the fifth Guru of Sikhs, succeeding his father Guru Ram Das.
• The last Bishop of Meissen, John IX of Haugwitz, resigns his office in the wake of the Reformation.

• January 15 – Russia cedes its conquered areas in Livonia (Northern Latvia and Southern Estonia), to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• February 10 – François, Duke of Anjou, arrives in the Netherlands, where he is personally welcomed by William the Silent.
• February 24 – Pope Gregory XIII proclaims the Gregorian Calendar, to come into effect later in the year.[13]
• March 9 – Scryer Edward Kelley arrives at John Dee's house in London. They practice angelic magic together and Dee develops the Enochian language.[14]

• January 18 – François, Duke of Anjou, attacks Antwerp.
• 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.
• March 10 – The Queen Elizabeth's Men troupe of actors is ordered to be founded in England.
• May – Battle of Shizugatake in Japan: Shibata Katsuie is defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who goes on to commence construction of Osaka Castle.[15]
• 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.

• 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.
• August 5 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on the site of the modern-day city of St John's, Newfoundland, claims the island of Newfoundland on behalf of England, marking the beginning of the British Empire.
• August 19 – Petru Cercel enters Bucharest, and becomes Prince of Wallachia.
• 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.[16]
• 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.

• The world's oldest, intact, still-surviving amusement park, Dyrehavsbakken, is founded north of Copenhagen.
• The Bunch Of Grapes Pub is built on Narrow Street, London.[17] 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.

• January–March – Archangelsk is founded as New Kholmogory in northern Russia, by Ivan the Terrible.
• January 11 – Sir Walter Mildmay is given a royal licence to found Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[18]
• March 18 (N.S. March 28) – Ivan the Terrible, ruler of Russia since 1533, dies; he is succeeded as Tsar by his son, Feodor.
• May 17 – The conflict between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu culminates in the Battle of Nagakute.
• June 1 – With the death of the Duc d'Anjou, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre becomes heir-presumptive to the throne of France.
• June 4 – Walter Raleigh sends Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to explore the Outer Banks of Virginia (now North Carolina), with a view to establishing an English colony; they locate Roanoke Island.[19]
• June 11 – Walk (modern-day Valka and Valga, towns in Latvia and Estonia respectively), receive city rights from Polish king Stefan Bathory.

• July – The Siege of Antwerp[20] begins.
• July 5 – The Maronite College is established in Rome, Papal States.
• July 10 – William I of Orange is assassinated.
• September 17 – Ghent falls into the hands of Alexander Farnese, governor of the Spanish Netherlands.[21]
• December – The Treaty of Joinville is signed secretly between the French Catholic League and Spain.

• Ratu Hijau becomes queen regnant of the once Malay Pattani Kingdom.
• 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.
• This year, according to Italian heretic Jacopo Brocardo, is regarded as an apocalyptic inauguration of a major new cycle.

• January – The Netherlands adopts the Gregorian calendar.
• February – The Spanish seize Brussels.
• April 24 – Pope Sixtus V succeeds Pope Gregory XIII, as the 227th pope.[22]
• May 19 – Spain seizes English ships in Spanish ports,[10] precipitating the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).
• June 11 – The magnitude 9.3 1585 Aleutian Islands earthquake unleashes a tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, killing many people in Hawaii and reportedly striking Japan.[23]

• 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.[24]
• August 8 – English explorer John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in Baffin Island, in his quest for the Northwest Passage.
• August 14 – Queen Elizabeth I of England agrees to establish a protectorate over the Netherlands.[10]
• August 17
  • Fall of Antwerp: Antwerp is captured by Spanish forces under the Prince of Parma, who orders Protestants to leave the city. As a result, over half of the 100,000 inhabitants flee to the northern provinces. Furthermore, upon hearing of the capture of Antwerp, a relief fleet sent to raise the siege instead blockades the Scheldt River, preventing any and all ships from reaching Antwerp for two centuries. This effectively destroys Antwerp's position as an important trade city and de facto capital of the Dutch provinces. Its position is taken over by various northern cities, most prominently Amsterdam.
  • A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Raleigh, under the charge of Ralph Lane, lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. This group will depart the following June.[10]
• August 20 – The Treaty of Nonsuch is signed, committing England to support the Dutch Revolt, thus entering the Eighty Years' War.[4]
• November 28 – Anglo-Spanish War: Santiago, Cape Verde is captured by Francis Drake.

• Invasion of Shikoku: Toyotomi Hideyoshi seizes the island of Shikoku from Chōsokabe Motochika.
• The Kingdom of Luba is founded.
• History of chocolate in Spain: First recorded commercial importation of chocolate to Europe, from Veracruz in Mexico to Seville in Spain.[25]

• June 16 – The deposed and imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir.
• July 6 – The Treaty of Berwick is signed between Queen Elizabeth I of England and King James VI of Scotland.[26]
• July 21 – English explorer Thomas Cavendish begins the first deliberately planned circumnavigation of the globe.[27]
• September 20–21 – Execution of the Babington Plotters: The 14 men convicted of a plot (uncovered on July 17) to murder Queen Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots, are hanged, drawn and quartered (the first seven being disembowelled before death) in St Giles Field, London.[28]
• September 22 – Battle of Zutphen: Spanish troops defeat the Dutch rebels and their English allies. English poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney is mortally wounded.[29]
• October 15–25 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is placed on treason trial at Fotheringhay Castle in England for complicity in the Babington Plot and sentenced to death.[26]
• November 19 – English Separatist Puritan Henry Barrowe is imprisoned.
• December 17 – The reign of Emperor Ōgimachi of Japan ends, and Emperor Go-Yōzei ascends to the throne.

• Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin publishes a study showing that two objects of different weight fall with the same speed.
• St. Augustine, Florida, and Santo Domingo (modern day Dominican Republic) are plundered and burned by English sea captain Sir Francis Drake.
• Jacobus Gallus composes his motet O magnum mysterium.
• English topographer William Harrison becomes canon of Windsor.
• António da Madalena from Portugal is the first westerner to visit Angkor Wat.
• English ship Vanguard, the first Royal Navy vessel to bear this name, is launched at Woolwich.
• The cities of Voronezh, Samara, and Tyumen in Russia are founded.

• February 1 – Queen Elizabeth I of England signs the death warrant of her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, after Mary has been implicated in a plot to murder Elizabeth. Seven days later, on the orders of Elizabeth's privy council, Mary is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle.[30]
• February 12–24 – Period of exceptionally severe cold in western Europe.[31]
• April 29 – Singeing the King of Spain's Beard: On an expedition against Spain, English privateer Sir Francis Drake leads a raid in the Bay of Cádiz, sinking at least 23 ships of the Spanish fleet.
• May 19 – John Davis sets out from Dartmouth, Devon, for a third attempt to find the Northwest Passage.

• July 22 – Roanoke Colony: A group of English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island off North Carolina, to re-establish the deserted colony.[32]
• August 18 – According to legend, Saul Wahl is named king of Poland; he is deposed the following day.[33]
• August 19 – Polish and Lithuanian nobles elect Sigismund III Vasa as their king.[34]
• August 27 – Governor John White leaves the Roanoke Colony to get more supplies from England.
• October 1 – Shāh ‘Abbās I "The Great" succeeds as Shahanshah of Iran.[35]
• 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.
• October 20 – Battle of Coutras: Huguenot forces under Henry of Navarre defeat Royalist forces under Anne de Joyeuse, favorite of King Henry; Joyeuse is killed.
• October 31 – Leiden University Library opens its doors, after its founding in 1575.[36]

• Toyotomi Hideyoshi becomes Daijō-daijin of Japan and concludes the Kyūshū Campaign with the Siege of Kagoshima at which most of Kyushu is surrendered to him; he banishes European Christian missionaries from the province.
• A severe famine breaks out in Ming dynasty China.
• The Rose (theatre) is founded in London by Philip Henslowe.
• The chapbook Historia von D. Johann Fausten, printed by Johann Spies in Frankfurt, is the first published version of the Faust story.
• Everard Digby's De Arte Natandi, the first treatise on swimming in England, is published.
• St. Dominic's Church, Macau is established.

• February – The Sinhalese abandon the siege of Colombo, capital of Portuguese Ceylon.
• 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.
• April 14 (April 4 Old Style) – Christian IV becomes king of Denmark–Norway, upon the death of his father, Frederick II.
• May 12 – Day of the Barricades in Paris: Henry I, Duke of Guise seizes the city, forcing King Henry III to flee.[37]
• May 28 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from the Tagus estuary, heading for the English Channel (it will take until May 30 for all of the ships to leave port).[38]

• July – King Henry III of France capitulates to the Duke of Guise, and returns to Paris.
• July 31 – The first engagement between the English and Spanish fleets (off of Plymouth) results in a victory for the English, under command of Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake.
• August 2 – The English fleet defeats the Spanish fleet, off the Isle of Portland.
• August 6 (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).
• August 7 – The English fleet defeats the Spanish fleet off the coast of Flanders.
• August 8–9 – The Spanish are unable to reach the coast of Flanders, to meet up with the army of the Duke of Parma. The Duke of Medina Sidonia decides to return to Spain.
• August 12 – The fleeing Spanish fleet sails past the Firth of Forth, and the English call off their pursuit. Much of the Spanish fleet is destroyed by storms, as it sails for home around Scotland and Ireland.
• October 7 – The first biography of Nicolaus Copernicus (d.1543) is completed by Bernardino Baldi.
• 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.
• December 23 – Henry III of France strikes his ultra-Catholic enemies, having the Duke of Guise and his brother, Louis II, Cardinal of 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.

• William Morgan's Welsh translation of the Bible is published.[39]
• 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.

• War of the Three Henrys: In France, the Catholic League is in rebellion against King Henry III, in revenge for his murder of Henry I, Duke of Guise in December 1588. The King makes peace with his old rival, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre, his designated successor, and together they besiege Paris.
• January 26 – Job is elected as the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
• February 26 – Valkendorfs Kollegium is founded in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• 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,[40] but fails to achieve any naval advantage.

• August 1 – King Henry III of France is stabbed by the fanatical Dominican friar Jacques Clément (who is immediately killed).
• 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.
• 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.[41] The formal ceremony takes place on November 23 at the Old Bishop's Palace in Oslo.
• 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).
• November 1 – Henry IV of France is repulsed in an attempt to capture Paris from the Catholic League.
• 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.

• San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, is completed by Domenico Fontana.
• Hiroshima is founded, by the Japanese warlord Mōri Terumoto.
• The Hofbräuhaus is founded, by William V, Duke of Bavaria, in Munich.

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