:
Humphrey Gilbert claims the island of
Newfoundland on behalf of
England.
January–March •
January 1 – The
Duchy of Savoy adopts the
Gregorian Calendar, replacing the
Julian Calendar. •
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. •
February 7 – In the Netherlands, the
Siege of Eindhoven by the Spanish Army begins. The walled city will fall in April. •
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.
April–June •
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. •
April 19 – Queen Elizabeth dissolves the
English Parliament which had been convened in 1572 but last met in 1581. •
April 23 • The Kingdom of England establishes its first diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire. • After a siege of 75 days,
Dutch Republic commander Hendrik van Bonnivet
surrenders Eindhoven to the
Spanish Netherlands. •
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. •
May 21 –
Battle of Shizugatake in
Japan:
Shibata Katsuie is defeated by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who goes on to commence construction of
Osaka Castle. •
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. •
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. •
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. •
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. •
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.
July–September •
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, 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. •
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). •
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.
October–December •
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. •
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. •
October 17 –
Peter the Lame becomes Prince of Moldavia (in modern-day Romania) for the third and last time, reigning until 1591. •
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. •
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. •
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. •
Gerolamo Chiavari is elected to a 2-year term as the new
Doge of the
Republic of Genoa to succeed
Gerolamo De Franchi Toso. •
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. •
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). •
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. •
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 unknown • The world's oldest, intact, surviving amusement park,
Dyrehavsbakken, is founded north of
Copenhagen. • 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'. • The
Ottoman fleet crosses into the
Western Mediterranean and raids the
Italian coastline. In
Corsica, the towns of
Sartene and
Arbellara are sacked (summer). == Births ==