January–March •
January 8 – The Jesuit educational plan, known as the
Ratio Studiorum, is issued. •
January 22 –
Acoma Massacre: Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico viceroy
Juan de Oñate leads 70 armed Spanish soldiers against the indigenous
Keres people at Aak'u (the
Acoma Pueblo), near what is now
Albuquerque, New Mexico. In three days, 500 Acoma men and 300 women and children are killed by the Spanish. •
February 20 – On Shrove Tuesday, the earliest known performance of William Shakespeare's play
As You Like It is given, presented at
Richmond Park for Queen Elizabeth. •
February 21 • At
Southwark, near
London on the south bank of the
River Thames, the land upon which the
Globe Theatre will be built is leased by
Nicholas Brend to a team of investors led by
William Shakespeare,
Thomas Pope, actors Cuthbert and Richard Burbage, and three others. •
Lorenzo Sauli becomes the new Doge of the
Republic of Genoa, succeeding
Lazzaro Grimaldi Cebà. Sauli will serve until 1601. •
March 12 –
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, is appointed
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, by Queen
Elizabeth I of England.
April–June •
April 23 – The Earl of Essex arrives in
Dublin at the head of 16,000 troops, the largest army ever seen in Ireland. •
May 15 –
Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604): The
Siege of Zaltbommel, located in the Dutch Republic, is begun by Spanish general
Francisco López de Mendoza. •
May 16 – The
Kalmar Bloodbath takes place in
Kalmar, Sweden. •
May 29 – Essex takes
Cahir Castle, supposedly the strongest in Ireland, after a short
siege. •
June 1 –
Bishops' Ban of 1599: The
Archbishop of Canterbury,
John Whitgift, and the
Bishop of London,
Richard Bancroft order a ban on a selection of literary works, including
Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satires, by
Thomas Middleton. •
June 20 – The
Synod of Diamper is convened.
July–September •
July 17 –
Second Dutch Expedition to East Indies: A Dutch fleet returns to
Amsterdam from what is now
Indonesia, carrying 600,000 pounds of
pepper and 250,000 pounds of
cloves and
nutmeg. •
July 22 – The combined Dutch and English armies successfully defend
Zaltbommel after a siege of two months. •
July 24 –
Swedish King
Sigismund III Vasa is dethroned by his uncle
Duke Charles, who takes over as regent of the realm until
1604, when he becomes King Charles IX. •
August 15 – First
Battle of Curlew Pass:
Irish forces defeat the English. •
September 21 – The first reported performance at the
Globe Theatre in
London (erected over Spring/Summer), a presentation of
Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar (probably new to that year), is recorded by Swiss traveller
Thomas Platter the Younger. •
September 28 – The Earl of Essex arrives back in England, disobeying the Queen's strict orders.
October–December •
October 18 –
Battle of Sellenberk:
Michael the Brave, Prince of
Wallachia, defeats the army of
Andrew Báthory near
Șelimbăr, leading to the first recorded unification of the
Romanians. •
November 10 – The
Åbo Bloodbath takes place in
Åbo (Turku), in modern-day
Finland, which was part of
Sweden at the time. •
November –
Persian embassy to Europe (1599–1602): A diplomatic delegation from
Safavid Persia, led by
Hossein Ali Beg Bayat and his staff after being dispatched by the Shah
Abbas the Great, arrives in
Moscow as part of a mission to enlist European nations into an alliance against the
Ottoman Empire. The Persians are accompanied by English adventurer
Anthony Shirley, who had persuaded Shah Abbas to undertake the initiative. •
December 19 – The forces of
Minye Thihathu II of Toungoo and his ally
Min Razagyi of the
Kingdom of Mrauk U end the
First Toungoo Empire by capturing
Pegu (modern-day Bago, Myanmar).
Date unknown • The first
Capuchin friar is entombed in the
Catacombe dei Cappuccini in
Palermo (Sicily). • The
Toyokuni Shrine in Kyoto and
Oyama Shrine, dedicated to Maeda Toshiie, were founded. == Births ==