January–March •
January 29 – Cardinal
Ippolito Aldobrandini of
San Pancrazio is
elected as the new Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church after
Ludovico Madruzzo and
Giulio Antonio Santori withdraw following 19 rounds of voting by the 54 cardinals present. Cardinal Santori had received 28 votes on the first ballot, eight short of the necessary two-thirds majority required, and fewer on the rounds that followed. Aldobrandini is crowned the next day as
Pope Clement VIII, the 231st pope. Clement succeeds
Pope Innocent IX, who died on December 30, 1591. He immediately recalls the
Sixtine Vulgate. •
February 7 –
George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, sets fire to
Donibristle Castle in Scotland and murders
James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray. •
March 3 –
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland's oldest university, is founded. •
March 14 – Ultimate
Pi Day: the largest correspondence between calendar dates and significant digits of
pi since the introduction of the
Julian calendar according to the American method of writing the number of the month prior to the day.
April–June •
April 4 – The future
Henry IV of France, King designate of
Henry III of France, announces in a declaration, so-called "Expedient," his intention to take instruction in, and convert to, the
Catholic religion. •
April 13 – The
Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98) begin with the
Siege of Busanjin. •
April 20 – King
Henry IV of France ends the
siege of Rouen, the Spanish-held capital of
Normandy, five months after its November 11 commencement, as the Spanish Navy arrives to relieve the city. •
April 24 –
Battle of Sangju: The Japanese are victorious over the Koreans fighting for the Kingdom of
Joseon. •
April 28 –
Battle of Ch'ungju: Japan inflicts a decisive defeat on Korea. •
May 7 • The
Malta plague epidemic begins when galleys from the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany arrive on the island with 100 prisoners of war from
Egypt, and 20 ill crewmembers; over the next 18 months, 3,000 people on Malta die of the bubonic plague. •
Battle of Okpo: The Korean navy is victorious over Japan. •
May 20 –
August 19 –
Battle of Flores (
Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)), a series of naval engagements in the
Azores in which the English are victorious, taking the great Portuguese
carrack Madre de Deus on or about August 3. •
May 29 –
Battle of Sacheon: Korean admiral
Yi Sun-sin destroys all 13 Japanese ships taking part, using his improved
turtle ship for the first time in battle. •
June 2 –
Battle of Dangpo:The Korean navy is again victorious over Japan. •
June 10 – The
Siege of Bihać begins in the
Kingdom of Croatia, by
Telli Hasan Pasha (Hasan Predojević) of the
Ottoman Empire. Bihać is captured on June 19 and is lost for Croatia forever.
July–September •
July 20 – The Japanese
capture the Korean capital Hanyang, causing
Seonjo to request the assistance of
Ming dynasty Chinese forces, who recapture the city a year later. •
July 30 –
Alonso de Sotomayor petitions the viceroy of
Peru for more troops to help resist attacks by Indians and English pirates. •
August –
1592–1593 London plague breaks out in England. •
August 9 – English explorer
John Davis, commander of the
Desire, probably discovers the
Falkland Islands. •
August 14 –
Battle of Hansan Island: The Korean navy defeats the Japanese. •
September 1 –
Battle of Busan: The Korean fleet makes a surprise attack on the Japanese but fails to break their supply lines to Busan. •
September 7 – The captured
Madre de Deus enters Dartmouth harbour in England and is then subjected to mass theft.
October–December •
October 5 –
Siege of Jinju: The Korean navy is victorious over the Japanese. •
November 3 – The city of
San Luis Potosí is founded. •
November 4 (2nd waxing of Natdaw, 954 ME) – In a war between what are now the nations of Myanmar and Thailand, the Army of Burma, led by King
Nanda Bayin Burma (Toungoo) begins its invasion of the
Ayutthaya Kingdom (Siam), defended by King
Naresuan. •
November 9 – The
Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, an updated edition of the
Latin language translation of the
Bible, is promulgated by the Roman Catholic Church. •
November 12 – The
Collegium Melitense is founded in Malta by Bishop Garagallo. •
November 17 –
Sigismund III Vasa becomes the new
King of Sweden upon the death of his father,
King John III. •
December 4 –
Yu Sŏngnyong becomes the new
Yeonguijeong (Chief State Councillor of the government of the Korean Empire, similar to Prime Minister) and serves until 1598. •
December 21 – The city of
London begins publishing the
Bill of Mortality, the first regular data of deaths from an epidemic, as the government reports its weekly survey of the number of burials in the 113 parishes of London of deaths from
bubonic plague. The death statistics continue to be published until December 18, 1595.
Date unknown • The German Duchy
Palatine Zweibrücken becomes the first territory in the world with compulsory education for girls and boys. •
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, chief adviser of Queen
Elizabeth I of England, is taken seriously ill. • Negotiations begin for the annulment of the childless marriage of
Henry IV of France and
Marguerite of Valois. • The
Confucian shrine of
Munmyo in Korea is destroyed by fire. • The
Population Census Edict is promulgated in Japan by
Toyotomi Hidetsugu. •
Henry Constable's
Diana, one of the first
sonnet sequences in English, is published in London. == Births ==