Events

• January 23 - The assassination of regent James Stewart, Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war
• February 25 - Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England.
• May 20 - Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
• August 8 - The Peace of Saint-Germain ends the Third War of Religion in France. Again, the Huguenots are promised religious freedom and political autonomy.
• Académie française founded
• China, the Voyage in Occident, (Novel)

Births

• April 13 - Guy Fawkes, English Gunpowder Plot conspirator
• September 12 - Henry Hudson, English navigator
• Hans Lippershey, Dutch lensmaker (approximate date) (d. 1619)

Deaths

• January 23 - James Stewart, Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland
• François Bonivard, Swiss patriot and historian, the "prisoner of Chillon" (b. 1496)
• Confucian scholar Yi Hwang (Toegye) of Joseon
• Francesco Primaticcio, italian painter, architect and sculptor