Events

• January 15 - Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to Poland
• February 24 - Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15, skipping over 10 days. Other countries follow at various later dates.
• November 28 - In Stratford-upon-Avon, 18 year-old William Shakespeare and 26 year-old Anne Hathaway pay a 40-pound bond for their marriage license (Shakespeare would later become one of the greatest playwrights in history).
• Tibet, Foundation of Kumbum
  
• China, Jesuit Matteo Ricci is allowed to enter China
• Incident at Honnoji in Kyoto, Japan

Births

• December 23 - Severo Bonini, Italian composer (d. 1663)
• Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer (d. 1652)
• Kobayakawa Hideaki, Japanese samurai and warlord
• William Juxon, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1663)

Deaths

• June 21 - Oda Nobunaga, Japanese warlord (daimyo) (b. 1534)
• October 15 - Saint Teresa of Avila, Carmelite nun and poet (b. 1515)
• Giocangga, chieftain of the Jurchens and grandfather of Nurhaci
• Akechi Mitsuhide, Japanese samurai and warlord