Explore 175 historical events from 1580–1589.
William the Silent or William the Taciturn, more commonly known in the Netherlands as William of Orange and in the Dutch National anthem as Willem van Nassau, was the leader of the…
William I of Orange is assassinated in his home in Delft, Holland, by Balthasar Gérard.
Victor Amadeus I was the Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 26 July 1630 until his death in 1637. He was also known as the Lion of Susa.
Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (died 1637)
Conquistadors or conquistadores were Spanish and Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with, and colonized many parts of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania during the Age…
Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina
The Taichang Emperor, personal name Zhu Changluo, was the 15th emperor of the Ming dynasty of China. He was the eldest son of the Wanli Emperor and succeeded his father as emperor …
Taichang, emperor of China (died 1620)
Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobe…
Thomas Middleton, English Jacobean playwright and poet (died 1627)
Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset was the second wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, who held the office of Lord Protector during the first part of the reign of their nep…
Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (born 1497)
Ole Worm, who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhage…
Ole Worm, Danish physician and historian (died 1654)
Rose of Lima, TOSD, was a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in Lima, Peru, Spanish Empire, who became known for both her life of severe penance and her care of the poverty…
Rose of Lima, Peruvian mystic and saint (died 1617)
John Ford was an English playwright and poet of the Jacobean and Caroline eras born in Ilsington in Devon, England. His plays deal mainly with the conflict between passion and cons…
John Ford, English poet and playwright (died 1639)
Santiago de Vera was a native of Alcalá de Henares, Spain and the sixth Spanish governor of the Philippines, from May 16, 1584, until May 1590.
Santiago de Vera becomes sixth governor-general of the Spanish colony of the Philippines
Robert Arnauld d’Andilly was a French conseiller d’État, specialising in financial questions, in the court of Marie de' Medici. By the elegance of his language, he was among the ma…
Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, French writer (died 1674)
Gabriel Báthory was Prince of Transylvania from 1608 to 1613. The Ottomans nicknamed him "Deli Kiral". Born to the Roman Catholic branch of the Báthory family, he was closely relat…
Gabriel Báthory, Prince of Transylvania (died 1613)
Maria Maddalena of Austria was Grand Duchess of Tuscany by her marriage to Cosimo II in 1609 until his death in 1621. With him, she had eight children, including a duchess of Parma…
Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria (died 1631)
Jan Stanisław Sapieha was a Polish–Lithuanian noble, starost of Słonim, Court Marshal of Lithuania from 1617, Great Lithuanian Marshal from 1621.
Jan Stanisław Sapieha, Polish-Lithuanian noble (died 1635)
Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1568 until his death. From 1584, he als…
Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (born 1528)
Lady Saigō, also known as Oai, was one of the concubines of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the samurai lord who unified Japan at the end of the sixteenth century and then ruled as shōgun. She wa…
Lady Saigō, Japanese concubine (born 1552)
Jacques Clément was a French lay brother and the perpetrator of the regicide of King Henry III.
Jacques Clément, French assassin of Henry III of France (born 1567)
Henry III of France was King of France from 1574 until his assassination in 1589 and, as Henry of Valois, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575. Before he ca…
Henry III of France (born 1551)
Michael Baius, also known as Michel De Bay, was a Belgian theologian. He formulated the school of thought now known as Baianism.
Michael Baius, Belgian theologian and academic (born 1513)
Jean Antoine de Baïf was a French poet and member of the Pléiade.
Jean-Antoine de Baïf, French poet (born 1532)
The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholics and Protestants from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine o…
French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry I, Duke of Guise, enters the city and a spontaneous
The Spanish Armada was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, and was the largest engagement of the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War. The Armada was commanded by Alo…
The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, heading for the English Channel
Abbas I, commonly known as Abbas the Great, was the fifth Safavid shah of Iran from 1588 to 1629. The third son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, he is generally considered one of the m…
The coronation of Shah Abbas I of Persia occurs.
Ole Worm, who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhage…
Ole Worm, Danish physician and historian (died 1654)
Pierre Séguier was a French statesman who was the chancellor of France from 1635.
Pierre Séguier, French politician, Lord Chancellor of France (died 1672)
Johann Andreas Herbst was a German composer and music theorist of the early Baroque era. He was a contemporary of Michael Praetorius and Heinrich Schütz, and like them, assisted in…
Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer and theorist (died 1666)
The Spanish Armada was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, and was the largest engagement of the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War. The Armada was commanded by Alo…
The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel
The Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) was an intermittent conflict between Habsburg Spain and the Kingdom of England that was never formally declared. It began with England's military …
Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is sighted in the English Channel.
The Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) was an intermittent conflict between Habsburg Spain and the Kingdom of England that was never formally declared. It began with England's military …
Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: English naval forces under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis…
The Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) was an intermittent conflict between Habsburg Spain and the Kingdom of England that was never formally declared. It began with England's military …
Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade…
Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as Kinoshita Tōkichirō and Hashiba Hideyoshi , was a Japanese samurai and daimyō of the late Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods, regarded as …
Toyotomi Hideyoshi issues a nationwide sword hunting ordinance, disarming the peasantry so as to firmly separate the…
Sir Thomas Cavendish was an English explorer and privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first to deliberately attempt to emulate Sir Francis Drake, raiding Spanish t…
Thomas Cavendish in his ship Desire enters Plymouth and completes the first deliberately planned voyage of…
George Wither was a prolific English poet, pamphleteer, satirist, and writer of hymns. Wither's life spanned one of the most tumultuous periods in the history of England, during th…
George Wither, English poet (died 1667)
Giovanni Maria Sabino was an Italian composer, organist and teacher.
Giovanni Maria Sabino, Italian organist, composer, and educator (died 1649)