Events

• Earliest English slave-trading expedition under John Hawkins. The expedition goes between Guinea and the West Indies
• January 6 - Earl of Tyrone ends his first rebellion by surrendering to Queen Elizabeth I of England
• January 17 - Huguenots were recognized under the Edict of Saint-Germain
• March 1 - Over 1,000 Huguenots are massacred by the ultra-Catholic Francis, Duke of Guise in Wassy-sur-Blaise marking the start of the First War of Religion in France. Protestant forces led by Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and Gaspard de Coligny quickly seize control of Orleans, Rouen, and other cities throughout France.
• May 1 Jean Ribault, French navigator, lands in Florida and later establishes a Huguenot colony at Charlesfort
• May 26 - Earl of Tyrone leads a second rebellion in Ireland
• September 20 - English forces under John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, land in Le Havre to aid the Huguenots.
• September 22 - Maximilian, son of the Emperor Ferdinand I, succeeds as King of Bohemia.
• October 26 - Rouen is captured by Royalist forces under Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre, who is mortally wounded.
• November 5 - In Scotland, the rebellion of George Gordon, Earl of Huntly is crushed by James Stewart, Earl of Moray at Corrichie .
• November 20 - Maximilian of Bohemia is elected King of the Romans.
• December 19 - Battle of Dreux . An indecisive battle between Huguenots forces under Condé and Coligny, and Catholic forces under Anne de Montmorency and Guise. Notable is that the official leaders of both armies - Condé and Montmorency - were captured in the battle.

Births

• January 12 - Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy
• July 25 - Kato Kiyomasa, Japanese daimyo and samurai
• August 17 (baptised) - Hans Leo Hassler, German composer
• October 4 - Christian Severin Longberg, Danish astronomer
• October 19 - Archbishop George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1633)
• November 25 - Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and dramatist (d. 1635)
• Isabella Andreini, Italian actress (d. 1604)
• John Bull, English composer
• Henry Constable, English poet
• Samuel Daniel, English poet and historian
• Bartholomäus Gesius , German theologian and composer
• Francis Godwin, English writer and prelate
• Cornelis van Haarlem , Dutch painter
• Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dutch composer

Deaths

• January 9 - Amago Haruhisa, Japanese samurai and warlord
• May 14 - Lelio Sozini, Italian Protestant theologian
• October 9 - Gabriel Fallopius, Italian anatomist
• November 12 - Pietro Martire Vermigli, Italian theologian
• November 17 - Antoine de Bourbon, father of Henry IV of France (b. 1518)
• December 7 - Adrian Willaert, Flemish composer
• Thomas Appleby , English organist and composer of church music
• George Cavendish, English courtier and author
• Claudin de Sermisy , French composer
• Nicholas Grimald, English poet and theologian
• Jan van Scorel, Dutch painter