Battle of Ivry
Mar 14 Battle of Ivry: French King Henry IV defeats the Catholic League during the French Wars of Religion
- Apr 2 States-General appoints earl Mauritius, viceroy of Utrecht
- May 17 Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland
- Jul 6 English admiral Francis Drake takes Portuguese Forts at Taag
- Aug 14 Publication of Christopher Marlowe's play "Tamburlaine the Great" is recorded by Stationers' Company of London (likely first performed 1587)
- Aug 17 Governor of Roanoke Island colony, John White, returns from England to find no trace of the colonists he had left there 3 years earlier [or Aug 18, 1591]
Tokugawa Ieyasu Occupies Edo
Aug 30 Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle (Traditional Japanese date: August 1, 1590)
Siege of Paris
Sep 5 Duke of Parma Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris
- Sep 15 Giambattista Catagna elected as Pope Urban VII
- Sep 27 Pope Urban VII dies 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history
- Nov 1 Army of Moroccan ruler Ahmad al-Mansur led by Spanish Eunuch Jawdar leaves Marrakesh to cross the Sahara to conquer the Songhai Empire
- Dec 5 Niccolo Sfondrati chosen as Pope Gregory XIV
- Dec 22 Army of Moroccan Pasha Ahmad al-Mansur begins its epic 135 day crossing of the Saharan desert on his way to defeat the Songhai Empire
Gregory I
Gregory XIII
Julius II
Julius III
Leo X
Pius V