Brahe and Kepler Meet
Feb 4 Astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler meet for the first time near Prague
- Feb 8 Vatican convicts scholar and wayward friar Giordano Bruno of heresy and turn him over civil authorities upon his refusal to recant to mete out his punishment of death [1]
- Feb 17 Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, convicted of heresy by the Roman Inquisition [1]
- Feb 19 Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in South American recorded history
- Feb 24 Last sighting of Dutch trading ship De Hoop by its sister ship De Liefde near the Mariana islands, it's never seen again
- Mar 20 The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden
- Apr 21 1st date in James Clavell's novel Shogun (OS)
- Jul 1 Prince Maurits' army occupies Newport Flanders Netherlands
- Jul 2 Battle at Newport: Earl Mauritius van Nassau beats Spanish Army
Franco-Savoyard War
Aug 6 Henry IV of France invades Savoy after negotiations break down over Saluzzo, controlled by Savoy since 1588
- Aug 19 Dutch ship Liefde reaches Japan, barely making it across the Pacific with 25 crew, including English navigator William Adams. Its cannon later play important role in Battle of Sekigahara. [1]
- Sep 15 Battle of Sekigahara, rise of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan
- Oct 8 San Marino adopts constitution
- Oct 16 Olivier van Noorts ships reach Philippines
- Oct 20 Battle of Sekigahara sets Tokugawa clan as Japan's rulers (shoguns)
- Dec 14 Sea battle at Manila Bay between Olivier van Noort's Dutch ships and a Spanish fleet, Dutch sink the Spanish galleon San Diego, 350 die
- Dec 20 Ottario Rinuccini and Giulio Caccini's opera "Euridice" published
- Dec 31 British East India Company chartered
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists