1596

1596

Year 1596 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1596

February 14 - Archbishop John Whitgift begins building his hospital at Croydon.
April 9 - Spanish troops capture Calais.
May 18 - Willem Barents leaves Vlie on his third and final Arctic voyage.
June - Sir John Norreys and Sir Geoffrey Fenton travel to Connaught to parley with the local Irish lords.

July 5 - An English fleet, commanded by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Lord Howard of Effingham, sacks Cádiz.
July 14 - King Dominicus Corea (Edirille Bandara) is beheaded by the Portuguese in Colombo, Ceylon.
September 17 - The Spanish capture Amiens.
September 20 - Diego de Montemayor founds the city of Monterrey, Mexico.
October 8/October 10 - The Union of Brest: The Ukrainian Church west of the Dnipro becomes known as the Ukrainian rite of Catholicism, whereas the East officially renounces the authority of the Pope.
October 24/26 - Battle of Keresztes: The Turks defeat a combined Habsburg-Transylvanian army.

The first water closet, by Sir John Harington, is installed in a manor near Kelston in England.
King Sigismund III Vasa moves the capital of Poland from Kraków to Warsaw.
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge is founded.
The Black Death hits parts of Europe.

January 13 - Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (d. 1656)
February 2 - Jacob van Campen, Dutch artist and architect (d. 1657)
March 31 - René Descartes, French philosopher and Mathematician (d. 1650)
May 9 - Abraham van Diepenbeeck, painter
June 23 - Johan Banér, Swedish soldier (d. 1641)
June 29 - Emperor Go-Mizunoo of Japan (d. 1680)
July 12 - Michael I of Russia (d. 1645)
August 16 - Frederick V, Elector Palatine (d. 1632)
August 18 - Jean Bolland, Flemish Jesuit writer (d. 1665)
August 19 - Elizabeth Stuart, later Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia (d. 1662)
September
- James Shirley, English dramatist (d. 1666)
- Moses Amyraut, French Protestant theologian (d. 1664)
September 4 - Constantijn Huygens, Dutch poet (d. 1687)
November 1 - Pietro da Cortona, Italian painter (d. 1669)
December 21
- Peter Mogila, Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia (d. 1646)
- Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano (d. 1656)
date unknown
- Nicolò Amati, Italian violin maker (d. 1684)
- Bevil Grenville, English royalist soldier (d. 1643)
- Lucas Holstenius, German humanist (d. 1661)
- Georg Jenatsch, Swiss political leader (d. 1639)
- Richard Mather, American clergyman (d. 1669)
- Horio Tadaharu, Japanese warlord (d. 1633)
- Edward Winslow, American Pilgrim leader (d. 1655)

See also Category:1596 births.

January 28 - Sir Francis Drake, English explorer and soldier (b. 1540)
February 17 - Friedrich Sylburg, German classical scholar (b. 1536)
March 23 - Henry Unton, English diplomat (b. 1557)
May 6 - Giaches de Wert, Flemish composer (b. 1535)
July 23 - Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (b. 1526)
August 11 - Hamnet Shakespeare (b. 1585)
September 15 - Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (b. 1535)
October 3 - Florent Chrestien, French writer (b. 1541)
November 1 - Pierre Pithou, French lawyer and scholar (b. 1539)
November 10 - Peter Wentworth, English Puritan politician (b. 1530)
November 29
- William Gibson (martyr), English Catholic martyr
- Hattori Hanzo, Ninja under Tokugawa Ieyasu (b. 1541)
- Venerable William Knight, English Catholic martyr (b. 1572)
date unknown
- Blanche Parry, personal attendant to Elizabeth I of England (b. c. 1508)
- Jean Bodin, French jurist (born 1530)
- Blaise de Vigenère, French cryptographer, diplomat, scientist, and author (b. 1523)
probable
- Henry Willobie, English poet (b. 1575)

See also Category:1596 deaths.