Directory

1596 CE

Archbishop John Whitgift begins building his hospital at Croydon. During Spain's Brittany Campaign during the Anglo-Spanish War, a Spanish ship carrying 25 soldiers invades England after arriving at Cawsand Bay in Cornwall. After starting a fire, the Spanish retreat. Diego de Montemayor founds the city of Monterrey, Mexico.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • December 31 – King Henry IV of France (who was originally King Henry III of the Kingdom of Navarre) declares Navarre to be permanently separate of France.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 6 – Drake's Assault on Panama: Sir Francis Drake, General Thomas Baskerville and an English force of 15 ships land at the Atlantic Ocean port of Nombre de Dios in an attempt to capture the Isthmus of Panama.source
  • March 11 – The Battle of Pinos is fought between the English Navy (with 14 warships) and the Spanish Navy (with 13 galleons) off of the coast Cuba's Isla de Pinos, with 325 English Navy men killed or captured, while Spain drives Baskerville's ships to retreat and sustains 80 dead or wounded.source
  • March 15 – During Spain's Brittany Campaign during the Anglo-Spanish War, a Spanish ship carrying 25 soldiers invades England after arriving at Cawsand Bay in Cornwall. After starting a fire, the Spanish retreat.source
  • April 9 – Siege of Calais: Spanish troops capture Calais.source
  • August 18 – The siege of the Dutch city of Hulst is completed after a month as Spanish forces under the command of Albert, son of the late Holy Roman Emperor Maxmimilan II, force the surrender of the city.source
  • October 26 – Battle of Keresztes: The Ottoman Empire Turks defeat a combined Habsburg–Transylvanian army, after two days of fighting: .source
  • November 25 – The Cudgel War begins in Finland (at the time part of Sweden), when poor peasants rise up against the troops, nobles and cavalry who have taxed them.source
  • The Serb Uprising of 1596–97 begins.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 18 – Willem Barents leaves Vlie, on his third and final Arctic voyage.source
  • June 10 – Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk discover Bear Island.source
  • June 17 – Willem Barents discovers Spitsbergen.source
  • June 24 – Cornelis de Houtman arrives in Banten, the first Dutch sailor to reach Indonesia.source
  • July 5 – Capture of Cádiz: An English fleet, commanded by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Lord Howard of Effingham, sacks Cádiz.source
  • September 20 – Diego de Montemayor founds the city of Monterrey, Mexico.source

Religion & Belief

  • June 5 – Pope Clement VIII appoints 16 new Cardinals.source
  • August 29 – The coronation of Christian IV as King of Denmark and King of Norway takes place at the Vor Frue Kirke cathedral in Copenhagen. The Bishop of Zealand, Peder Virstrup, places the crown upon the head of King Christian IV, who had become the monarch in 1588 at the age of 11.source
  • October 10 – The Union of Brest: The Ukrainian Church west of the Dnieper becomes known as the Ukrainian Rite of Catholicism, whereas the East officially renounces the authority of the Pope.source
  • October 19 – The Spanish galleon San Felipe founders in Japan, leading to 26 Christians being martyred the next year.source
  • December 5 – Damat Ibrahim Pasha is appointed the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mehmed III for the second time in less than a year, replacing Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha, who succeeded him on October 27.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • The first water closet, by Sir John Harington, is installed in a manor near Kelston in England.source

Science & Discovery

  • August – David Fabricius discovers the variable nature of the star Mira.source

Health & Medicine

  • February 14 – Archbishop John Whitgift begins building his hospital at Croydon.source
  • The Black Death hits parts of Europe.source

Crime & Justice

  • July 14 – King Dominicus Corea (Edirille Bandara) is beheaded by the Portuguese in Colombo, Ceylon.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 20 – Francis Drake, unable to receive a ransom for the town of Nombre de Dios, orders the town and all Spanish ships in harbor to be burned. At the same time, General Baskerville leads 750 men on a mission to clear the Isthmus of Spanish parties.source
  • October 18 – The Second Armada, a Spanish fleet sent to attack England in revenge for the raid on Cadiz, is wrecked in storms off Cape Finisterre; nearly 5,000 men and 44 ships are lost including five galleonssource
  • December 8 – In Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Chancellor of the Realm, orders the arrest of the 26 Roman Catholic Christians who had the misfortune of being shipwrecked in Kyoto on October 19; each of the ones arrested has a part of the left ear cut off, then sent on a forced march to Nagasaki on January 4, then has them killed on February 5.source

Climate & Environment

  • The fourth of a five year run of poor harvests, largely caused by the weather, a pattern typical of the last third of the century. This causes famine throughout Europe, which leads to food riots in Britain.source

Culture & Society

  • February 11 – Albert of Austria arrives in Brussels to begin his administration as Governor General of the Habsburg Netherlands.source
  • Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, is founded.source
  • King Sigismund III Vasa moves the capital of Poland from Kraków to Warsaw.source

Births

  • February 2 – Jacob van Campen, Dutch artist and architect of the Golden Age (d. 1657)source
  • March 24 – Elizabeth of Hesse-Kassel, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Gütsrow (d. 1625)source
  • June 27 – Maximilian, Prince of Dietrichstein, German prince (d. 1655)source
  • July 12 – Michael I of Russia, Russian Tsar (d. 1645)source
  • August 18 – Jean Bolland, Belgian Jesuit, Founder of the Bollandist (d. 1665)source
  • August 19 – Elizabeth Stuart, later Queen of Bohemia (d. 1662)source
  • September 3 – Nicola Amati, Italian luthier from Cremona (d. 1684)source
  • September 4 – Constantijn Huygens, Dutch Golden Age poet and composer (d. 1687)source
  • September 11 – Francis Eaton, Mayflower passenger and New World colonist (d. 1633)source
  • October 18 – Edward Winslow, American Pilgrim leader (d. 1655)source
  • October 26 – Robert Coe, American colonial (d. 1689)source
  • November 1 – Pietro da Cortona, Italian painter (d. 1669)source
  • December 21 – Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano (d. 1656)source
  • December 21 – Peter Mohyla, Moldavian Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia (d. 1646)source

Deaths

  • January 27 – With an epidemic of dysentery spreading through the English forces of Drake and Baskerville, Drake orders survivors to retreat to the English ships, anchored off of the island of Escudo de Veraguas. Drake dies of dystentery two days later on his flagship, Defiance.source
  • February 19 – Blaise de Vigenère, French cryptographer, diplomat, scientist, and author (b. 1523)source
  • May 5 – Catherine de Montpensier, politically active French duchess (b. 1552)source
  • May 6 – Giaches de Wert, Flemish composer (b. 1535)source
  • May 31 – John Lesley, Scottish bishop (b. 1527)source
  • May – Janet Fockart, Scottish merchant and moneylendersource
  • July 23 – Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (b. 1526)source
  • August 11 – Hamnet Shakespeare, son of William Shakespeare (b. 1585)source
  • September 9 – Anna Jagiellon, queen of Poland (b. 1523)source
  • September 14 – Francisco de Toledo, Spanish Catholic cardinal (b. 1532)source
  • September 15 – Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (b. 1535)source
  • November 10 – Peter Wentworth, English Puritan politician (b. 1530)source
  • November 29 – Venerable William Knight, English Catholic martyr (b. 1572)source
  • December 8 – Francisca Nuñez de Carabajal, Portuguese-born marrano, burned at the stakesource