- Jan 29 Sea battle of Reimerswaal - Admiral Boisot beats Spanish fleet
Siege of Maastricht
Feb 9 Louis of Nassau ends siege of Maastricht
- Feb 18 Zeeland falls to Dutch rebels
- Feb 19 Spanish troops plunder Krommenie, Wormerveer & Jisp, Netherlands
- Feb 21 Spanish garrison of Middelburg, Netherlands, surrenders
- Feb 23 France begins 5th "holy war" against Huguenots
- Apr 14 Battle of Mookerheyde: Spanish forces of D'Avila defeat Dutch mercenary force led by Louis of Nassau
King Henry III
May 30 Henry III follows brother Charles IX as King of France
- May 30 Sea battle at Lillo Belgium (Adolf Van Haemstede vs Louis de Boisot)
- Jun 18 Polish King Hendrik of Anjou secretly leaves Poland
- Aug 30 Ram Das becomes the 4th Sikh Guru
- Sep 13 Turkish fleet recaptures Tunis
- Oct 1 -2] Storm breaks Leiden dike; drowns 20,000 Spanish soldiers
- Oct 3 The Siege of Leiden is lifted by the Watergeuzen and the forces of Admiral Boisot
- Oct 28 Prince Willem of Orange installs university
- Nov 22 Discovery of the Juan Fernández Islands off Chile
- Nov 27 Selimiye Mosque, a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture, designed by imperial architect Mimar Sinan, officially opens in Edirne, Turkey