- Jan 1 Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1 instead of 25 March.
Historic Event
Feb 4 Astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler meet for the first time near Prague
- Feb 8 Vatican convicts scholar and friar Giordano Bruno (who believed in an infinite universe) of heresy and sentences him to be burnt at the stake
- Feb 17 Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, charged with heresy by the Roman Inquisition
- Feb 19 Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in South American recorded history
- 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
Historic Event
Aug 6 Henry IV of France invades Savoy after negotiations break down over Saluzzo, controlled by Savoy since 1588
Historic Event
Nov 28 The Royal Society is founded at Gresham College in London, England, following a lecture by Sir Christopher Wren, Professor of Astronomy