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

January - June

* 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 - December

* 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.

Undated

* 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.

Births

* 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 ."

Deaths

* 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 ."