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

Events[link]

January–June[link]

• February 14 – Archbishop John Whitgift begins building his hospital at Croydon.
• April 9 – Siege of Calais : 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.
• June 10 – Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk discover Bear Island.
• June 17 – Barents discovers Spitsbergen.

July–December[link]

• 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–October 26 – Battle of Keresztes: The Turks defeat a combined Habsburg–Transylvanian army.

Date unknown[link]

• Elizabeth I of England decrees that all Africans should be removed from the British realm in reaction to the food crisis.
• 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.
• Dutch ships, commanded by Frederick de Houtman, reach Sumatra and Java for the first time.
• The 4th of a 5 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.^[1]

Births[link]

• 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 (d. 1675)
• 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, Belgian Jesuit, Founder of the Bollandist (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)

Deaths[link]

• January 27 – 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 (date of burial) – Hamnet Shakespeare (b. 1585), son of William Shakespeare
• 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)

References[link]