1581

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century 16th century 17th century
Decades:	1560s 1570s 1580s 1590s 1600s
Years:	1578 1579 1580 1581 1582 1583 1584

1581 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1581 MDLXXXI
Ab urbe condita	2334
Armenian calendar	1030 ԹՎ ՌԼ
Assyrian calendar	6331
Balinese saka calendar	1502–1503
Bengali calendar	988
Berber calendar	2531
English Regnal year	23 Eliz. 1 – 24 Eliz. 1
Buddhist calendar	2125
Burmese calendar	943
Byzantine calendar	7089–7090
Chinese calendar	庚辰年 (Metal Dragon) 4278 or 4071     — to — 辛巳年 (Metal Snake) 4279 or 4072
Coptic calendar	1297–1298
Discordian calendar	2747
Ethiopian calendar	1573–1574
Hebrew calendar	5341–5342
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1637–1638
- Shaka Samvat	1502–1503
- Kali Yuga	4681–4682
Holocene calendar	11581
Igbo calendar	581–582
Iranian calendar	959–960
Islamic calendar	988–989
Japanese calendar	Tenshō 9 (天正９年)
Javanese calendar	1500–1501
Julian calendar	1581 MDLXXXI
Korean calendar	3914
Minguo calendar	331 before ROC 民前331年
Nanakshahi calendar	113
Thai solar calendar	2123–2124
Tibetan calendar	阳金龙年 (male Iron-Dragon) 1707 or 1326 or 554     — to — 阴金蛇年 (female Iron-Snake) 1708 or 1327 or 555

Year 1581 (MDLXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, and a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Proleptic Gregorian calendar.

Events

January–June

• March 18 – The Parliament of England's Act against reconciliation to Rome imposes heavy fines for practising Roman Catholicism.
• March 25 – Iberian Union: Philip II of Spain crowned Philip I of Portugal.
• April 4 – Following his circumnavigation of the world, Francis Drake is knighted by Elizabeth I of England.

July–December

• July 26
  • The Northern Netherlands (Union of Utrecht) proclaim their independence from Spain in the Act of Abjuration, abjuring loyalty to Philip II of Spain as their sovereign and appointing Francois, Duke of Anjou, as the new sovereign of the Netherlands; public practice of Roman Catholicism is forbidden.
  • A meteorite makes landfall in Thuringia, Holy Roman Empire.
• August 28 – The army of king Stefan Batory of Poland begins its siege of the Russian garrison of Pskov
• Summer (probable) – Yermak begins the Russian conquest of the Khanate of Sibir with a band of 1,636 men.
• September – A mercenary army of Sweden under Pontus De la Gardie captures Narva from Russia.
• October 15 – Performance of Ballet Comique de la Reine, the first narrative ballet, devised by Louise of Lorraine, wife of Henry III of France, and choreographed by Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, opens at the court of Catherine de' Medici in the Louvre Palace in Paris as part of the wedding celebrations for Marguerite of Lorraine.
• November 4 – Jean de la Cassière is restored as Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller by Pope Gregory XIII.
• December 1 – Execution in England of the Jesuit priest Edmund Campion for treason.

Date unknown

• The Knights Hospitaller depose Jean de la Cassière as Grandmaster and appoint Mathurin Romegas.
• The Ming Dynasty Chancellor of China, Chief Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, imposes the Single Whip Reform, by which taxes are assessed on properties recorded in the land census and paid in silver as the accepted medium of exchange.
• Oda Nobunaga invades the Iga Province.
• John Dee practices angel magic with Barnabas Saul but with no success.
• Guru Arjan Dev becomes the fifth Guru of Sikhs succeeding his father Guru Ram Das.
• The last Bishop of Meissen, John IX of Haugwitz, resigns his office in the wake of the Reformation.

Births

• January 4 – James Ussher, Anglo-Irish priest and scholar (d. 1656)
• January 6 – Countess Palatine Dorothea of Simmern, Princess consort of Anhalt-Dessau (d. 1631)
• January 30 – Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1603–1655) (d. 1655)
• February 17 – Fausto Poli, Roman Catholic prelate and Cardinal (d. 1653)
• March 16 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian (d. 1647)
• April 24 – Vincent de Paul, French Roman Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor (d. 1660)
• May 4 – Arnold Möller, German calligrapher (d. 1655)
• May 21 – Robert More, English politician (d. 1626)
• May 22 – Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria, Austrian archduchess (d. 1597)
• June 21 – Edward Barrett, 1st Lord Barrett of Newburgh, English politician (d. 1645)
• June 26 – Peter Claver (d. 1654)
• June 27 – Louis Günther I, Count of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1630–1646) (d. 1646)
• July 18 – Pier Luigi Carafa, Catholic cardinal (d. 1655)
• July 20 – Isidoro Bianchi, Italian Painter (d. 1662)
• July 25 – Brian Twyne, English archivist (d. 1644)
• August 5 – Hedwig of Denmark, Danish princess (d. 1641)
• August 15 – Jeremias Drexel, Jesuit writer of devotional literature and a professor of the humanities and rhetoric (d. 1638)
• September 21 – Simon Archer, English politician (d. 1662)
• September 27 – Juan Damián López de Haro (d. 1648)
• October 9 – Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician (d. 1638)
• October 21 – Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (d. 1641)
• November 1 – William Hockmere, English politician (d. 1626)
• November 11 – Edward Popham, English politician (d. 1641)
• November 18 – Carlo I Cybo-Malaspina, marquisate of Massa (d. 1662)
• November 26 – Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Norburg (d. 1658)
• December 17 – Walter Davison, English poet (d. 1600)
• December 26 – Philip III, Landgrave of Hesse-Butzbach (1609–1643) (d. 1643)
• December 27 – Jean Chalette, French painter (d. 1643)
• date unknown
  • Gasparo Aselli, Italian physician (d. 1626)
  • Jeremias Drexel, Jesuit writer of devotional literature
  • Edmund Gunter, English mathematician (d. 1626)
  • Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, French monk who introduced Jansenism into France (d. 1643)
  • Charles Malapert, Belgian Jesuit writer (d. 1630)
  • Łukasz Opaliński (1581–1654), Polish nobleman (d. 1654)
  • Thomas Overbury, English poet and essayist (d. 1613)
  • Johannes Rudbeckius, bishop at Västerås (d. 1646)
  • Choghtu Khong Tayiji, ruler of the Khalkha Mongols (d. 1637)
• probable
  • Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican dramatist (d. 1639)
  • Sisto Badalocchio, Italian painter and engraver (d. 1647)

Deaths

• February 15 – Francisco Foreiro, Portuguese Dominican theologian and biblist (b. 1523)
• April 25 – Okabe Motonobu, Japanese warrior
• May 31 – Jan Kostka (1529–1581), Polish noble (b. 1529)
• June 2 – James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, regent of Scotland (b. 1525)
• July 11 – Peder Skram, Danish senator and naval officer (b. 1500)
• July 22 – Richard Cox, English bishop (b. 1500)
• August 21 – Sakuma Nobumori, Japanese retainer and samurai (b. 1527)
• August – King Mayadunne, Sri Lanka (b. 1504)
• September 1 – Guru Ram Das, fourth Sikh Guru (b. 1534)
• September 30 – Hubert Languet, French diplomat and reformer (b. 1518)
• October 9 – Saint Louis Bertrand, Spanish missionary to Latin America, patron saint of Colombia (b. 1526)
• October 23 – Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1529)
• November 4 – Mathurin Romegas, rival Grndmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. c.1525)
• November 7 – Richard Davies, Welsh bishop and scholar (b. c. 1505)
• November 19 – Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich of Russia b. 1554
• December 1
  • Edmund Campion, English Jesuit (martyred) (b. 1540)
  • Ralph Sherwin, English Catholic saint (martyred) (b. 1550)
• December 21 – Jean de la Cassière, 51st Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1502)
• date unknown
  • Christopher Báthory, prince of Transylvania (b. 1530)
  • Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Spanish conquistador (b. c. 1492)
  • Guillaume Postel, French linguist (b. 1510)
  • Nicholas Sanders, English Catholic propagandist (b. 1530)