1594

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century 16th century 17th century
Decades:	1570s 1580s 1590s 1600s 1610s
Years:	1591 1592 1593 1594 1595 1596 1597

1594 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1594 MDXCIV
Ab urbe condita	2347
Armenian calendar	1043 ԹՎ ՌԽԳ
Assyrian calendar	6344
Balinese saka calendar	1515–1516
Bengali calendar	1001
Berber calendar	2544
English Regnal year	36 Eliz. 1 – 37 Eliz. 1
Buddhist calendar	2138
Burmese calendar	956
Byzantine calendar	7102–7103
Chinese calendar	癸巳年 (Water Snake) 4291 or 4084     — to — 甲午年 (Wood Horse) 4292 or 4085
Coptic calendar	1310–1311
Discordian calendar	2760
Ethiopian calendar	1586–1587
Hebrew calendar	5354–5355
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1650–1651
- Shaka Samvat	1515–1516
- Kali Yuga	4694–4695
Holocene calendar	11594
Igbo calendar	594–595
Iranian calendar	972–973
Islamic calendar	1002–1003
Japanese calendar	Bunroku 3 (文禄３年)
Javanese calendar	1514–1515
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 10 days
Korean calendar	3927
Minguo calendar	318 before ROC 民前318年
Nanakshahi calendar	126
Thai solar calendar	2136–2137
Tibetan calendar	阴水蛇年 (female Water-Snake) 1720 or 1339 or 567     — to — 阳木马年 (male Wood-Horse) 1721 or 1340 or 568

June 5: First voyage of Willem Barents in search of the Northeast Passage.

1594 (MDXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. As of the start of 1594, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar.

Events

January–June

• March 21 – Henry IV enters his capital of Paris for the first time.
• April 16 – Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby is found poisoned. At the time of his death, he was, after his mother, second in line to the throne of England.
• April 17 – Hyacinth of Poland is canonized.
• May
  • Uprising in Banat of Serbs against Ottoman rule ends with the public burning of Saint Sava's bones in Belgrade, Serbia.
  • Nine Years' War (Ireland): Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O'Donnell form an alliance to try to overthrow English domination.
• June 5 – First voyage of Willem Barents in the Arctic Ocean in search of the Northeast Passage.
• June 11 – Philip II of Spain recognizes the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paves the way for the stabilization of the rule of the Principalía.
• June 22–23 – Anglo-Spanish War: Action of Faial – In the Azores, an English attempt to capture the large Portuguese carrack Cinco Chagas, reputedly one of the richest ever to set sail from the East Indies, causes it to explode with the loss of all but 13 of the 700 on board, and all the treasure.

July–December

• July 1 or July 2 – Anglo-Spanish War: Action of Atacames Bay – English privateer Richard Hawkins in the Dainty is attacked and captured by a Spanish squadron off Esmeraldas, Ecuador.
• July 3 – The Ayutthayan–Cambodian War (1591–1594) concludes when Naresuan, ruler of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, sacks Longvek, capital of Cambodia.
• July 22 – After a two-month siege, the city of Groningen submits to Dutch troops, bringing the whole northern Netherlands under the Dutch Republic.
• October 9 – The Campaign of Danture, which began on July 5 as part of the Sinhalese–Portuguese War, concludes with a decisive victory by forces of the Kingdom of Kandy over the Portuguese Empire, reversing near-total control of Sri Lanka by Portugal.

Date unknown

• St. Paul's College is founded in Macau by Jesuits, being the first western style university in the far east.
• In Amsterdam, the Compagnie van Verre is created, with the goal of breaking the Portuguese monopoly on spice trade.
• Tulip bulbs planted by Carolus Clusius in the Hortus Botanicus Leiden, Holland, first flower.
• The city of Pompeii is rediscovered after its loss following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Births

January–June

Maria Tesselschade Visscher

• January 1 – Barthélemy Vimont, French missionary (d. 1667)
• January 7 – Vincenzo II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, Italian duke and Catholic cardinal (d. 1627)
• January 12 – Gregers Krabbe, Danish noble (d. 1655)
• January 16 – Maeda Toshitsune, Japanese warlord (d. 1658)
• January 24 – Pierre de Marca, French bishop and historian (d. 1662)
• February 2 – Philip Powell, Welsh martyr (d. 1646)
• February 5 – Biagio Marini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1663)
• February 16 – Juliana Morell, Spanish-French scholar (d. 1653)
• February 19 – Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, elder son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark (d. 1612)
• February 21 – John Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, German duke (d. 1626)
• February 26 – William Wadsworth, American colonial (d. 1675)
• March 25 – Maria Tesselschade Visscher, Dutch poet and engraver (d. 1649)
• April 21 – Bernardino Spada, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1661)
• April 29 – Samuel Fairclough, English minister (d. 1677)
• May 1 – John Haynes, governor of Connecticut (d. 1653)
• May 9 – Louis Henry, Prince of Nassau-Dillenburg, military leader in the Thirty Years' War (d. 1662)
• May 15 – Sophie of Solms-Laubach, wife of Joachim Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1651)
• May 29 – Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, field marshal of the Holy Roman Empire in the Thirty Years' War (d. 1632)
• June 3 – César, Duke of Vendôme, French nobleman (d. 1665)
• June 11 – Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Ardglass, English nobleman (d. 1653)
• June 23 – Thomas Tyrrell, English judge and politician (d. 1672)
• June – Nicolas Poussin, French painter (d. 1665)

July–December

King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

• July 6 – Frederick V, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1622–1659) (d. 1659)
• July 10 – Bartolomeo Gennari, Italian painter (d. 1661)
• July 14 – Beat Albrecht von Ramstein, German Catholic bishop (d. 1651)
• August 4 – Aleksander Ludwik Radziwiłł, Polish noble (d. 1654)
• August 5 – Stefano Durazzo, Italian cardinal (d. 1667)
• August 16 – Queen Inyeol, Korean royal consort (d. 1636)
• September 13 – Francesco Manelli, Italian composer (d. 1667)
• September 30 – Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant, French poet (d. 1661)
• October 4 – Johan Schatter, Dutch Golden Age member of the Haarlem schutterij (d. 1673)
• October 27 – Johann Rudolf Wettstein, Swiss diplomat (d. 1666)
• November 15 – Jean Puget de la Serre, French author and dramatist (d. 1665)
• November 24 – Henry Grey, 10th Earl of Kent (d. 1651)
• November 26 – James Ware, Irish genealogist (d. 1666)
• November 30 – John Cosin, English churchman (d. 1672)
• December 7 – Frederik Coning, Dutch Golden Age member of the Haarlem schutterij (d. 1636)
• December 8 – Pierre Petit, French astronomer, military engineer, and physicist (d. 1677)
• December 9 – King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, Swedish king and general (d. 1632)
• December 21 – Robert Sutton, 1st Baron Lexinton, English politician (d. 1668)
• December 24 – Otto, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, Prince of Hesse-Kassel, Administrator of Hersfeld Abbey (d. 1617)
• December 27 – Ove Gjedde, Danish admiral, member of the interim government after the death of Christian IV (d. 1660)

Date unknown

• John Bramhall, English Anglican clergyman and controversialist (d. 1663)
• Peter Oliver, English miniaturist (d. 1648)
• Tomasz Zamoyski, Polish nobleman (d. 1638)

Probable

• Tarquinio Merula, Italian composer (d. 1665)

Deaths

Tintoretto

Martin Frobisher

Gerardus Mercator

• February – Barnabe Googe, English poet (b. 1540)
• February 2 – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer (b. 1525)
• February 8 – Countess Palatine Elisabeth of Simmern-Sponheim, Duchess of Saxony (b. 1540)
• April 16 – Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby (b. 1559)
• April 29 – Thomas Cooper, English bishop, lexicographer, and writer (b. c. 1517)
• May 15 – Charlotte de La Marck, French duchess (b. 1574)
• May 30 – Bálint Balassi, Hungarian writer and noble (b. 1554)
• May 31
  • Tintoretto, Italian painter (b. 1518)
  • Francesco Panigarola, Italian bishop (b. 1548)
• June 3 – John Aylmer, English divine (b. 1521)
• June 7 – Rodrigo Lopez, Queen Elizabeth's physician (executed for treason) (b. 1525)
• June 14 – Orlande de Lassus, Flemish composer (b. 1532)
• June 29 – Niels Kaas, Danish chancellor (b. 1535)
• July – Girolamo Mei, Italian historian and humanist (b. 1519)
• July 10 – Paolo Bellasio, Italian composer and organist (b. 1554)
• August 5 – Archduchess Eleanor of Austria (b. 1534)
• October 8 – Ishikawa Goemon, Japanese ninja and thief (b. 1558)
• October 16 – William Allen, English cardinal (b. 1532)
• November 15 – Sir Martin Frobisher, British explorer (b. 1535)
• November 20 – Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela, General Inquisitor of Spain (b. 1512)
• November 29 – Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, Basque soldier and poet (b. 1533)
• December 2 – Gerardus Mercator, Flemish-German cartographer (b. 1512)
• December 16 – Allison Balfour, alleged Scottish witch
• date unknown
  • John Johnson, English lutenist and composer (b. c. 1545)
  • Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy (b. 1558)