History
1583
General
Population: 526 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Robert Ganier (French tragicomedy), Baptista Honwaerd (didactic poem), Francesco Sansovino (government administration),
Joseph Justus Scaliger (modern chronology), Sir Thomas Smith (England's government machinery)
- Religion: Of the Church of England - death of Edmund Grindal Archbishop of Canterbury – succeeded by John Whitgift
- Science: Andre Cesalpino classifies plants in De Plantis
- Deaths: Flemish composer Ihan Gero, Archbishop of Canterbury Edmund Grindal
Americas
- Canada: English explorer Humphrey Gilbert takes Newfoundland on behalf of Queen Elizabeth – first English settlement in the Americas
Asia
- India: English expeditions to India led by merchants Ralph Fitch and John Eldred
Akbar I orders religious toleration
- Japan: General Toyotomi Hideyoshi lays foundation of Osaka Castle
Europe
- England: Sommerville plot to assassinate Elizabeth I discovered – John Sommerville executed
Throgmorton plot from Spanish invasion of England discovered – Francis Throgmorton arrested and executed
Queen's Company of Players formed in London by Sir Edmund Tilney
First known life insurance in England on life of William Gibbons
- Holland: Duke of Anjou sacks Antwerp and retires from the Netherlands
William of Orange accepts sovereignty of the northern Netherlands
- Scotland: James VI of Scotland escapes from hands of Ruthven raiders after 10 months
Middle East
- General: English expeditions to Mesopotamia India and Persian Gulf led by merchants Ralph Fitch and John Eldred