1576

Events

• May 5 - Peace of Beaulieu or Peace of Monsieur (after Monsieur, the Duc d'Anjou, brother of the King, who negotiated it). End of the Fifth War of Religion Once again, the Protestants are granted freedom of worship.
• August 11 - English navigator Martin Frobisher, on his search for the Northwest Passage, enters the bay now named after him
• October 3 - The "Spanish Terror". Mutinous Spanish troops capture and sack Antwerp.
• November 2 - Rudolf II becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
• November 4 - Eighty Years' War: In Belgium, Spain captures Antwerp (after three days the city was nearly destroyed).
• November 8 - Eighty Years' War: Pacification of Ghent - The States-General of the Netherlands meet and unite to oppose Spanish occupation.
• The city Fredrikstad of Norway founded by king Frederick II of Denmark and Norway.
• Beginning of the Seventh War of Religion in France.
• First known Autobiography is written by Thomas Wythorne.

Births

• January 12 - Petrus Scriverius, Dutch writer and scholar (died 1660)
• May 27 - Caspar Schoppe, German controversialist and scholar (died 1649)
• June 6 - Giovanni Diodati, Swiss Protestant divine (died 1649)
• October 7 - John Marston, English writer (died 1634)
• October 12 - Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (died 1652)
• November 17 - Roque Gonzales, Paraguayan missionary (d. 1628)
• November 27 - Shimazu Tadatsune, Japanese ruler of Satsuma (died 1638)
• William Ames, English protestant philosopher (died 1633)
• Scipione Borghese, Italian art collector (died 1633)
• John Carver, first governor of Plymouth Colony (died 1621)
• Jesper Mattson Cruus af Edeby, Swedish soldier and politician (died 1622)
• Enrico Caterino Davila, Italian historian (died 1631)
• Giulio Cesare la Galla, professor of philosophy at the Collegio Romano in Italy (died 1624)
• Santino Solari, Swiss architect and sculptor (died 1646)
• Thomas Weelkes, English composer and organist (died 1626)

Deaths

• January 19 - Hans Sachs, German Meistersinger (born 1494)
• February 10 - Guilielmus Xylander, German classical scholar (born 1532)
• May 30 - Harada Naomasa, Japanese samurai
• August 15 - Bálint Bakfark, Hungarian composer and lutenist (born 1507)
• August 27 - Titian, Italian painter
• September 21 - Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician, physician, astrologer and gambler (b. 1502)
• October 12 - Emperor Maximilian II (born 1527)
• Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex (born 1541)
• Aloysius Lilius, Italian physician (born 1510)
• Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1527)
• Anthony More, Dutch portrait painter (born 1512)
• Mizuno Nobumoto, Japanese shogun
• Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens, Spanish governor of the Netherlands
• Josias Simmler, Swiss theologian and classicist (born 1530)
• Johann Stumpf, Swiss historian (born 1500)
• Tahmasp I, Shah of Persia
• Nicola Vicentino, Italian music theorist and composer (born 1511)