1581

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1550s  1560s  1570s  – 1580s –  1590s  1600s  1610s
Years:	1578 1579 1580 – 1581 – 1582 1583 1584

1581 Media

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  July 27–Spanish troops massacre more than 500 Dutch civilians during the Capture of Breda.

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  July 26: Netherlands nobles sign the Act of Abjuration to declare independence from Spain.

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  Countess Palatine Dorothea of Simmern

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  Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria

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  Princess Hedwig of Denmark

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  Oil portrait of Sir Thomas Overbury (1581-1613) by Sylvester Harding

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  James Douglas

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  Guru Ram Das. Pahari. Opaque watercolor on paper. Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh.

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  LouisBertrand

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  Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum

1581 by topic
Arts, history, and science
Archaeology Architecture Art Literature Poetry Music Science
Countries
Lists of leaders
State leaders Colonial governors Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
Births Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments Disestablishments
Works category
Works

1581 (MDLXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday in the Julian calendar.

Events

• January 16 – English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism
• April 4 – After going around the world Sir Francis Drake is knighted by Elizabeth I.
• July 26 – The Northern Netherlands becomes free from Spain in the Oath of Abjuration.

Births

• January 4 – James Ussher, Anglo-Irish priest and scholar
• February 17 – Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic priest
• March 16 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian
• October 9 – Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician
• October 21 – Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter

Deaths

• April 25 – Okabe Motonobu, Japanese warrior
• May 31 – Jan Kostka, Polish noble
• June 2 – James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, regent of Scotland
• July 11 – Peder Skram, Danish senator and naval officer
• July 22 – Richard Cox, English bishop
• August 21 – Sakuma Nobumori, Japanese retainer and samurai
• September 1 – Guru Ram Das, fourth Sikh Guru
• September 30 – Hubert Languet, French diplomat and reformer
• October 9 – Saint Louis Bertrand, Spanish missionary to Latin-America, patron saint of Colombia
• October 23 – Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer
• November 7 – Richard Davies, Welsh bishop and scholar