Events of 1583

August 5: Humphrey Gilbert.

January–June

• January 18 – François, Duke of Anjou, attacks Antwerp.

• March 10 – The Queen Elizabeth's Men troupe of actors is founded.

• May – Battle of Shizugatake: Shibata Katsuie is defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

July–December

• July – Spanish admiral Santa Cruz defeats the Portuguese, French, and English off Terceira.

• August 5 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in what is now the city of St John's, Newfoundland, claims the island of Newfoundland on behalf of England.

• August 19 – Petru Cercel enters Bucharest, and becomes Prince of Wallachia.

Undated

• Toyotomi Hideyoshi commences construction of Osaka Castle in Japan.

• King James VI of Scotland signs a charter creating Tounis College (now the University of Edinburgh). For some unknown reason, the charter is dated a year earlier, as 1582.

• The first documented battle of India's independence against a European colonial ruler is fought by the Desais of Cuncolim in Goa, against the Portuguese.

• The world's oldest, intact, still-surviving amusement park, Dyrehavsbakken, is founded.

Births

• January 8 – Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian (d. 1643)

• March 3 – Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, English diplomat, poet, and philosopher (d. 1648)

• April 10 – Hugo Grotius, Dutch philosopher and writer (d. 1645)

• June 16 – Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (d. 1654)

• June 20 – Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (d. 1652)

• July 2 – Dodo Knyphausen, German soldier (d. 1636)

• September – Girolamo Frescobaldi, Italian composer (d. 1643)

• September 24 – Albrecht von Wallenstein, Austrian general (d. 1634)

• November 24 – Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar, Spanish poet (d. 1641)

• December 17 – Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey, English adventurer and soldier (d. 1642)

• December 25 – Orlando Gibbons, English composer (d. 1625)

• date unknown

• *Hendrick Jacobszoon Lucifer, Dutch pirate and buccaneer (d. 1627)

• *Johann Heinrich Alting, German divine (d. 1644)

• *John Beaumont, English poet (d. 1627)

• *Bonaventura Elzevir, Dutch printer (d. 1652)

• *Stanisław Lubomirski, Polish nobleman (d. 1649)

• *Philip Massinger, English dramatist (d. 1640)

• *Hayashi Razan, Japanese neo-Confucianist scholar (d. 1657)

• probable

• *Alexander Henderson, Scottish theologian (d. 1646)

• *Nzinga, warrior queen of Ndongo and Matamba (d. 1663)

• *Aurelian Townshend, English poet (d. 1643)

Deaths

• March 18 – King Magnus of Livonia (b. 1540)

• April – Lucas David, Prussian historian (b. 1503)

• May 6 – Zacharias Ursinus, German theologian (b. 1534)

• June 6

• *Nakagawa Kiyohide, Japanese military commander (b. 1556)

• *Shibata Katsutoyo, Japanese military commander (b. 1556)

• June 9 – Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1525)

• June – Oda Nobutaka, Japanese samurai (b. 1558)

• July 1 – Sakuma Morimasa, Japanese samurai and warlord (beheaded)

• July 6 – Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1519)

• September 9 – Humphrey Gilbert, English explorer (born c. 1537)

• September 16 – Catherine Jagiellon, queen of John II of Sweden (b. 1526)

• November 11 – Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, Irish rebel

• November 24 – René de Birague, French cardinal and chancellor (b. 1506)

• December 14 – Ivan Fyodorov, Russian printer

• December 31 – Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (b. 1524)

• date unknown

• *Shibata Katsuie, Japanese military commander (b. 1530)

• *Andrei Kurbskii, Russian writer (b. 1528)