1591

Year 1591 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1591

January - June

* March 13 - Battle of Tondibi: In Mali, Moroccan forces of the Saadi Dynasty led by Judar Pasha defeat the Songhai Empire, despite being outnumbered by at least 5 to 1.
* May 15 - In Russia, Tsarevich Dimitri, son of the Ivan the Terrible, is found dead in mysterious circumstances, at the palace in Uglich. The official explanation is that he has cut his own throat during an epileptic seizure. Many believe he has been murdered by his rival, Boris Godunov, who becomes tsar.
* May 24 - Sir John Norreys, with an English expeditionary force sent by Queen Elizabeth I of England, takes the town of Guingamp after a brief siege, on behalf of Henry of Navarre.
* June - Zutphen is captured by the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau.

July - December

* July - Deventer is captured by the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau.
* August-September - Maurice maneuvers cautiously against the Duke of Parma near Arnhem.
* September 14 - Hulst is captured by Maurice.
* October 21 - Nijmegen is captured by Maurice.
* October 29 - Pope Innocent IX succeeds Pope Gregory XIV as the 230th pope.

Undated

* The city of Hyderabad is founded by Quli Quub Shah.
* Moroccan invaders sack Timbuktu.

Births

* January 11 - Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, English Civil War general (d. 1646)
* January 12 - Giuseppe Ribera, Spanish painter (d. 1652)
* February 8 - Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino), Italian painter (d. 1666)
* February 21 (or March 2) Girard Desargues, French mathematician (d. 1661)
* February 25 - Friedrich von Spee, German Jesuit and poet (d. 1635)
* March 15 - Alexandre de Rhodes, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1660)
* June 16 - Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and music theorist (d. 1655)
* July - Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher (d. 1643)
* August 24 - Robert Herrick, English poet (d. 1674)
*"date unknown"
**David Blondel, French Protestant clergyman (d. 1655)
**Andrew Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary and martyr (d. 1657)
**Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Cretan author, physician, mathematician, and music theorist (d. 1655)
**Thomas Goffe, English dramatist (d. 1629)
**William Lenthall, English politician of the Civil War period (d. 1662)
**Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German Jesuit missionary to China (d. 1666)
**Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset (d. 1632)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* April 21 - Sen no Rikyu, Japanese exponent of the tea ceremony (b. 1522)
* May 1 - Elizabeth Cecil, 16th Baroness de Ros, English Noblewoman (b. c. 1574)
* May 15 - Tsarevich Dimitri, Tsarevich (b. 1582)
* June 21 - Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian Jesuit and saint (b. 1568)
* July 2 - Vincenzo Galilei, Italian composer (b. 1520)
* July 18 - Jacobus Gallus Carniolus, Slovenian composer (b. 1550)
* August 23 - Luis Ponce de León, Spanish lyric poet (b. 1527)
* August 27 - Katheryn of Berain, Welsh noblewoman (b. 1534)
* September 10 - Richard Grenville, English soldier and explorer (b. 1542)
* October 16 - Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)
* October 19 - Juan de Luna y Celdrán, Baron of Purroy, Spanish nobleman
* November 20 - Christopher Hatton, English politician (b. 1540)
* December 14 - Saint John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite friar and poet (b. 1542)
* December 30 - Pope Innocent IX (b. 1519)
*"date unknown"
**Crispin van den Broeck, Flemish painter (b. 1523)
**John Erskine of Dun, Scottish religious reformer (b. 1509)
**Toyotomi Hidenaga, Japanese nobleman (b. 1540)
**John Stubbs, English pamphleteer (b. 1543)

: "See also ."