1577

Events

• March 17 - formation of the Cathay Company to send Martin Frobisher back to the New World for more gold
• May 28 - Publication of the Bergen Book, better known as the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, one of the Lutheran confessional writings. The earlier version, known as the Torgau Book (1576), had been condensed into an Epitome; both documents are part of the 1580 Book of Concord.
• September 17 - Peace of Bergerac signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenots
• The church in San Pedro in the Atacama Desert in Chile was built.

Births

• February 6 - Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman who conspired to kill her father (died 1599)
• February 8 - Robert Burton, English scholar (d. 1640)
• April 12 - King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway (died 1648)
• June 12 - Paul Guldin, Swiss Jesuit mathematician (died 1643)
• June 28 - Peter Paul Rubens, German painter (died 1640)
• July 9 - Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, English governor of Virginia (died 1618)
• October 17 - Cristofano Allori, Italian portrait painter (died 1621)
• November 25 - Piet Pieterszoon Hein, Dutch naval officer (died 1629)
• Jacopo Cavedone, Italian painter (died 1660)
• Jan Baptist van Helmont, Flemish chemist (died 1644)
• William Noy, English jurist (died 1634)
• Barnaby Potter, Bishop of Carlisle (died 1642)
• Meletius Smotrytsky, Ruthenian religious activist and author. Very important for development of Church Slavonic grammar. (Died 1633)
• William Vaughan, Welsh writer and colonial invester (died 1641)
• Gerhard Johann Vossius, German classical scholar and theologian (died 1649)

Deaths

• February 26 - King Eric XIV of Sweden (b. 1533)
• June 11 - King John III of Portugal (born 1502)
• August 12 - Thomas Smith, English scholar and diplomat (born 1513)
• September 7 - Maria of Portugal (born 1538)
• October 7 - George Gascoigne, English poet
• November 19 - Matsunaga Hisahide, Japanese warlord (born 1510)
• November 29 - Cuthbert Mayne, English saint (born 1543)
• Richard Aertsz, Dutch painter (born 1482)
• Adam of Bodenstein, Swiss alchemist and physician (born 1528)
• Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc, Marshal of France (born 1502)
• Pedro Nunez, Portuguese mathematician and geographer (born 1492)