1604

Events

• January 14 – Hampton Court conference with James I of England, the Anglican bishops and representatives of Puritans
• September 20 - Capture of Ostend by Spanish forces under Ambrosio Spinola after a three year siege.
• November 1 - At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello is presented for the first time.

• Peace between England and Spain
• The Sikh Holy Scripture Guru Granth Sahib is compiled and edited by Guru Arjun .
• Luis Vaez de Torres is the first European to sail through the Torres Strait.
• France begins settling Acadia, first successful French North American colony
• France begins settling French Guiana.
• Supernova 1604 is observed. As of this writing, this was the last supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.
• England concludes the Treaty of London with Spain, ending its involvement in the Eighty Years' War.
• Peter Blundell founds Blundell's School in Tiverton, England.
• Za Dengel deposed as Emperor of Ethiopia by Za Sellase, who restores his cousin Yaqob.

Births

• April 5 - Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (died 1675)
• May 10 - Jean Mairet, French dramatist (died 1686)
• August 3 - John Eliot, English puritan missionary (died 1690)
• August 4 - François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French author (died 1676)
• September 13 - William Brereton, English soldier and politician (died 1661)
• November 3 - Osman II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (died 1622)
• Priscilla Alden, member of Massachusetts's Plymouth Colony (died 1680)
• Isaac Ambrose, English Puritan divine (died 1664)
• Jakob Balde, German Latinist (died 1668)
• Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist (died 1676)
• Nils Brahe, Swedish soldier (died 1632)
• Johann Rudolf Glauber, German-Dutch alchemist and chemist (died 1670)
• Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (died 1651)
• Menasseh Ben Israel, Jewish Rabbi (died 1657)
• Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer, Dutch admiral (died 1665)
• Claude Lorrain, French painter (died 1682)
• John Hans Makeléer, English naval officer (died 1666)
• Jasper Mayne, English dramatist (died 1672)
• Giovanni Battista Michelini, Italian painter (died 1655)
• John Maurice of Nassau, count of Nassau-Siegen (died 1679)
• Edward Pococke, English Orientalist and biblical scholar (died 1691)
• Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, general in the Thirty Years' War (died 1639)

Deaths

• March 4 - Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (born 1539)
• May 5 - Claudio Merulo, Italian composer (born 1533)
• June 24 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (born 1550)
• August 3 - Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish military commander
• August 8 - Horio Tadauji, Japanese daimyo (born 1578)
• September 10 - William Morgan, Welsh Bible translator (born 1545)
• October 18 - Igram van Achelen, Dutch statesman (born 1528)
• Abul-Fazel, Mughal vizier and historian
• Isabella Andreini, Italian actress (born 1562)
• Catherine de Bourbon, sister of Henry IV of France (born 1559)
• Thomas Churchyard, English author (born 1520)
• Za Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia
• George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon (born 1540)
• Toda Kazuaki, Japanese samurai (born 1542)
• Roger Marbeck, English physician (born 1536)
• Seosan, Korean monk (born 1520)
• Thomas Storer, English poet (born 1571)
• Richard Topcliffe, English torturer and sadist (born 1532)
• John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1530)
• Arnaud d'Ossat, French diplomat and writer (born 1537)