• Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi establishes his dominance over Japan by defeating the forces of Shibata Katsuie at the Battle of Shizugatake.
• Thai king Naresuan drives the Burmese out of Thailand.
• King James VI of Scotland (the future James I of England) escapes from imprisonment in Ruthven Castle and begins his personal rule over Scotland.
• French prince Francis, duke of Alençon and Anjou withdraws French troops from the Netherlands after failing to capture Antwerp.
• English explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert takes possesion of the fishing colony at St. John's, Newfoundland and claims Newfoundland for England.
• The University of Edinburgh is founded.
• Italian botanist Andreas Cesalpinus publishes De Plantis, the first modern classification of plants.

These people were born in 1583:

• Mehmed Köprülü, Albanian-born grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire under Muhammad IV.
• Albrecht von Wallenstein, Bohemian-born general of imperial forces in the Thirty Years War.
• Swedish statesman Axel Oxenstierna.
• Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, author of the first definitive text on international law, De jure belli ac pacis (concerning the law of war and peace).
• Dutch Protestant theologian Simon Episcopius.
• Italian organist and composer Girolamo Frescobaldi.
• English playwright Philip Massinger.

These people died in 1583:

• Altan Khan, ruler of Mongolia.
• Japanese warlord Shibata Katsuie, of suicide, following the defeat of his army at the Battle of Shizugatake
• Portuguese adventurer Fernão Mendes Pinto, author of a colorful 1614 account of his travels through Africa and Asia, Peregrinação ("Wanderings").
• English explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in a storm off the Azores.

1582 - 1583 - 1584

16th century