English colonists establish Jamestown in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Date given in the Julian calendar.
Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec on the St. Lawrence River, which becomes the centre of the colony of New France.
Queen Elizabeth I grants a royal charter to the East India Company, which later comes to rule much of the Indian subcontinent.
Shakespeare dies in Stratford-upon-Avon, leaving some 39 plays and 154 sonnets.
The Mayflower Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact and establish Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
The Armada sent by Philip II to invade England is defeated by the English navy at the Battle of Gravelines and scattered during its retreat.
William Harvey publishes De Motu Cordis, demonstrating that the heart pumps blood in a continuous circuit around the body.