1581

1581 (MDLXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1581st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 581st year of the 2nd millennium, the 81st year of the 16th century, and the 2nd year of the 1580s decade. As of the start of 1581, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which was the dominant calendar of the time.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1550s  1560s  1570s  – 1580s –  1590s  1600s  1610s
Years:	1578 1579 1580 – 1581 – 1582 1583 1584

1581 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1581 MDLXXXI
Ab urbe condita	2334
Armenian calendar	1030 ԹՎ ՌԼ
Assyrian calendar	6331
Balinese saka calendar	1502–1503
Bengali calendar	988
Berber calendar	2531
English Regnal year	23 Eliz. 1 – 24 Eliz. 1
Buddhist calendar	2125
Burmese calendar	943
Byzantine calendar	7089–7090
Chinese calendar	庚辰年 (Metal Dragon) 4277 or 4217     — to — 辛巳年 (Metal Snake) 4278 or 4218
Coptic calendar	1297–1298
Discordian calendar	2747
Ethiopian calendar	1573–1574
Hebrew calendar	5341–5342
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1637–1638
- Shaka Samvat	1502–1503
- Kali Yuga	4681–4682
Holocene calendar	11581
Igbo calendar	581–582
Iranian calendar	959–960
Islamic calendar	988–989
Japanese calendar	Tenshō 9 (天正９年)
Javanese calendar	1500–1501
Julian calendar	1581 MDLXXXI
Korean calendar	3914
Minguo calendar	331 before ROC 民前331年
Nanakshahi calendar	113
Thai solar calendar	2123–2124
Tibetan calendar	阳金龙年 (male Iron-Dragon) 1707 or 1326 or 554     — to — 阴金蛇年 (female Iron-Snake) 1708 or 1327 or 555

Events

• January 16 – English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism
• April 4 – After going around the world Sir Francis Drake is knighted by Elizabeth I.
• July 26 – The Northern Netherlands becomes free from Spain in the Oath of Abjuration.

Births

• January 4 – James Ussher, Anglo-Irish priest and scholar
• February 17 – Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic priest
• March 16 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian
• October 9 – Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician
• October 21 – Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter

Deaths

• April 25 – Okabe Motonobu, Japanese warrior
• May 31 – Jan Kostka, Polish noble
• June 2 – James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, regent of Scotland
• July 11 – Peder Skram, Danish senator and naval officer
• July 22 – Richard Cox, English bishop
• August 21 – Sakuma Nobumori, Japanese retainer and samurai
• September 1 – Guru Ram Das, fourth Sikh Guru
• September 30 – Hubert Languet, French diplomat and reformer
• October 9 – Saint Louis Bertrand, Spanish missionary to Latin-America, patron saint of Colombia
• October 23 – Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer
• November 7 – Richard Davies, Welsh bishop and scholar