1604

January–June

• January 14 - The Hampton Court Conference is held between James I of England, the Anglican bishops and representatives of the Puritans. Work begins on the Authorized King James Version of the Bible and revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
• June - Ottoman–Safavid War : Shāh Abbas I of Persia's Safavid army captures the city of Yerevan from the Ottoman Empire after a siege. At this time the Shāh begins the expulsion of Armenians from Jolfa to New Julfa in his capital of Isfahan; more than 25,000 die during the exodus.
• August 18 - England concludes the Treaty of London with Spain, ending the Anglo-Spanish War, an intermittent conflict within the Eighty Years' War.

  July–December

• September 1 - Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the religious text of Sikhism, compiled and edited by Guru Arjan, is installed at Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar.
• September 20 - Ostend is captured by Spanish forces under Ambrogio Spinola after a three-year siege.
• October 4 - Za Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia, is killed in battle with the forces of Za Sellase, who restores his cousin Yaqob to the throne.
• October 9 - The supernova which becomes known as Kepler's Supernova is first observed from the northern parts of the Italian Peninsula. From October 17, Johannes Kepler begins a year's observation of it from Prague. There won't be another "naked-eye" supernova to be seen until 1987., this is the last supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.
• November 1 - First recorded performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, at the Palace of Whitehall in London.
• December 26 - First recorded performance of Shakespeare's problem play Measure for Measure, before King James I of England in the banqueting hall of Whitehall Palace.

  Date unknown

• France begins settling Acadia, first successful French North American colony.
• Before 1 October, Huntingdon Beaumont completes the Wollaton Wagonway, built to transport coal from the mines at Strelley to Wollaton just west of Nottingham, England, the world's oldest wagonway with provenance.
• The Table Alphabeticall, the first known English dictionary to be organized by alphabetical ordering, is published.
• First publication of Christopher Marlowe's play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, in London.
• Lancelot de Casteau's L'Ouverture de cuisine published in Liège, including the first printed recipe for choux pastry.

  Religion

• According to legend, the vault of Christian Rosenkreuz is discovered.
• The Papacy is expected to fall this year by Tobias Hess and Simon Studion according to their correspondence in 1597.

  Births

January–March

• January 4 - Jakob Balde, German Latinist
• February 2 - Juan de Leyva de la Cerda, conde de Baños, Spanish noble
• February 24 - Arcangela Tarabotti, born Elena Tarabotti, Venetian nun and feminist
• March 10 - Johann Rudolf Glauber, German-Dutch alchemist and chemist
• March 19 - King John IV of Portugal
• March 23 - Girolamo Colonna, Catholic cardinal

  April–June

• April 5 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine
• April 9 - Duke Francis Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg
• April 17
• * Giovanni Giacomo Barbelli, Italian painter
• * Frans Luycx, Flemish Baroque painter
• April 22 - Peter Venables, English politician
• April 28 - Joris Jansen Rapelje, Early Dutch settler in colonial North America
• May 1 - Louis, Count of Soissons
• May 4 - Sir Hugh Owen, 1st Baronet, English politician
• May 10 - Jean Mairet, classical French dramatist who wrote both tragedies and comedies
• May 17 - Vincent Baron, French Dominican theologian writer
• May 28 - Catherine of Brandenburg, Princess of Transylvania
• June 4 - Claudia de' Medici
• June 10 - John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland, English politician when he inherited the peerage
• June 17 - John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen
• June 28 - Heinrich Albert, German composer and poet
• June 30 - Margaret Elisabeth of Leiningen-Westerburg, Regent of Hesse-Homburg

  July–September

• July 8 - Christiaen van Couwenbergh, Dutch painter
• July 25 - Dorothea Diana of Salm, German noblewoman
• August 4 - François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French author
• August 12 - Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shōgun
• August 16 - Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, general in the Thirty Years' War
• August 25 - Shang Kexi, Chinese general
• September 13 - Sir William Brereton, 1st Baronet, English soldier and politician
• September 21 - Angelo Michele Colonna, Italian painter

  October–December

• October 14 - Nils Brahe, Swedish soldier and younger brother of Per Brahe
• October 22 - Simon Le Moyne, French missionary
• October 31
• * Luigi Baccio del Bianco, Italian painter
• * Krisztina Nyáry, Hungarian noblewoman
• November 3 - Osman II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
• November 6 - George Ent, English scientist
• November 7
• * Bernard of Offida, Italian saint
• * Jacques Leneuf de La Poterie, Politician
• November 26 - Johannes Bach, German composer and musician
• December 7 - Ambrose Corbie, English Jesuit teacher
• December 10 - David Barry, 1st Earl of Barrymore, Irish noble

  Date unknown

• Jasper Mayne, English dramatist
• Isaac Ambrose, English Puritan divine
• Menasseh Ben Israel, Jewish Rabbi
• Giovanni Battista Michelini, Italian painter
• Edward Pococke, English Orientalist and biblical scholar

  Probable

• Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist
• Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer, Dutch admiral

  Deaths

January–March

• January 4 - Ferenc Nádasdy, Hungarian noble
• January 10 - Juliana of Lazarevo, Russian saint
• January 17 - Santino Garsi da Parma, Italian musician
• January 18 - Dorothy Catherine of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Burggräfin of Meissen
• January 23 - Hyujeong, Korean Seon master
• February 9 - Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick, wife of Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick
• February 10 - Cyriacus Spangenberg, German theologian and historian
• February 13 - Catherine de Bourbon, French princess
• February 24 - Christoph Pezel, German theologian
• February 29 - John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death
• March 4 - Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian
• March 13 - Arnaud d'Ossat, French diplomat and writer

  April–June

• April 8 - Daniyal, Imperial Prince of the Timurid Dynasty, Viceroy of Deccan
• April 14 - Ernest Frederick, Margrave of Baden-Durlach
• April 19 - Kuroda Yoshitaka, Japanese daimyō
• April 21 - Koide Hidemasa, Samurai
• April 25 - Pietro de' Medici, Italian noble
• May 4 - Claudio Merulo, Italian composer
• May 13 - Christine of Hesse
• May 22 - Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
• May 26 - Godfrey Goldsborough, English bishop
• June 5 - Thomas Muffet, English naturalist and physician
• June 10 - Isabella Andreini, Italian actress
• June 21 - Jonathan Trelawny, English politician
• June 24 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, poet and possibly playwright

  July–September

• July 14 - Gaspar de Bono, Beatified Spanish Army veteran and Minim friar
• August 3 - Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish military commander
• August 8 - Horio Tadauji, Japanese warlord
• August 12 - John I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken
• August 20 - Toda Kazuaki, Japanese samurai
• August 29
• * Hamida Banu Begum, wife of the Mughal emperor Humayun
• * Otto Henry, Count Palatine of Sulzbach, Counts Palatine of Sulzbach
• August 30 - John Juvenal Ancina, Italian Oratorian and bishop
• September 10 - William Morgan, Welsh Bible translator
• September 12 - Louis Gunther of Nassau, Count of Nassau-Katzenelnbogen
• September 17 - Lucas Osiander the Elder, German pastor
• September 22 - Dorothy Stafford, English noble
• September 23 - Gabriel Vásquez, Spanish theologian

  October–December

• October 8 - Janus Dousa, Dutch historian and noble
• October 9
• * Louis IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg, German noble
• * William Peryam, British judge
• October 18 - Igram van Achelen, Dutch statesman
• October 22 - Domingo Báñez, Spanish theologian
• October 24 - Za Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia
• October 25 - Claude de La Trémoille, French noble
• November - Thomas Storer, English poet
• November 21 - John Thynne, English landowner and politician
• November 23
• * Olbracht Łaski, Polish alchemist
• * Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician
• November 29 - Ercole, Lord of Monaco, Monegasque noble
• December 30 - George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon, English nobleman

  Date unknown

• Thomas Churchyard, English author, secretary to Edward de Vere
• Thomas North, English translator of Plutarch
• Richard Topcliffe, English politician and torturer
• Ma Shouzhen, Chinese courtesan, painter, poet, and composer