1580

Year 1580 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events of 1580

March 1 - Michel de Montaigne signs the preface to his most significant work, Essays. They are published later the same year.
June 11 - Juan de Garay founds Buenos Aires.
June 25 - The Book of Concord, a collection of Lutheran confessional documents, is published.
July 12 - The Ostrog Bible, the first complete printed Bible in a Slavic language, is published.
August 25 - Battle of Alcântara: Spanish armies, led by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, defending the right of King Philip II of Spain to the Portuguese throne, defeat the Portuguese armies of Portuguese pretender António, Prior of Crato.
September 26 - Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe.

1580-1764 - The first session of the Jewish Vaad (Council of Four Lands) is held in Lublin, Poland; 70 delegates of Jewish local kahals meet to discuss taxation and other issues important to Jewish communities.
1580-1640: Iberian Union - King Philip II of Spain becomes King of Portugal under the name Philip I, following the death without heirs of King Henry of Portugal, in a personal union of the crowns, thus maintaining Portuguese independence (in Europe and throughout the Portuguese Empire). The Portuguese House of Habsburg (also called the Philippine Dynasty) rule lasts until 1640.
Yermak begins the Russian conquest of Siberia with a band of 1,636 men.
Jesuit missionaries arrive at the court of Akbar, Ruler of the Moghul Empire.

February - John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol, English diplomat (d. 1653)
April 15 - George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, English politician and colonizer (d. 1623)
April 18 - (baptism) Thomas Middleton, English playwright (d. 1627)
April 24 - Vincent de Paul, French priest and saint (d. 1660)
June 6 - Godefroy Wendelin, Belgian astronomer (d. 1667)
June 9 - Daniel Heinsius, Dutch scholar (d. 1655)
August 24 - John Taylor, English poet (d. 1654)
September 15 - Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (d. 1659)
September 14 - Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish writer (d. 1645)
December 1 - Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (d. 1637)
December 4 - Samuel Argall, English adventurer and naval officer (d. 1626)
date unknown