In the year AD 1594...

• Serbs rise up against the Ottoman Empire in the Banat Uprising, but the rebellion is crushed by an Ottoman army under Sinan Pasha, who has the bones of Serbian icon Saint Sava exhumed and publically burned, and orders the flaying ofthe leader of the rebellion, Bishop Teodor Nestorović.
• The Dutch Revolt continues as Maurice of Nassau pushes into the northeast, capturing Groningen, the last area he can feasibly lay claim to, thus solidifying the borders of the region which is revolting against Spanish rule, and which will become the modern Netherlands.
• Irish chieftan Hugh O'Donnell initiates an uprising against English rule, the "Nine Years' War" which will not be fully put down until 1601.
• Henry IV is finally crowned king of France when he reluctantly accepts Catholicism, ending a decade of civil war in France known the "War of the Three Henrys."
• Sigismund III is finally crowned king of Poland when he reluctantly accepts Protestantism, ending years of dithering between himself and the Swedes.
• A man named Ishikawa Goemon is caught sneaking into Osaka Castle in Osaka, Japan, apparently attempting to steal valuables, and is executed (along with his entire extended family) by being boiled in hot oil. In later years legends will spring up claiming that he was actually a ninja sent to assassinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and he will become a stock ninja character in Edo Period kabuki plays and modern-day anime.
• Italian composer Jacopo Peri, begins writing the first-ever opera, Dafne.
• William Shakespeare has a busy year, helps found the Lord Chamberlain's Men acting company, writes Titus Andronicus, continues work on Romeo and Juliet, composes the bulk of his sonnets, and pens his poem "The Rape of Lucrece".

These people were born in 1594:

• Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus.
• French painter Nicolas Poussin.
• English miniature painter Peter Oliver.
• Italian composer Tarquinio Merula.
• Dutch still life painter Willem Claasz Heda
• German general Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim.
• Korean general Im Gyeong Eop.
• Frence general César, duc de Vendôme
• Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy.
• Flemish painter Clara Peeters.
• Croatian lexicographer Ivan Belostenec.
• French poet Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant.

These people died in 1594:

• Venetian panter Tintoretto.
• Hungarian poet Bálint Balassa, considered the father of modern Hungarian poetry.
• English playwright Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy.
• Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, best remembered for the Mercator Projection.
• Legendary "ninja" Ishikawa Goemon, executed for thievery along with his entire family.
• Spanish nobleman, soldier, and poet Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga.
• Inflammatory English Roman Catholic cardinal William Allen, who had tried to depose Elizabeth I and had helped draw up the Spanish Armada's plan to invade England.
• Flemish composer Orlando di Lasso.
• Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.
• Portuguese-born Jewish physician Rodrigo Lopez, court doctor to Elizabeth I and believed to be the inspiration for Shylock in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," executed for treason.
• English explorer Martin Frobisher.
• English lexicographer and bishop Thomas Cooper.
• English poet Barnabe Googe.
• English scholar John Aylmer.
• Danish statesman Niels Kaas.

1593 - 1594 - 1595

16th century