1588

1588 (MDLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1588th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 588th year of the 2nd millennium, the 88th year of the 16th century, and the 9th year of the 1580s decade. As of the start of 1588, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1550s  1560s  1570s  – 1580s –  1590s  1600s  1610s
Years:	1585 1586 1587 – 1588 – 1589 1590 1591

1588 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1588 MDLXXXVIII
Ab urbe condita	2341
Armenian calendar	1037 ԹՎ ՌԼԷ
Assyrian calendar	6338
Balinese saka calendar	1509–1510
Bengali calendar	995
Berber calendar	2538
English Regnal year	30 Eliz. 1 – 31 Eliz. 1
Buddhist calendar	2132
Burmese calendar	950
Byzantine calendar	7096–7097
Chinese calendar	丁亥年 (Fire Pig) 4284 or 4224     — to — 戊子年 (Earth Rat) 4285 or 4225
Coptic calendar	1304–1305
Discordian calendar	2754
Ethiopian calendar	1580–1581
Hebrew calendar	5348–5349
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1644–1645
- Shaka Samvat	1509–1510
- Kali Yuga	4688–4689
Holocene calendar	11588
Igbo calendar	588–589
Iranian calendar	966–967
Islamic calendar	996–997
Japanese calendar	Tenshō 16 (天正１６年)
Javanese calendar	1507–1509
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 10 days
Korean calendar	3921
Minguo calendar	324 before ROC 民前324年
Nanakshahi calendar	120
Thai solar calendar	2130–2131
Tibetan calendar	阴火猪年 (female Fire-Pig) 1714 or 1333 or 561     — to — 阳土鼠年 (male Earth-Rat) 1715 or 1334 or 562

Events

• May 12 – Day of the Barricades in Paris. Duke Henry of Guise seizes the city, forcing King Henry III to flee.
• May 28 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel (it will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port).
• July – King Henry III of France capitulates to the Duke of Guise and returns to Paris.
• July 31 – First engagement between the English and Spanish fleets off Plymouth. The English have the better of it.
• August 2 – The English and Spanish fleets meet again off Dorset. (The English fleet is led by Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake.) The English again have the better of it.
• August 6 – Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is defeated by an English naval force under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake off the coast of Gravelines, now in France.
• August 7 – The English and Spanish fleets again engage off the coast of Flanders. The English again are more successful.
• August 8 – August 9 – The Spanish are unable to reach the coast of Flanders to meet up with the army of the Duke of Parma. Medina Sidonia decides to return to Spain.
• August 12 – The Spanish fleet sails past the Firth of Forth, and the English cease their pursuit. Much of the Spanish fleet is destroyed as it sails around Scotland and Ireland.
• October 1 - Abbas the Great of Persia takes power.
• December 23 – Henry III of France strikes his ultra-Catholic enemies, having the Duke of Guise and his brother, Cardinal Louis of Guise, killed, and holding the Cardinal de Bourbon a prisoner.
• Ahmad al-Mansur, sultan of Morocco, demands that the king of Songhay give a heavy tribute in exchange of a Saharan salt, probably in an intentional provocation. When Songhay's answer is defiant, he declares war and marches his army through Sahara to Songhay
• Russia, regency of Boris Godunov
• William Morgan's Welsh translation of the Bible published.