31 January: | ![]() | The Spanish destroy a Dutch army at the Battle of Gembloux, allowing them to regain control of the southern Netherlands. |
18 February: | ![]() | Muslims celebrate the Festival of Sacrifice on the tenth day of the month Dhu al-Hijjah. |
30 March: | ![]() | The resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated on Easter Sunday following the first full moon following the spring equinox since the Council of Nicaea in 325. |
1 April: | ![]() | Jews celebrate Pesach for the next seven or eight days. |
18 May: | ![]() | Seven weeks after Easter Christians celebrate Pentecost, possibly since 68 AD. |
21 September: | ![]() | Jews celebrate Yom Kippur since sunset last night. |
1 November: | ![]() | The thirty days of Ramadan in the Islamic year 986 begin at the first sighting of the lunar crescent. |
1 December: | ![]() | Muslims celebrate the Conclusion of the Fast on the first day of the month Shawwal. |
Christophe Plantin, Urban VII, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Francis Drake, Willem Barentsz, Alva, Andrea Palladio, Gerardus Mercator, Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, Tintoretto, Elizabeth I, William of Orange, Joseph Scaliger, Akbar the Great, Tycho Brahe, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Miguel de Cervantes, Walter Raleigh, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Galileo Galilei, Maurice of Nassau, Johannes Kepler, Caravaggio, Ben Jonson, John Donne, Jacob Cats and Peter Paul Rubens celebrated their birthday this year.
The year 1578 was a common year starting on a Wednesday, just like 1483, 1494, 1500, 1505, 1511, 1522, 1533, 1539, 1550, 1561 and 1567 in the century before it and 1586, 1597, 1603, 1614, 1625, 1631, 1642, 1653, 1659 and 1670 in the next.
The coloured days highlight
births,
deaths
,
political
,
scientific
,
artistic
and
other
historical milestones, and recurring events such as anniversaries and
holidays
.
The new
,
waxing
,
full
and
waning
icons indicate the phases of the moon and appear only for dates in the Gregorian calendar, i.e. after 14 October 1582. The Chinese calendar is available only from 1645 to 2644, the first millenium since the last reform. The coloured columns mark the Sundays, the last day of the week per standard ISO-8601.
The normal calendar page for the current /year?2018 contains an introduction to the intriguing history of the year as we know it. The Calendar Converter has more detail. The so called Perpetual Calendar uses a trick from before the age of computers to find the weekday for any Gregorian date. Also see an overview of all historical events in the last six thousand years.