1604

January–June

• January 14 – The Hampton Court conference is held between James I of England, the Anglican bishops and representatives of the Puritans.

July–December

• September 20 – Ostend is captured by Spanish forces under Ambrogio Spinola after a 3-year siege.
• October 9 – Supernova 1604 is observed (as of this writing, the last supernova to be observed in the Milky Way).
• November 1 – At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello is presented for the first time.

Undated

• The Sikh Holy Scripture Guru Granth Sahib is compiled and edited by Guru Arjan.
• France begins settling Acadia, first successful French North American colony.
• France begins settling French Guiana.
• England concludes the Treaty of London with Spain, ending its involvement in the Eighty Years' War.
• Za Dengel is deposed as Emperor of Ethiopia by Za Sellase, who restores his cousin Yaqob.
• The Table Alphabeticall, the first known English dictionary to be organized by alphabetical ordering, is published.
• 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. This is currently the world's oldest wagonway with provenance. The exact date is unknown, but a surviving account book for the year ended 30 September 1604 proves it was built within the preceding 12 months.
• The A-text of Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is officially published.
• Lancelot de Casteau's L'Ouverture de cuisine published in Liège, including the first printed recipe for choux pastry.

Births

• January 4 – Jakob Balde, German Latinist (d. 1668)
• March 10? – Johann Rudolf Glauber, German-Dutch alchemist and chemist (d. 1670)
• April 5 – Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1675)
• May 10 – Jean Mairet, French dramatist (d. 1686)
• June 17 – John Maurice of Nassau, count of Nassau-Siegen (d. 1679)
• August 3 – John Eliot, English puritan missionary (d. 1690)
• August 4 – François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French author (d. 1676)
• August 12 – Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1651)
• August 16 – Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, general in the Thirty Years' War (d. 1639)
• September 13 – William Brereton, English soldier and politician (d. 1661)
• October 14 – Nils Brahe, Swedish soldier (d. 1632)
• November – Jasper Mayne, English dramatist (d. 1672)
• November 3 – Osman II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1622)
• date unknown
  • Isaac Ambrose, English Puritan divine (d. 1664)
  • Menasseh Ben Israel, Jewish Rabbi (d. 1657)
  • Giovanni Battista Michelini, Italian painter (d. 1655)
  • Edward Pococke, English Orientalist and biblical scholar (d. 1691)
• probable
  • Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist (d. 1676)
  • Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer, Dutch admiral (d. 1665)

Deaths

• February 29 – John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1530)
• March 4 – Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (b. 1539)
• March 13 – Arnaud d'Ossat, French diplomat and writer (b. 1537)
• May 5 – Claudio Merulo, Italian composer (b. 1533)
• June 24 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, poet and possibly playwright (b. 1550)
• August 3 – Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish military commander
• August 8 – Horio Tadauji, Japanese warlord (b. 1578)
• September 10 – William Morgan, Welsh Bible translator (b. 1545)
• October 18 – Igram van Achelen, Dutch statesman (b. 1528)
• December 3 – George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1540)
• December 22 – Kuroda Yoshitaka, Japanese Daimyo (b. 1546)
• date unknown
  • Isabella Andreini, Italian actress (b. 1562)
  • Thomas Churchyard, English author, secretary to Edward de Vere (b. 1520)
  • Za Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia
  • Toda Kazuaki, Japanese samurai (b. 1542)
  • Thomas Storer, English poet (b. 1571)
  • Richard Topcliffe, English torturer and sadist (b. 1531)
• probable
  • Abul-Fazel, Mughal vizier and historian
  • Seosan, Korean monk (b. 1520)