1563

1563 (MDLXIII) was a common year starting on Friday in the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.

 Births 
 January – Leonhard Hutter, German Lutheran theologian (d. 1616)
 January 30 – Franciscus Gomarus, Dutch theologian (d. 1641)
 March 5 – John Coke, English politician (d. 1644)
 April 15 – Guru Arjan Dev, fifth Sikh leader (A. 1606)
 June 1 – Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and spymaster (d. 1612)
 September 4 – Wanli Emperor of China (d. 1620)
 October 14 – Jodocus Hondius, Flemish artist (d. 1633)
 November 8 – Henry I, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1624)
 November 19 – Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, English statesman (d. 1626)
 December 19 – Lord William Howard (d. 1640)
 date unknown
 Yi Su-gwang, Korean scholar (d. 1628)
 Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devonshire (d. 1606)
 John Dowland, English composer (d. 1626)
 Michael Drayton, English poet (d. 1631)
 Scipione Gentili, Italian legal scholar (d. 1616)
 Anna Guarini, Italian virtuoso singer (d. 1598)
 Hosokawa Gracia, Japanese noblewoman (d. 1600)
 Marcin Kazanowski, Polish nobleman (d. 1636)
 Zygmunt Kazanowski, Polish nobleman (d. 1634)
 Robert Naunton, English politician and writer (d. 1635)
 Joshua Sylvester, English poet (d. 1618)
 Jean Titelouze, French organist and composer (d.1633)

 Deaths 
 February 1 – Emperor Menas of Ethiopia (b. 1559)
 February 24 – Francis, Duke of Guise, French soldier and politician (b. 1519)
 March 24 – Hosokawa Harumoto, Japanese military leader (b. 1514)
 March 28 – Heinrich Glarean, Swiss music theorist (b. 1488)
 May 21 – Martynas Mažvydas, writer of the first printed book in Lithuanian (b. 1510)
 ?June – Elizabeth Seymour, Marchioness of Winchester, English noblewoman (b. 1513)
 June 6 – Ikeda Nagamasa, Japanese military commander (b. 1519)
 June 9 – William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, English statesman (b. 1506)
 August 11 – Bartolomé de Escobedo, Spanish composer (b. 1500)
 August 18 – Étienne de La Boétie, French judge and writer (b. 1530)
 September 17 – Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, English soldier (b. 1526)
 November – Ioan Iacob Heraclid, ruler of Moldavia (b. 1511)
 December 29 – Sebastian Castello, French theologian (b. 1515)
 date unknown – Odet de Selve, French diplomat (b. c. 1504)