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January 14 – Hampton Court conference with James I of England, the Anglican bishops and representatives of Puritans.

May 19 - The town of Montreal is founded.

September 20 – Capture of Ostend by Spanish forces under Ambrosio Spinola after a three year siege.

October 9 – Supernova 1604 is observed. As of this writing, this was 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.

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The Sikh Holy Scripture Guru Granth Sahib is compiled and edited by Guru Arjan .

Luis Vaez de Torres is the first European to sail through the Torres Strait.

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.

Peter Blundell founds Blundell's School in Tiverton, England.

Za Dengel deposed as Emperor of Ethiopia by Za Sellase, who restores his cousin Yaqob.

Table Alphabeticall, the first known English Dictionary to be organized by alphabetical ordering, was published.

Before 1st October Huntingdon Beaumont had completed 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. Exact date unknown but a surviving account book for the year ended 30 September 1604 proves it was built within the preceding 12 months.

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April 5 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine (died 1675)

May 10 - Jean Mairet, French dramatist (died 1686)

August 3 - John Eliot, English puritan missionary (died 1690)

August 4 - François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French author (died 1676)

September 13 - William Brereton, English soldier and politician (died 1661)

November 3 - Osman II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (died 1622)

Priscilla Alden, member of Massachusetts's Plymouth Colony (died 1680)

Isaac Ambrose, English Puritan divine (died 1664)

Jakob Balde, German Latinist (died 1668)

Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist (died 1676)

Nils Brahe, Swedish soldier (died 1632)

Johann Rudolf Glauber, German-Dutch alchemist and chemist (died 1670)

Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (died 1651)

Menasseh Ben Israel, Jewish Rabbi (died 1657)

Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer, Dutch admiral (died 1665)

Claude Lorrain, French painter (died 1682)

Jasper Mayne, English dramatist (died 1672)

Giovanni Battista Michelini, Italian painter (died 1655)

John Maurice of Nassau, count of Nassau-Siegen (died 1679)

Edward Pococke, English Orientalist and biblical scholar (died 1691)

Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, general in the Thirty Years' War (died 1639)

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February 29 - John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1530)

March 4 - Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (born 1539)

March 13 - Arnaud d'Ossat, French diplomat and writer (b. 1537)

May 5 - Claudio Merulo, Italian composer (born 1533)

June 24 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English politician (born 1550)

August 3 - Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish military commander

August 8 - Horio Tadauji, Japanese warlord (born 1578)

September 10 - William Morgan, Welsh Bible translator (born 1545)

October 18 - Igram van Achelen, Dutch statesman (born 1528)

Abul-Fazel, Mughal vizier and historian

Isabella Andreini, Italian actress (born 1562)

Catherine de Bourbon, sister of Henry IV of France (born 1559)

Thomas Churchyard, English author (born 1520)

Za Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia

George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon (born 1540)

Toda Kazuaki, Japanese samurai (born 1542)

Roger Marbeck, English physician (born 1536)

Seosan, Korean monk (born 1520)

Thomas Storer, English poet (born 1571)

Richard Topcliffe, English torturer and sadist (born 1532)

Arnaud d'Ossat, French diplomat and writer (born 1537)