/year

The 1510s

683 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 16th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1510 CE68 entries

  • January 23 – An 18-year-old Henry VIII jousts anonymously at Richmond, Surrey and draws applause, before revealing his identity.
  • July – The Holy League, formed to defend the Italian States, attacks French-occupied Genoa. The 1510 influenza pandemic reaches Sicily, where it is nicknamed coccolucio, before spreading to the Italian states and the rest of Europe.
  • December 2 – Battle of Merv: Shah Ismail I's defeats the Uzbek forces of Shaybani Khan, in Khorasan. Shaybani flees the battle only to be captured and killed by Ismail I troops, his head is turned into a skull cup used as a drinking goblet.

1511 CE65 entries

  • March 11 – On the island of Puerto Rico, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León leads an incursion at Yahuecas against the local Taino warriors, commanded by Chief Urayoán.
  • April 9 – St John's College, Cambridge, England, founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, receives its charter.
  • August 15 – (21 Jumada I 917 AH) Capture of Malacca: Afonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca, the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca, giving Portugal control over the Strait of Malacca, through which all sea-going trade between China and India is concentrated. The Sultanate then establishes rule from Johor, starting decades of skirmishes against the Portuguese to regain the fallen city. While taking the city, the Portuguese slaughter a large community of Chinese merchants living there. Malacca is the first city in Southeast Asia to be taken by a Western nation, gaining home rule only in 1957, when it becomes part of Malaysia.

1512 CE73 entries

  • April 11 – War of the League of Cambrai – Battle of Ravenna: French troops under Gaston of Foix, Duke of Nemours, assisted by the Duchy of Ferrara, defeat the Spanish and Papal States troops led by Ramón de Cardona. Gaston is killed in the pursuit as the Spanish retreat, and at least 3,000 of his troops are killed. More than 9,000 Spanish and Papal troops are killed, and 17,000 civilians in and around the city of Ravenna are massacred.
  • June 15 – Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri, ruler of the Mamluk Sultanate that controls Egypt and what is now Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and parts of Syria, receives an envoy from King George II of Kakheti (now located in the Republic of Georgia) and decides to reopen the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
  • September 10 – Portuguese Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque departs from the Indian city of Cochin with 14 ships and 1,700 troops to retake the fortress of Goa, capital of Portuguese India, from Bijapur's General Rasul Khan. A day before a planned Portuguese attack on Bihar's army, Rasul Khan and his occupying forces depart from Goa.

1513 CE83 entries

  • June 6 – Italian Wars: Battle of Novara – Swiss mercenaries supporting the Milanese defeat the French under Louis II de la Trémoille, forcing the French to abandon the Duchy of Milan and Italy.
  • August 16 – Battle of Dubica (part of the Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War): Croatian troops under Petar Berislavić, Ban (Viceroy) of Croatia, defeat an Ottoman army under Sanjak-bey Junuz-aga.
  • August 16 – Battle of the Spurs (or Battle of Guinegate, part of the War of the League of Cambrai): English and allied troops under Henry VIII defeat French cavalry under Marshal La Palice.

1514 CE62 entries

  • February 12 – War of the League of Cambrai: In what is now the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Giacomo Badoer, administrator of the Republic of Venice, orders a retreat from the approaching forces of the Holy Roman Empire, abandoning Udine, Cividale and Cormons and falling back on Sacile.
  • April 29 – After a month of negotiations at Linz between the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Denmark, representatives of the two nations sign an alliance agreement, to be secured by the marriage of the Emperor's 13-year-old daughter Isabella, to the new King of Denmark, Christian II, along with payment of a dowry to King Christian of 250,000 Rhenish gulden, equivalent to $118,000,000 USD 500 years later.
  • September 8 – Forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, backed by Belarusians, with 30,000 troops, defeat the larger Russian army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (80,000 soldiers) in the Battle of Orsha.

1515 CE77 entries

  • January 1 - King Louis XII of France dies of severe gout after a reign of 17 years, and his son-in-law, François, inherits the throne.
  • May 20 – "Ulysses", the first known rhinoceros in Europe, arrives at Lisbon in Portugal after being brought by ship from India.
  • September 14– The Battle of Marignano concludes after two days as the army of Francis I of France defeats the Swiss mercenaries, thanks to the timely arrival of a Venetian army. The French Army enters the Duchy of Milan on September 17 and reclaims it for King Francis.

1516 CE64 entries

  • January 23 – With the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, his grandson, Charles of Ghent, becomes King of Spain; his mother Queen Joanna of Castile also succeeds as Queen of Aragon and co-monarch with Carlos, but remains confined at Tordesillas.
  • November 29 – The "Treaty of Perpetual Peace" is signed in the city of Fribourg in Switzerland, between representatives of the Thirteen Cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy, and King Francis of the Kingdom of France, confirming the French victory in the 1515 Battle of Marignano. The Swiss Confederacy renounces all claims to the French protectorate of Milan in Italy, in for 700,000 gold crowns in compensation.
  • December 4 – Treaty of Brussels: Peace is declared between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.

1517 CE62 entries

  • January 30 – Cairo is captured by the Ottoman Empire after a three day battle, and the Mamluk Sultanate falls. The Abbasid Caliphate, reestablished in 1261, falls to the Ottomans and the last Caliph, Al-Mutawakkil III, is deported along with his family to Constantinople.
  • April 15 – The Ottoman–Mamluk War officially ends as the Ottoman Empire annexes the Mamluk Sultanate territories in the Middle East (the Levant), the Arabian Peninsula (Hejaz) and Egypt as provinces.
  • October 31 – Martin Luther publishes his 95 Theses (posting them on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church), and begins the Protestant Reformation. This story is possibly apocryphal.

1518 CE63 entries

  • May 19 – In Venice, Renaissance artist Tiziano Vecellio, known as "Titian", unveils his painting Assumption of the Virgin, to the public.
  • August 10 – Construction of the Manchester Grammar School is completed in England. The total cost of the project was £218 13s 5d.
  • November 13 – Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, the Spanish Colonial Governor of Cuba, is granted the office of Captain General of Yucatán, which comprises southern Mexico. Velázquez is also granted the exclusive right to conquer and colonize the new Yucatan Province, but turns the rights over to Francisco de Montejo in 1526.

1519 CE66 entries

  • February 10 – The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his conquistadores depart from Cuba toward the island of Cozumel in Mexico to begin a mission of conquest.
  • July 26 – King Charles of Spain issues a royal order prohibiting navigator Rui Faleiro from participating in the Magellan expedition, after Portugal's ambassador to Spain reports that Faleiro is suffering from a nervous breakdown.
  • October 12 – Hernán Cortés and his men, accompanied by 3,000 Tlaxcalans, enter Cholula.