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The 1570s

785 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.

1570 CE80 entries

  • January 23 – The assassination of Scottish regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, by James Hamilton, the first known shooting of a national leader, throws Scotland into civil war. Having loaded a carbine rifle and carried it into the Linlithgow home of his uncle, the Archbishop of St Andrews, Hamilton stands at an upstairs window overlooking the street where Moray will ride by on horseback as part of cavalcade. Once Moray comes into range, Hamilton fires and fatally wounds the regent for King James VI.
  • March 28 – The ambassador of the Ottoman Sultan Selim II goes before the governing Council of the Venetian Republic and requests that Venice surrender the island of Cyprus. The Council rejects the demand and prepares to go to war with the Ottoman Empire.
  • October 10 – Sir Edmund Butler of Cloughgrenan surrenders his estate to Elizabeth I of England in exchange for a pardon for his rebellion.

1571 CE76 entries

  • June 3 – Following the Battle of Bangkusay Channel, the conquest of the Kingdom of Maynila is complete; Spanish Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi makes Manila a city, and the capital of the Philippines.
  • July 14 – In what is now the state of Kerala in India, the Siege of Chaliyam begins as the Zamorin of Kozhikode, Mana Vikrama, sends troops to starve out the Portuguese Empire's Chale fortress. The Portuguese defender, Dom Jorge de Castro, is allowed to surrender the fort in November and the Portuguese are allowed to march out of the fort. De Castro is executed by the Portuguese Governor-General after returning to Portuguese controlled Goa.
  • August 29 – Liliw, Laguna, Philippines is founded by Gat Tayaw, followers and residents as a municipality of Laguna.

1572 CE71 entries

  • January 16 – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is tried for treason, for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. He is executed on June 2.
  • February 28 – In what is now the Rajasthan state in India, Maharana Pratap is crowned as the new Rana of Mewar at the Kingdom's capital at Udaipur after the death of his father, Udai Singh II.
  • August 24 – St. Bartholomew's Day massacre: Catholics in Paris murder thousands of Protestants, including Gaspard de Coligny and Petrus Ramus, at the order of King Charles IX, with Catherine de Medici's connivance. Henry of Navarre and the Prince of Condé barely escape the same fate. This brings about the Fourth War of Religion in France.

1573 CE87 entries

  • February 2 – The Wanli Era begins in Ming dynasty China on the first New Year after 9-year-old Zhu Yijun ascends the throne.
  • July 11 – The Edict of Boulogne is signed by Charles IX of France, granting limited rights to Huguenots, and ending the Fourth War of Religion in France.
  • August 27 – Oda Nobunaga drives the 15th Ashikaga shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiaki out of Kyoto, effectively destroying the Ashikaga shogunate, and historically ending the Muromachi and Sengoku periods. The Azuchi–Momoyama period of Japan begins.

1574 CE74 entries

  • May 8 – Brian O'Neill of Clandeboye, having submitted to the Earl of Essex, begs Elizabeth I of England for mercy.
  • November 5 – Edmund Tanner (d. 1579 in Ireland) is appointed Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork and Cloyne and consecrated in Rome.
  • November 22 – The Juan Fernández Islands in the South Pacific Ocean are discovered by Spanish sailor Juan Fernández.

1575 CE84 entries

  • June 28 – Battle of Nagashino: Oda Nobunaga defeats Takeda Katsuyori in Japan's first modern battle.
  • July 26 – Edmund Grindal succeeds Matthew Parker as Archbishop of Canterbury.
  • October 10 – Battle of Dormans: Catholic forces under Henry I, Duke of Guise defeat the Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay among others.

1576 CE84 entries

  • April – Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, shires Connacht into counties Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.
  • May 6 – The Edict of Beaulieu, negotiated by Monsieur Francois, Duke of Anjou and brother of King Henry III of France, ends the Fifth War of Religion. By the terms of the "Peace of Monsieur" that led to agreement on the Edict, freedom of worship is granted again to the Protestant Hugueonots.
  • July 12 – The Mughal Empire annexes Bengal after defeating the Bengal Sultanate at the Battle of Rajmahal.

1577 CE69 entries

  • February 12 – The "Perpetual Edict", providing for the removal of Spanish troops from what is now the Netherlands, is signed in the city of Marche-en-Famenne in the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) by the Spanish Governor-General, Don Juan de Austria and representatives of the Dutch rebellion. The Perpetual Edict will last only five months, before Don Juan begins new attacks on the rebels.
  • May 2 – La Charite falls to the besieging royal army followed by Issoire a month later, as part of the King's offensive against the Huguenots in the Sixth War of Religion.
  • December 13 – Francis Drake leaves Plymouth, England, aboard the Pelican, with four other ships and 164 men, on an expedition against the Spanish, along the Pacific coast of the Americas, which will become his circumnavigation.

1578 CE74 entries

  • August 4 – Sebastian, King of Portugal is killed in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir in North Africa while fighting the Saadi Sultanate. Sebastian's elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, is named as the heir to the throne, initiating a succession crisis in Portugal.
  • September 6 – After 16 days travel, the fleet of Francis Drake completes its traverse of the Strait of Magellan between the tip of South America and Tierra del Fuego. Upon entering the Pacific Ocean, the fleet encounters violent storms. The supply ship Marigold, with over 100 men under the command of John Thomas, is lost with all hands off of Cape Horn. The rest of the fleet continues its voyage around the world.
  • November 19 – Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Ralegh set out from Plymouth in England, leading an expedition to establish a colony in North America. They will be forced to turn back six months later.

1579 CE86 entries

  • June 17 – Francis Drake, during his circumnavigation of the world, lands in modern-day California, which he claims for Queen Elizabeth I. With an English claim here and in Newfoundland, it becomes the basis for English colonial charters which will claim all land from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from "sea to sea." Drake's claim is called Nova Albion (New England), and subsequent maps will show all lands north of New Spain and New Mexico under this name.
  • August 17 – "Yasuke", a man of African origin who has been hired as a manager by the Chancellor of the Realm, Oda Nobunaga, arrives in Japan. Called "The Black Samurai" in dramatizations of his experience, he begins a service of three years to the Chancellor, ending on June 21, 1582.
  • October 11 – Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire for more than 14 years, is assassinated in Constantinople.