date: November 23

text: November 23 – King Henry VIII of summons the English Parliament, to assemble at Westminster on February 5.


date: November 28

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: November 28 – Hersekzade Ahmed Pasha steps down as Grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: February 12

section: Conflict & Security

text: 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.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: May 2

text: May 2 – The Poor Conrad peasant revolt against Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg begins in Beutelsbach.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: July 14

text: July 14 – The Hungarian rebel leader György Dózsa is defeated in battle at Temesvár in Transylvania in Hungary

source_section: Events › July–September


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Vasili III of Russia captured Smolensk from Grand Duchy of Lithuania.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Battle of Chaldiran: Selim I crushes the Persian army of Shah Ismail I.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – The Ottoman Army, commanded by the Sultan Selim I, arrives at Tabriz, capital of Safavid Iran and accepts the surrender of Shah Ismail.


date: September 8

text: 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.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Giovanni Carlo Tramontano, Count of Matera, is assassinated in Matera, the day after demanding that the aristocracy and people of his realm pay 24,000 ducates in taxes to clear up his personal debts.


date: December 4

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: December 4 – Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca and Pietro Martire d'Anghiera complete the first printed map of Central America as they record their data from the Pinzón–Solís voyage of 1508-1509.


date: March 12

section: Religion & Belief

text: March 12 – A huge exotic embassy sent by King Manuel I of Portugal to Pope Leo X arrives in Rome, including Hanno, an Indian elephant.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Louis XII of France makes peace with Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Thomas Wolsey is appointed Archbishop of York in England.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Ottoman General Dukaginzade Ahmed Pasha is appointed by the Sultan Selim I as the new Grand Vizier, but serves for less than three months before he is removed and executed.


date: June 13

section: Science & Discovery

text: June 13 – Henry Grace à Dieu, at over 1,000 tons the largest warship in the world at this time, built at the new Woolwich Dockyard in England, is dedicated.


text: Nicolaus Copernicus's Commentariolus is written by this date.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: Paolo Ricci (Camillo Renato) moves to Augsburg.


date: January 10

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: January 10 – A great fire breaks out, in the Rialto of Venice.


date: May 15

section: Culture & Society

text: May 15 – The earliest printed edition of Saxo Grammaticus' 12th century Scandinavian history Gesta Danorum, edited by Christiern Pedersen from an original found near Lund, is published as Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae, by Jodocus Badius in Paris.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – King Christian II is crowned King of Norway in Oslo. This coronation will be the last in Norway for 304 years until the crowning of King Karl III Johan in 1818.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII, is married by proxy to France's King Louis XII in accordance with the August 7 peace treaty.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – King Louis XII marries Mary Tudor (sister of King Henry VIII) at Abbeville, as part of the Kingdom of England's peace with France.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Mary Tudor is formally crowned as the Queen consort of France.


text: Albrecht Dürer makes his famous engraving Melencolia I.


date: January 1

section: Births

text: January 1 – George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, Scottish noble (d. 1562)

source_section: Births


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Hai Rui, Chinese official of the Ming Dynasty (d. 1587)


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Daniele Barbaro, Venetian churchman, diplomat and scholar (d. 1570)


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Georg Joachim Rheticus, Austrian cartographer and scientific instrument maker (d. 1574)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Otto Truchsess von Waldburg, German Catholic cardinal (d. 1573)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Lorenzino de' Medici, Italian writer and assassin (d. 1548)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, Italian condottiero (d. 1574)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Joachim Mörlin, German bishop (d. 1571)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Shimazu Takahisa, daimyō and fifteenth head of the Shimazu clan (d. 1571)


date: June 16

text: June 16 – John Cheke, English classical scholar and statesman (d. 1557)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – García Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Marquis of Villafranca, Spanish noble and admiral (d. 1577)


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Philipp IV, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1590)


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Prospero Santacroce, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1589)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Andreas Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (d. 1564)


date: January 2

section: Deaths

text: January 2 – William Smyth, English bishop and statesman (b. 1460)

source_section: Deaths


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Anne of Brittany, queen-consort of France to both Charles VIII and Louis XII (b. 1477)


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Donato Bramante, Italian architect (b. 1444)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Ichijō Fuyuyoshi, Japanese court noble (b. 1465)


date: May 3

text: May 3 – Anna of Brandenburg, Duchess consort of Schleswig and Holstein (b. 1487)


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Henry IV, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1463)


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Suster Bertken Dutch anchorite (b. 1426)


date: July 20

text: July 20 – György Dózsa, Transylvanian peasant revolt leader (b. 1470)


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Alexander, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken and Count of Veldenz (1489–1514) (b. 1462)


date: October 25

text: October 25 – William Elphinstone, Scottish bishop and statesman (b. 1431)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Hartmann Schedel, German cartographer (b. 1440)


text: Agnes Fingerin, German philanthropist and businessperson


date: February 8

text: February 8 – King Henry VIII of England opens the English Parliament. Henry's chief advisor, Sir Thomas Nevill, is elected Speaker of the House of Commons


date: November 8

text: November 8 – At Jodhpur, Rao Ganga became the new ruler of the Kingdom of Marwar in what is now the Indian state of Rajasthan, after the Rathore nobility determine that he is better suited to rule than his older brother Rao Viramde or his cousin Biram Singh.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – The 3rd English Parliament of King Henry VIII closes with the King giving royal assent to the Avowries Act, the Kynges Revenues Act, the "Acte for the Staple of Calice" and "the Act avoiding pulling down of Towns".


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Thomas Wolsey is named Lord Chancellor of England.


text: Bartolomé de las Casas urges Ferdinand II of Aragon to end Amerindian slavery, and recommends experimental free towns.


date: January

text: January - In Vietnam, an uprising led by Phùng Chương broke out in Tam Đảo and was quickly quelled by general Trịnh Duy Sản under emperor Lê Tương Dực of the Lê dynasty.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – The Emirate of Oman, ruled by Muhammad bin Ismail, becomes a protectorate of Portugal.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – In Portuguese-occupied Morocco, the Governor of Safi, Nuno Fernandes de Ataíde, conducts an unsuccessful attack on Marrakesh, and is forced to retreat by defenders led by the Emir Nasr ibn Chentaf al-Hintati.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Battle of Turnadag: The army of Ottoman sultan Selim I defeats the beylik of Dulkadir under Bozkurt of Dulkadir.


date: September 14

text: 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.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Maximilian Sforza, Duke of Milan, surrenders to the French forces and is imprisoned until the arrival of King Francis.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – King Francis enters the city of Milan with Charles III, Duke of Savoy and William IX, Marquis of Montferrat. Francis becomes Duke of Milan and sends Duke Maximilian into exile in France, providing hm with an annual annuity of 35,000 écus.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – The Portuguese Navy, led by Afonso de Albuquerque, conquers the strategic Hormuz Island as King Turan Shah and his prime minister, Rais Nureddin invited Albuquerque to land his forces and formally take possession of Hormuz.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founds Havana, Cuba.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Portuguese explorer Juan Díaz de Solís departs from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain with three ships and 70 men on a disastrous expedition toward the southern part of the continent of South America. Soon after landing at what is now Uruguay, Díaz and most of his crew are killed by the Charrúa people shortly after their arrival in January.


text: Henry Cornelius Agrippa returns to Northern Italy.


text: The Ottomans conquer the last beyliks of Anatolia, the Beylik of Dulkadir and the Ramadanid Emirate.


text: The Portuguese are the first Europeans to land in Timor island, as the first settlers arrive to the north coast of Madeira Island, there establishing Saint George.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – François, is crowned King of France in the Cathedral of Reims, with his wife Claude, daughter of the late King Louis XII, crowned as Queen consort.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – George of Kratovo, a silversmith in Serbia, becomes a martyr to the Christian faith as he is burned to death on a pyre for refusing to convert to Islam.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Dukaginzade Ahmed Pasha, who was appointed as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire less than three months earlier, is executed by order of the Sultan Selim I, and is replaced by his predecessor, Hersekzade Ahmed Pasha.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Pope Leo X issues a papal bull, at the suggestion of the German cardinal Albert of Brandenburg, providing for a special indulgence on worshipers in four Roman Catholic dioceses in order to pay for construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, with half to be paid to Albert for services.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Thomas Wolsey is invested as a Roman Catholic Cardinal.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – King Francis I of France, victorious in the battle of Marignano in Italy and the new ruler of Milan, begins four days of meetings in Bologna with Pope Leo X. King Francis agrees to ensure the Pope's authority over the Catholic Church in France, and Leo promises to support Francis' claim to the throne of Naples.


section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: Cardinal Thomas Wolsey orders construction to begin on what is to become Henry VIII's future summer residence Hampton Court Palace.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – "Ulysses", the first known rhinoceros in Europe, arrives at Lisbon in Portugal after being brought by ship from India.


date: September 8

section: Health & Medicine

text: September 8– Lopo Soares de Albergaria becomes the new Viceroy of Portuguese India as Afonso de Albuquerque resigns because of health problems.


section: Crime & Justice

text: March 31 – Multiple acts of the English parliament are given royal assent by King Henry VIII, including the Deepening River at Canterbury Act 1514, the Thames Watermen Act 1514, and the Felons and Murderers Act 1514.


date: March 3

text: March 3 - Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII of England and widow of King Louis XII of France, is secretly married to the Duke of Suffolk in the presence of the new King of France, Francois.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, are officially married at Greenwich (near London).


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Manchester Grammar School is endowed by Hugh Oldham, the first free grammar school in England.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – At the First Congress of Vienna, a double wedding takes place to cement agreements. Louis, only son of King Vladislaus II of Hungary, marries Mary of Austria, granddaughter of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor; and Mary's brother, Archduke Ferdinand, marries Vladislaus' daughter, Anna.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Isabella of Austria is crowned as Queen consort of Denmark and Norway after her marriage to King Christian II is ratified.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Johann Weyer, Dutch physician (d. 1588)


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Frederick III, Elector Palatine, ruler from the house of Wittelsbach (d. 1576)


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Valerius Cordus, German physician, botanist and author (d. 1544)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Injong of Joseon, 12th king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (d. 1545)


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Teresa of Ávila, Spanish Carmelite nun, poet and saint (d. 1582)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis, Scottish politician and judge (d. 1558)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Anne Parr, Countess of Pembroke, English countess (d. 1552)


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Philip Neri, Italian Roman Catholic saint (d. 1595)


text: September 8 – Alfonso Salmeron, Spanish biblical scholar and early Jesuit (d. 1585)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Anne of Cleves, Fourth Queen of Henry VIII (d. 1557)


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Infante Duarte, Duke of Guimarães, son of King Manuel I of Portugal (d. 1540)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald Douglas (d. 1578)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Mary of Bourbon, daughter of Charles, Duke of Vendôme (d. 1538)


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Mary of Guise, queen of James V and regent of Scotland (d. 1560)


text: 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.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Aldus Manutius, Venetian printer (b. c. 1449)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – In Italy, Costanzo II Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, is mortally wounded by a gunshot from an arquebus rifle while traveling with Maximilian Sforza, Duke of Milan. He dies a little more than a month later, on April 14.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Queen Janggyeong, Korean royal consort (b. 1491)


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Mikołaj Kamieniecki, Polish nobleman (szlachcic) and first Great Hetman of the Crown (b. 1460)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Mehmed I Giray becomes the new ruler of the Tatar Crimean Khanate (in what is now Russian-occupied Ukraine) upon the death of his father, Meñli I Giray.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Alaüddevle Bozkurt, Bey of Anatolian Dulkadir


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Barbara of Brandenburg, Bohemian queen (b. 1464)


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Joseph Volotsky, caesaropapist ideologist of the Russian Orthodox Church


date: October 2

text: October 2 – In India, Suja Rathore of Marwar dies after ruling Marawar for 23 years, and two of his grandsons, Biram Singh Rathore and Rao Ganga, compete for the throne.


date: October

text: October – Bartolomeo d'Alviano, Venetian general (b. 1455)


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Mariotto Albertinelli, Italian painter (b. 1474)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and statesman (b. 1453)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Alexander Stewart, Duke of Ross, Scottish prince (b. 1514)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Sir Edward Poynings becomes England's ambassador to Spain a second time and meets with King Carlos I to negotiate a treaty.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – In his capacity as Lord of Ireland, Henry VIII opens the first of six assemblies of parliament during his reign of the Parliament of Ireland at Dublin. The parliament holds three sessions, ending on October 2, when it is dismissed.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – England, represented by Ambassador Poynings and Spain's King Carlos I conclude a treaty of alliance.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – King James V of Scotland opens the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – John V, Count of Nassau-Siegen dies in Siegen, now in Germany, leaving his realm to be divided by his two sons. The transition is smooth because of a 1509 agreement between Henry III of Nassau-Breda and William I of Nassau-Dillenburg. William receives all of John V's possessions in Germany, while Henry inherits those in the Low Countries.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – The Treaty of Noyon is signed. King François I of France recognizes Charles I of Spain's claim to Naples, and Charles recognizes Francis's claim to Milan. The treaty also promised Louise of France to Charles.


date: November 29

text: 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.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Treaty of Brussels: Peace is declared between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.


text: Leonardo da Vinci accepts Francis I's invitation to France.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Selim I of the Ottoman Empire captures the city of Malatya (located in what is now southeastern Turkey) as the first conquest in his war against the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and then proceeds to invade Syria.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17): The Ottoman Sultan Selim I defeats the Mamluk forces commanded by the sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri in the Battle of Marj Dabiq, bringing all of the Middle East. The Mamluk Sultan, Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri, is killed while leading his troops in the battle, and Prime Minister Al-Ashraf Tuman Bay, who was left in charge in Cairo by the Sultan Qansuh, becomes the Sultan of Egypt, the last remaining part of the Mamluk Sultanate.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17): Ottoman forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mamluks in the Battle of Yaunis Khan near Gaza.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Juan Díaz de Solís arrives in what is now Punta del Este in Uruguay, where he becomes the first European to sail into the Río de la Plata (in future Argentina). Díaz and nine of his men are attacked and killed by the local Charrúa people shortly after their arrival. although there was likely an expedition earlier in 1511-1512 by João de Lisboa and Estevão de Fróis.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Based in Kamaran, an island in the Red Sea, the Mamluk Egyptian Admiral Selman Reis leads of fleet 19 ships in an unsuccessful attempt to take Yemen and Aden.


text: Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of the wife of Christopher Columbus, commands an expedition from Portuguese Malacca to land on the shores of mainland southern China, and trade with Chinese merchants at Guangzhou, during the Ming Dynasty.


text: Portuguese soldier Fernão Lopes becomes the first known permanent inhabitant of Saint Helena.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – After two months in Bologna, part of the Papal States in Italy, Pope Leo X concludes two months of negotiation with King François I of France. Their talks result in the abrogation of the French Pragmatic Sanction, and the conclusion of a new Concordat between the Papacy and France.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Desiderius Erasmus publishes a new Greek edition of the New Testament, Novum Instrumentum omne, in Basel.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – King Francis I of France and Pope Leo X sign the Concordat of Bologna, agreeing on the relationship between church and state in France.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – German theologian Andreas Karlstadt completes his series of 151 theses, an attack against corruption in the Roman Catholic Church.


text: Fuggerei is established in Augsburg (Bavaria), as the world's oldest social housing complex still in use.


text: The fall of the Nantan meteorite is possibly observed near the city of Nantan, Nandan County, Guangxi (China).


date: March 29

text: March 29 – The Venetian Ghetto is instituted in the Republic of Venice.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – The Reinheitsgebot is instituted in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, regulating the purity of beer permissible for sale.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – In what is now Vietnam, Le Tuong Duc, Emperor of Dai Viet, since 1509, is murdered at his palace at Thang Long (now in Hanoi) by his bodyguards. Le Tuong Duc's 12-year-old nephew, Le Chieu Tong, is installed as the new Emperor by the conspirators.


date: May 6

section: Climate & Environment

text: May 6 – A Category IX earthquake strikes Ragusa in the Republic of Ragusa.


text: Gillingham School is founded, the oldest in Dorset, England.


text: c. December – Thomas More's most famous work, Utopia, completed this year, is published in Leuven (in Latin).


text: The predecessor of the Royal Mail, known as the Master of the Posts, is established by Henry VIII of England.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Margaret Leijonhufvud, queen of Gustav Vasa of Sweden (d. 1551)


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Herluf Trolle, Danish admiral (d. 1565)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Girolamo Zanchi, Italian theologian (d. 1590)


text: February 18 – Queen Mary I of England, daughter of King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon (d. 1558)


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Alqas Mirza, Safavid prince (d. 1550)


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Conrad Gessner, Swiss naturalist (d. 1565)


text: April 23 – Georg Fabricius, Protestant German poet (d. 1571)


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy, English courtier and patron of learning (d. 1544)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Emilie of Saxony, German nobleman (d. 1591)


date: July 28

text: July 28 – William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, German nobleman (d. 1592)


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Hieronymus Wolf, German historian (d. 1580)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Francis I, Duke of Nevers (d. 1561)


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Ruy Gómez de Silva, Portuguese noble (d. 1573)


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Giuseppe Leggiadri Gallani, Italian poet and dramatist (d. 1590)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Juan Díaz de Solís, Spanish navigator and explorer (b. 1470)


date: January 23

text: 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.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Anthony of Supraśl, Polish Orthodox priest and saint


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, ruler of Florence (b. 1449)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – John Yonge, English diplomat (b. 1467)


date: June 14

text: June 14 – King John III of Navarre (b. 1469)


text: June 14 – In Spain, King John III of Navarre dies after a reign of 32 years and is succeeded by his widow, Queen Catherine.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Alice FitzHugh, English heir (b. 1448)


date: July 30

text: July 30 – John V, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German count (b. 1455)


date: August 9

text: August 9 (bur.) – Hieronymus Bosch, Dutch painter (b. 1450)


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri, Mamluk sultan (b. c. 1441)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Louis Malet de Graville, Admiral of France, politician, military leader and art patron (b. c. 1440).


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Giovanni Bellini, Venetian painter (b. 1430)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Johannes Trithemius, German scholar and cryptographer (b. 1462)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Battle of Ridaniya: The Ottoman army of sultan Selim I defeats the Mamluk army in Egypt, commanded by king Tuman Bay II.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – The Ottoman Sultan Selim I makes a triumphant entry into Cairo after his Janissaries have cleared the area of the Mamluk defenders.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – More than two months after fleeing Cairo and attempting a counterattack against the Ottomans, Tuman Bay II is captured alive with many of his Mamluk officers. Selim initially plans to exile Tuman Bey and other former Mamluk nobles to Constantinople, but changes his mind.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Lopo Soares de Albergaria of Portugal begins the siege of Jeddah (now part of Saudi Arabia), attempting to invade, but is unable to land because of artillery fire from the Ottoman and Mamluk defenders. Bad weather prevents the Portuguese fleet of 15 ships from navigating for the next two weeks.


date: April 15

text: 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.


text: April 25 – After 13 days of continuous storms and being unable to do more than destroy one Jeddah ship (while losing two of its own), the Portuguese fleet abandon its planned invasion of the Arabian peninsula.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Anticipating a riot in London, the Lord Mayor announces at 8:30 in the evening that a curfew will begin within 30 minutes, at 9:00. An attempt by a local alderman, John Mundy, to enforce the curfew triggers the attack by a mob hours later.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Evil May Day: Xenophobic riots break out in London as English citizens attack foreigners, including Flemish shoemakers and French royal courtiers. The Duke of Norfolk leads a private army of 1,300 men to put down the rioting.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Pier Gerlofs Donia, leader of a rebellion of the Frisians minority of the Netherlands, leads 4,000 of his Arumer Zwarte Hoop soldiers on an attack against the Dutch inhabitants of Medemblik, then moves on to a massacre of the residents of the village of Asperen.


text: Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy conquers Ryazan.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a chronicler who documents the conquest of Mexico, sets out with the Hernández de Córdoba expedition from Jaruco. They arrive at Cape Catoche twenty-one days later, and are met with hostility by the natives. Henry's 25-year-old sister Anne of Navarre serves as the regent until 1518, when Henry reaches the age of majority.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The first intentional landing by Europeans on the coast of Mexico takes place as the Cordoba Expedition arrives at Cabo Catoche on the Yucatán Peninsula, now in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The Spaniards are attacked by the Mayans after being invited to visit, and a battle breaks out with 13 Spaniards ambushed and 15 Mayans killed.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – A fleet of eight ships of the navy of Portugal, commanded by Fernão Pires de Andrade and dispatched from Goa by Portuguese India's Governor Lopo Soares de Albergaria on orders of King Manuel I, arrives in China at Canton (now Guangzhou) and brings the Ambassador Tomé Pires and his diplomatic corps to start trade and foreign relations.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Portuguese merchant Fernão Pires de Andrade meets Ming Dynasty Chinese officials through an interpreter, at the Pearl River estuary and lands, at what is now in the jurisdiction of Hong Kong. Although the first European trade expeditions to China took place in 1513 and 1516 by Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello, respectively, Andrade's mission is the first official diplomatic mission of a European power to China, commissioned by a ruler of Europe (Manuel I of Portugal).


date: January 30

text: 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.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The Fifth Council of the Lateran ends after almost five years of conferences on discussing reforms within the Roman Catholic Church.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Tuman Bey II, the former King of Egypt, is executed along with his aides, bringing an end to the Abbasid dynasty.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – On Easter Tuesday, Dr. Bell, a preacher standing at St Paul's Cross in front of London's Old St Paul's Cathedral, delivers an inflammatory sermon at the instigation of a local broker, John Lincoln and accuses foreign immigrants of stealing jobs from English workers and taking away bread from "poor fatherless children."


date: July 1

text: July 1 – In an unprecedented move, Pope Leo X increases the number of Roman Catholic cardinals, naming 31 people to the cardinalate including the Dutch-born Adriaan van Utrecht, bishop of Tortosa, who will later become Pope Adrian VI.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Yunus Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman Governor of Egypt after leading the Egyptian conquest, is fired by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I and then executed by decapitation.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The coronation of Queen Consort Claude of France, wife of King Francis I, takes place at the Basilica of St Denis with Cardinal Philippe de Luxembourg performing the ceremony.


date: October 31

text: 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.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Bona Sforza of Italy, daughter of the late Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, marries King Sigismund of Poland by proxy at Naples, then begins a three month journey to Kraków to assume the throne.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, English duke (d. 1554)


text: January 30 – Joannes Aurifaber Vratislaviensis, German theologian (d. 1568)


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian composer (d. 1590)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Gotthard Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia (d. 1587)


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Carlo Carafa, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1561)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Emperor Ōgimachi, Japanese emperor (d. 1593)


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Rembert Dodoens, Flemish botanist (d. 1585)


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Odet de Coligny, French cardinal and Protestant (d. 1571)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, English duchess (d. 1559)


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Jacques Pelletier du Mans, French mathematician (d. 1582)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, statesman, French Catholic cardinal (d. 1586)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Francisco de Holanda, Portuguese artist (d. 1585)


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Amalia of Cleves, German princess and writer (d. 1586)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Manuel da Nóbrega, Spanish Catholic priest (d. 1570)


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Francesco Raibolini, Italian painter (b. c. 1450)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Joanna of Aragon, Queen of Naples (b. 1454)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Hadım Sinan Pasha, Ottoman grand vizier (b. 1459)


date: February 12

text: February 12 – At the age of 13, Henry II becomes the King of Navarre, by then limited to the part of the Iberian peninsula north of the Pyrennes, upon the death of his mother, Queen Catherine in the capital, Pamplona.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Maria of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (b. 1482)


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Heinrich Isaac, Flemish composer (b. c. 1450)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Tuman bay II, last Mamluk sultan of Egypt (b. c. 1476)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – In what is now Romania, Stephen IV becomes the new Prince of Moldavia at Suceava upon the death of his father, Bogdan III the One-Eyed.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Luca Pacioli, Mathematician, collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci and 'father of accounting' (b. c. 1447)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Dyveke Sigbritsdatter, mistress of Christian II of Denmark (b. 1490)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Fra Bartolomeo, Italian artist (b. 1472)


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Wiguleus Fröschl of Marzoll, Bishop of Passau (1500–1517) (b. 1445)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, Spanish Catholic cardinal and statesman (b. 1436)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – In India, Ibrahim Khan Lodi becomes the new Sultan of Delhi upon the death of his father, Sikandar Khan Lodi. Ibrahim will reign until 1526, when the Sultanate of Delhi is conquered by the Afghan Mughal king, Babur.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Diogo Lopes de Sequeira takes office as the new Governor of Portuguese India, replacing Lopo Soares de Albergaria.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Treaty of London temporarily ensures peace in Western Europe.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – The Deccan sultanates in southern India of Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda formally declare their independence from the Bahmani Sultanate.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Battle of Brännkyrka: The Kalmar Union, led by King Christian II of Denmark, is defeated by the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Younger.


text: The Rajput Mewar Kingdom under Rana Sanga achieves a major victory over Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – King Charles of Spain gives his approval for the Magellan expedition, initially for the purpose of finding a westward route from Spain to the "Spice Islands" (now the Maluku Islands in Indonesia), to avoid the more frequently-used eastward route around Africa. Veteran seaman Ferdinand Magellan and navigator Rui Faleiro, both of Portugal, had turned to Spain to fund the expedition after being refused by King Manuel of Portugal. The voyage proves to be further than expected and becomes the first to sail around the world.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Spanish conquistador Juan de Grijalva embarks from Cuba on a mission to explore and conquer Mexico, departing from Matanzas with four ships and 170 people.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – Grijalva and his crew become the first Europeans to find Cozumel in Mexico.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – A fleet of four Portuguese ships, commanded by João da Silveira from Portuguese India, arrived in Chittagong (now part of Bangladesh, but at the time part of the Sultanate of Bengal), reputed to be the wealthiest region in the Indian subcontinent.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – The Girjalva expedition brings the first Europeans to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, arriving at what is now the Tabasco state.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – King Charles of Spain issues a charter authorizing the transportation of slaves directly from Africa to the Spanish Americas. His decision changes the nature and scale of the transatlantic slave trade.


date: November 13

text: 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.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Piri Mehmed Pasha is appointed as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by the Sultan Selim I, replacing Yunus Pasha, who was executed four months earlier on September 13.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – In Valladolid in Spain, Frenchman Jean Sauvage, Chancellor of Burgundy is appointed by Spain's Prince Charles as the Chief Judge of the Cortes of Valladolid. The choice of a foreigner is resented by the members of the court and Sauvage is replaced at the Cortes by the Spanish Bishop Pedro Ruiz de la Mota.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – The Dutch priest Erasmus of Rotterdam sends the new Ninety-five Theses of Martin Luther to England, delivering the Protestant manifesto to Sir Thomas More.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – The widowed Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, marries Milanese noblewoman Bona Sforza in Wawel Cathedral and she is crowned as Queen consort of Poland.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – At the request of Pope Leo X of the Roman Catholic Church, Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation, writes a lengthy summary of his theology.


text: The remnants of The Abbasid Caliphate (stationed in Egypt under the Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) hands over the title of caliph to the Ottoman Empire that had conquered Constantinople in 1453, 65 years earlier.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Construction of the Manchester Grammar School is completed in England. The total cost of the project was £218 13s 5d.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – A transit of Venus occurs, but a transit will not be observed or recorded until 120 years later, on December 4, 1639.


text: Henricus Grammateus publishes Ayn neu Kunstlich Buech in Vienna, containing the earliest printed use of plus and minus signs for arithmetic.


text: Johann Froben publishes Erasmus's work Colloquies, which was unauthorized, and it took until 1519 that an authorized version would be published.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Dancing plague of 1518: A case of dancing mania breaks out in Strasbourg as a woman identified as "Frau Troffea" begins constant dancing that lasts for six days, after which fellow residents begin to join in. According to some historians, several people die from constant dancing.


text: A swarm of stinging ants devastates crops on Hispaniola.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Martin Luther makes the first public defense of his views at a gathering of the Roman Catholic order of Augustinians, at what becomes known as the Heidelberg Disputation at a lecture hall at Heidelberg in the Electoral Palatinate in Germany. While there, he is challenged to a theological debate by Johann Eck, the German leader of the anti-Reformation movement.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – In Venice, Renaissance artist Tiziano Vecellio, known as "Titian", unveils his painting Assumption of the Virgin, to the public.


text: February 2 – Godfried van Mierlo, Dutch Dominican friar and bishop (d. 1587)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Johann Funck, German theologian (d. 1566)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Antonín Brus of Mohelnice, Moravian Catholic archbishop (d. 1580)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – John of Denmark, Danish prince (d. 1532)


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Francis III of Brittany, Duke of Brittany (d. 1536)


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Sidonie of Saxony, Duchess of Brunswick-Calenberg (d. 1575)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – King Antoine of Navarre, father of Henry IV of France (d. 1562)


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Li Shizhen, Chinese physician, pharmacologist and mineralogist (d. 1593)


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Conrad Lycosthenes, Alsatian humanist and encyclopedist (d. 1561)


date: September

text: September/October – Tintoretto, Italian painter (d. 1594)


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Guido Ascanio Sforza di Santa Fiora, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1564)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Clara of Saxe-Lauenburg, Princess of Saxe-Lauenburg and Duchess of Brunswick-Gifhorn by marriage (d. 1576)


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Ernest III, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (d. 1567)


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Enrique de Borja y Aragón, Spanish noble of the House of Borgia (d. 1540)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Sir John Ernley is selected as the new Chief Justice of the Common Pleas of England by King King Henry VIII to replace the late Robert Rede, who died on January 8. Emley. He is replaced as Attorney General for England and Wales by John FitzJames.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Jean IV de Rieux, Breton noble and Marshal (b. 1447)


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Elisabeth of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach, German margravine (b. 1494)


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Sibylle of Baden, Countess consort of Hanau-Lichtenberg (b. 1485)


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Loyset Compère, French composer (b. c. 1445)


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Joan of Naples, queen consort of Naples (b. 1478)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Pierre de La Rue, Flemish composer (b. c. 1452)


text: November 20 – Marmaduke Constable, English soldier (b. c. 1455)


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Vannozza dei Cattanei, mistress of Pope Alexander VI (b. 1442)


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, Italian military commander (b. c. 1440)


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Mahmood Shah Bahmani II, sultan of the Bahmani Sultanate (b. c. 1470)


date: December

text: December – Moxammat Amin of Kazan, khan of Kazan (b. c. 1469)


text: Kabir, Indian mystic (b. 1440)


text: Oruç Reis, Ottoman corsair, brother of Hayreddin Barbarossa


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Because of the large population of Jews included converts to Christianity ("New Christians") in the colony of Portuguese India at Goa, King Manuel I of Portugal announces that there will be no further appointment of New Christians to government offices, but affirms that those already in office are not to be dismissed


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Panama City is founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias Dávila.


text: July 10 – The Prince of Ning rebellion begins, after Zhu Chenhao declares the Ming dynasty's Zhengde Emperor a usurper, and leads his army north in an attempt to capture Nanjing.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Ming Dynasty Chinese philosopher and general Wang Yangming, governor of Jiangxi, defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion. Wang has expressed the intention of using fo–lang–ji cannons in suppressing the rebellion, probably the earliest reference in China to the breech-loading Frankish culverin.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Hernán Cortés and his men, accompanied by 3,000 Tlaxcalans, enter Cholula.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, and appears at the court of Aztec ruler Moctezuma II.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – At Toruń, the members of the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland vote to approve a war against the Teutonic Knights and to assess new taxes to recruit mercenary troops.


text: The Mexican Indian Wars begin.


text: The first civil revolt in Anatolia takes place, led by Alevi preacher Celâl.


date: February 10

text: 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.


date: April 21

text: April 21 (Maundy Thursday) – Hernán Cortés reaches San Juan de Ulúa, and sets foot the next day (Good Friday) on the beach of modern-day Veracruz.


date: July 26

text: 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.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – The Magellan expedition departs from Seville in Spain.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Ferdinand Magellan departs from Spain with a fleet of five ships and a crew of 270 men, to sail westbound to the Spice Islands.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The Magellan expedition reaches the South American coast.


text: Spanish conquistador and founder of Panama City, Gaspar de Espinosa, sails up the Pacific coast from Panama to Nicaragua, landing at the Gulf of Nicoya.


text: Havana moves from the southern to the northern part of Cuba.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Ulrich Zwingli preaches for the first time, as people's priest of the Great Minister in Zurich.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – King Carlos I of Spain is elected as the new Holy Roman Emperor and takes the regnal name of Charles V. He will reign until 1556).


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Martin Luther joins the debate regarding papal authority, against Johann Eck at Leipzig.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Hernán Cortés and his conquistadores land in Mexico.


text: Central Mexico Amerindians' population reaches 25.3 million.


text: A large pandemic spreads from the Greater Antilles into Central America, and perhaps as far as Peru in South America. This widespread epidemic kills off much of the indigenous populations in these areas (the first widely documented epidemic in the New World).


text: The first recorded fatal accident involving a gun in England is recorded at Welton, East Riding of Yorkshire.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – The Leipzig Debate begins at the Pleissenburg lecture hall in the German city of Leipzig in Saxony, as Martin Luther defends his ideas on the Protestant Reformation against challenges by Johann Eck, the German leader of the anti-Reformation movement. While there, he is challenged to a theological debate by Johann Eck, the German leader of the anti-Reformation movement. The debate lasts until July 15 and gains new followers to Luther's theology.


text: St. Olaf's Church, Tallinn is completed in Estonia.


text: January 1 – Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, Spanish colonial administrator (d. 1593)


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Isabella Jagiellon, queen consort of Hungary (d. 1559)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, first Spanish Governor of Florida (d. 1574)


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Froben Christoph of Zimmern, author of the Zimmern Chronicle (d. 1566)


text: March 4 – Hindal Mirza, Mughal Emperor (d. 1551)


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Catherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, English noblewoman (d. 1580)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (d. 1603)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, illegitimate son of King Henry VIII of England (d. 1536)


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Johannes Goropius Becanus, Dutch physician, linguist and humanist (d. 1572)


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Theodore Beza, French theologian (d. 1605)


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Pope Innocent IX (d. 1591)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Francis, Count of Enghien, French military leader (d. 1546)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Marie of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, Princess of Brandenburg-Kulmbach and by marriage Electress Palatine (d. 1567)


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Johannes Crato von Krafftheim, German humanist and physician (d. 1585)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer (b. 1475)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Lorenz von Bibra, Prince-Bishop of the Bishopric of Würzburg (b. 1459)


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (b. 1466)


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Henry, Count of Württemberg-Montbéliard (1473–1482) (b. 1448)


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Sibylle of Bavaria, Electress Palatine consort (b. 1489)


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Giulio de' Medici, who will later become Pope Clement VII becomes the Duke of the Florentine Republic upon the death of his father, Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino.


text: May 4 – Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (b. 1492)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Artus Gouffier, Lord of Boissy, French nobleman and politician (b. 1475)


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Philippe de Luxembourg, French Catholic cardinal (b. 1445)


text: June 24 – Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara (b. 1480)


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Zhu Youyuan, Ming dynasty politician (b. 1476)


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Johann Tetzel, German opponent of the Reformation (b. 1465)


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Philibert Berthelier, Swiss patriot (b. c. 1465)


date: September

text: September – John Colet, English churchman and educator (b. 1467)


text: The Chinese domination of the Tarim Basin weakens.

source_section: Events › By place › Asia


text: Bao Xin, Chinese general and warlord (d. 192)


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Markianos, patriarch of Alexandria


text: Yan Ming, Chinese empress of the Han Dynasty


text: February 6 – The Swabian League sells the Duchy of Württemberg to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, for 220,000 florins and payment of the Duchy's debt of 1,100,000 Goldgulden


date: May 7

text: May 7 – The semi-independent Duchy of Mecklenburg, in what is now Germany, is partitioned into two duchies, Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Suleiman I succeeds his father Selim I as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He is officially crowned on September 30 and will rule until 1566.


text: Duarte Barbosa returns to Cananor.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes, at Lake Åsunden in Sweden. The Swedish regent Sten Sture the Younger is mortally wounded in the Battle of Bogesund. He is rushed towards Stockholm, in order to lead the fight against the Danes from there.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Juan de Cartagena, formerly captain of the largest ship on the Magellan expedition, San Antonio, escapes captivity from the Victoria and begins a mutiny against Ferdinand Magellan. He is joined by Gaspar de Quesada, captain of the Concepción, and Luis de Mendoza, captain of the Victoria. On the first day of the rebellion, under the pretense of delivering Magellan's letter of surrender to the Victoria, several crew from the Magellan's flagship Trinidad stab Mendoza to death, and the rest of the Victoria crew seizes the mutineers.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – The crew of the San Antonio surrenders to Magellan after being unable to stop drifting in strong winds and being fired at by a cannon, and Gaspar de Quesada surrenders the Concepcion. Four days later, Quesada is beheaded along with other mutineers, while Cartagena is left on an island by Magellan in August.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Revolt of the Comuneros: Citizens of Toledo, Castile opposed to the rule of the Flemish-born Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, rise up when the royal government attempts to unseat radical city councilors.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The Massacre in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan takes place in Mexico after the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II is allowed by the Deputy Governor of New Spain, Pedro de Alvarado, to host Aztec nobles at the Great Temple at Tenochtitlan to celebrate the Feat of Toxcatl in honor of the god Tezcatlipoca. Alvarado uses the opportunity to kill more than 600 Aztec warriors and commanders, but spares Moctezuma.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Revolt of the Comuneros: Segovia is blockaded.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Moctezuma II, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, is assassinated by other Aztec leaders as he attempts to address his people. His brother Cuitláhuac rises to the throne.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Otumba near Lake Texcaco: The Spaniards defeat the Aztecs.


text: August 11 – Ferdinand Magellan maroons the two surviving people who had attempted a mutiny against him, Captain Juan de Cartagena and Father Pedro Sánchez de la Reina, placing them on an island off of the coast of Argentina and providing them with a small supply of ship's biscuits and drinking water. Cartagena and Sanchez are never heard from again.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – The French warrior René of Savoy departs from Marseille on his flagship, Sainte Marie de Bonaventure on a four-month mission to protect the Knights Hospitaller against an attack by the Ottoman Turks.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Christian II of Denmark makes his triumphant entry into Stockholm, which had surrendered to him a few days earlier. Sten Sture's widow Christina Gyllenstierna, who has led the fight after Sten's death, and all other persons in the resistance against the Danes, are granted amnesty and are pardoned for their involvement in the resistance.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – At the end of the third day of Christian's coronation feast, several leading figures of the Swedish resistance against the Danish invasion are imprisoned, and tried for high treason.


date: November 9

text: November 9– Stockholm Bloodbath: The execution of 82 Swedish noblemen and clergymen, having been sentenced to death for their involvement in the Swedish resistance against the Danish invasion, is completed after two days of beheading.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The Magellan expedition, led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães), pauses in its attempt to sail around the world, stopping at Puerto San Julian on the lower east coast of what is now Patagonia in Argentina. His fleet consists of Magellan's flagship, Trinidad, and four other vessels, Concepción, Victoria, San Antonio and Santiago.


text: May 22 – The Magellan expedition loses its first ship as the caravel Santiago is wrecked in a storm while sailing inland on Argentina's Santa Cruz River


date: August 21

text: August 21 – After wintering in Patagonia in Argentina, the Magellan expedition resumes its attempt to become the first crew to sail around the world.


date: October 21

text: October 21 (Feast of St. Ursula) – The islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon are discovered by Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes, off Newfoundland. He names them Islands of the 11,000 Virgins, in honour of Saint Ursula.


text: October 21 – The four remaining ships of the Magellan expedition and their crews confirm that they have found the passage that will be named the Strait of Magellan, the passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The crew of the San Antonio, led by Estêvão Gomes elects not to sail into strait and begins journeying back to Spain.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – After navigating through the strait at the southern end of South America, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean. Magellan thankful to find a peaceful sea after the dangerous trip through the strait, names the body of water "El Mar Pacifico" because of its pacifying waters. becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific (the strait is later named the Strait of Magellan).


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Pope Leo X issues the bull Exsurge Domine (Arise O Lord), threatening Martin Luther with excommunication, if he does not recant his position on indulgences and other Catholic doctrines.


date: August

text: August – Martin Luther publishes To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Martin Luther burns a copy of The Book of Canon Law (see Canon Law), and his copy of the Papal bull Exsurge Domine.


text: The Franciscan friar Matteo Bassi is inspired to return to the primitive life of solitude and penance, as practiced by St. Francis, giving rise to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.


text: King Manuel I creates the public mail service of Portugal, the Correio Público.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Cuauhtémoc becomes the last Aztec Emperor after the death from smallpox of the Emperor Cuitláhuac, who reigned for only 80 days.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk becomes England's new Lord Deputy of Ireland


date: June 7

text: June 7 – King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France meet at the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Charles V is crowned King of Germany in Aachen.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Christian II is crowned king of Sweden in Nikolai Church. The coronation is followed by a three-day feast in Stockholm.


text: Aleksandra Lisowska (Roxelana) is given as a gift to Suleiman I on the occasion of his accession to the throne.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Peder Oxe, Danish finance minister (d. 1575)


date: January 30

text: January 30 – William More, English courtier (d. 1600)


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Frederick III of Legnica, Duke of Legnica (d. 1570)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Matthias Flacius, Croatian Protestant reformer (d. 1575)


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Nicolás Factor, Spanish artist (d. 1583)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Gonzalo II Fernández de Córdoba, Governor of the Duchy of Milan (d. 1578)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Madeleine of Valois, queen of James V of Scotland (d. 1537)


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Bartholomäus Sastrow, German official (d. 1603)


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Heinrich Sudermann, German politician (d. 1591)


date: September 13

text: September 13 – William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English statesman, chief advisor to Queen Elizabeth I (d. 1598)


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Alessandro Farnese, Italian cardinal (d. 1589)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Dorothea of Denmark, Electress Palatine, Princess of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (d. 1580)


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Barbara Radziwiłł, queen of Poland (d. 1551)


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Martha Leijonhufvud, politically active Swedish noble (d. 1584)


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Cho Kwangjo, Korean philosopher (b. 1482)


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Swedish regent Sten Sture dies from his wounds leaving a vacancy on the throne that allows King Christian II of Denmark to conquer Sweden within eight months.


text: February 3 – Sten Sture the Younger, Viceroy of Sweden (b. 1493)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Alfonsina de' Medici, née Orsini, Regent of Florence (b. 1472)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (b. 1483)


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Jan Lubrański, Polish bishop (b. 1456)


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Hosokawa Sumimoto, Japanese samurai commander (b. 1489)


text: June 29 – Moctezuma II, 9th Tlatoani (emperor) of the Aztecs, assassinated or possibly killed in a riot, 1502-1520 (b. 1466)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – La Noche Triste (Night of Sorrow): The forces of Cuitláhuac, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, gain a major victory against the forces of conquistador Hernán Cortés. This results in the death of about 400 conquistadors, and some 2,000 of their Native American allies. However, Cortés and the most skilled of his men manage to escape and later regroup.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Kunigunde of Austria, Archduchess of Austria (b. 1465)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Ippolito d'Este, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1479)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Selim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1470)


date: October

text: October – Cuitláhuac, 10th Tlatoani (emperor) of the Aztecs, 1520, brother of Moctezuma II, smallpox (b. c. 1476)


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Bernardo Dovizi, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1470)


date: July 15

text: July 15 — San Juan Bautista is founded as the new capital of the archipelago of Puerto Rico.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Teodosie becomes the new Voivode of Wallachia, at the capital, Targoviste, now in Romania.


text: September 15 – Gazi Husrev Bey replaces Bali-beg Jahjapašić as the Ottoman Governor of Bosnia.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Suleiman the Magnificent suppresses a revolt by the ruler of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines, in eastern Samar.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Revolt of the Comuneros – Battle of Villalar: Castilian royalists defeat the rebels. Juan López de Padilla, Francisco Maldonado, and Juan Bravo are executed the following day as the leaders of the rebels.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Battle of Mactan: Ferdinand Magellan is killed in the Philippines when he confronts Lapulapu, the chief of the island.


date: April

text: April or May – Battle of Tunmen in Tuen Mun (present-day Hong Kong): The Ming Dynasty navy defeats the Portuguese navy (arguably the first Sino-European battle in world history).


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason in Tower Hill.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – At the Battle of Pampeluna in Spain, and alliance of forces from French and the Kingdom of Navarre forces defeat those of Spain.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Suleiman the Magnificent begins the siege of Belgrade.


date: June 29

text: June 29 or 30 – The oldest surviving dateable document written primarily in the Romanian language: Neacșu's letter, written by a trader from Câmpulung, to Johannes Benkner, the mayor of Brașov, warning that the Ottoman Empire is preparing its troops to cross into Wallachia and Transylvania; the script used is Romanian Cyrillic.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Battle of Esquiroz: French forces under André de Foix, fighting for the exiled King of Navarre Henri d'Albret, are defeated by the Spanish, and forced to abandon their attempt to recover Henri's kingdom.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Fall of Tenochtitlan: Cuauhtémoc surrenders to Cortés, thus incorporating the Aztec Empire into the Spanish Empire and ending the Late Postclassic period in Mesoamerica.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – The Italian War of 1521–1526 breaks out between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Francis I of France as Henry III of Nassau-Breda leads Imperial troops on an invasion of northeastern France.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Belgrade is captured by the Ottoman army of Suleiman the Magnificent.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – In the Italian War, the Holy Roman Empire abandons its siege of the French-controlled city of Parma after 17 days.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The Revolt of the Comuneros, an uprising by citizens of the Kingdom of Castile against the rule of Spain's King Carlos I, ends as the comuneros surrender Toledo.


text: The Grand Duchy of Ryazan is annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow.


text: The Swedish Army was founded by Gustav Vasa.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Ferdinand Magellan makes the first European contact with Guam, most likely landing in Tumon.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther, in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.


date: April 16

text: April 16–18 – Martin Luther is examined before Emperor Charles V and the Diet of Worms, where he refuses to recant his writings and allegedly proclaims, "Here I stand", regarding his belief in the Bible alone, as the standard of Christian doctrine.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Spanish–German–Papal forces under Prospero Colonna force French Marshal Odet de Lautrec to abandon Milan.


text: Jacopo Berengario da Carpi publishes Commentaria cum amplissimus additionibus super anatomiam Mundini in Bologna, including observation of the vermiform appendix.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, opens the Diet of Worms in Worms, Germany.


text: April 7 – Martin Luther preaches an inflammatory sermon to students at Erfurt, while on his way to Worms.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw and banning his literature.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – The Zwickau prophets arrive in Wittenberg, disturbing the peace and spreading the idea of rejecting infant baptism.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – The Nydala Abbey Bloodbath takes place at Nydala Abbey, Sweden; the abbot and many monks are murdered by Danes.


text: March 6 – Martin Luther is summoned to appear before the Diet of Worms.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Martin Luther leaves Worms and disappears for around a year – he is rumored to be murdered, but is actually in hiding at the Wartburg castle.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The First Mass in the Philippines is held.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Maurice, Elector of Saxony (d. 1553)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Francesco Laparelli, Italian architect (d. 1570)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Johann Marbach, German theologian (d. 1581)


date: April 18

text: April 18 – François de Coligny d'Andelot, French general (d. 1569)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (d. 1597)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – John Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, (d. 1553)


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Maria of Portugal, Duchess of Viseu, daughter of King Manuel I (d. 1577)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev (d. 1580)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Pope Urban VII (d. 1590)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Lodovico Guicciardini, Italian historian (d. 1589)


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Frederick Magnus I, Count of Solms-Laubach, (d. 1561)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Edmund Sheffield, 1st Baron Sheffield, English baron (d. 1549)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Marcantonio Maffei, Italian Catholic archbishop and cardinal (d. 1583)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Pope Sixtus V (d. 1590)


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Cardinal William de Croÿ (b. 1497)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – John II, Duke of Cleves (b. 1458)


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Suzanne, Duchess of Bourbon (b. 1491)


text: May 10 – Sebastian Brant, German humanist and satirist (b. 1457)


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (executed) (b. 1478)


date: May 27

text: May 27 – After the death of his cousin, Prince Zhu Houcong became the new Ming dynasty Emperor of China, taking the imperial name of the Emperor Jiajing<.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Tamás Bakócz, Hungarian Catholic cardinal and statesman (b. 1442)


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Raffaele Riario, Italian cardinal (b. 1461)


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Josquin des Prez, Flemish composer (b. c. 1450)


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Margaret of Anhalt-Köthen, Princess of Anhalt by birth, Duchess consort of Saxony (b. 1494)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Edward Poynings, Lord Deputy to King Henry VII of England (b. 1459)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Robert Fayrfax, English Renaissance composer (b. 1464)


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Margaret of Lorraine, French Duchess of Alençon, Roman Catholic nun and blessed (b. 1463)


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Domenico Spadafora, Italian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1450)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – The Pact of Brussels is signed between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his younger brother Archduke Ferdinand, guaranteeing Charles's support of Ferdinand to become the King of the Romans.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – In what is now the Karnataka state of India, Waliullah Shah is installed as the new ruler of Bahmani by the Sultan of Bidar, Amir Barid I.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – At Coyoacán in Mexico (at the time, the colony of New Spain) Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés sends his third report to the Emperor Carlos V, describing the events of the last two years, including the conquest of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire.


text: The Portuguese, allied with King Ilato of the Goratalo kingdom, construct the Otanaha Fortress.


text: The Portuguese ally with the Sultanate of Ternate and begin the construction of Fort Kastela.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – In Castile in Spain, the Revolt of the Comuneros is re-ignited when King Carlos V reneges on a promised amnesty to participants in a 1520 uprising, and threatens to execute revolt leader María Pacheco. Calm is restored by the intervention of Maria de Mendoza, and while many of the rebels are punished, Pacheco is able to escape to Portugal.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – The Viscount of Lautrec, leader of the French Army, spares the Italian residents of Treviglio from his plan of vengeance for their earlier resistance to the French troops, apparently after witnessing a miracle of seeing a fresco of the Virgin Mary shed tears.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – In the Battle of Bicocca, French and Swiss forces under Odet de Lautrec are defeated by the Spanish in their attempt to retake Milan, and are forced to withdraw into Venetian territory.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – The Ottoman Empire's siege of Knin in the Kingdom of Croatia is successful as Mihajlo Vojković surrenders to Gazi Husrev Bey and most of the Croatian inhabitants are allowed to leave. Inhabitants of Bosnia then move in.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – England formally declares war on France and Scotland.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – In Italy, the siege of Genoa, defended by France against the Holy Roman Imperial armies of General Fernando d'Avalos, ends after 10 days as the Imperial troops overrun the city. Since Genoa had refused to surrender, the Imperial troops are permitted to pillage the fallen city.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor visits King Henry VIII of England, and signs the Treaty of Windsor, pledging a joint invasion of France, bringing England into the Italian War of 1521–1526.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Brought on ships across the English Channel, an English fleet and army under the command of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, attacks Brittany and Picardy after landing at Le Dourduff-en-Mer, near Calais, and burns and loots the countryside.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – A counter-attack by local peasants and the French Army defeats the English Army in the first Battle of Morlaix, the day after the English pillage the town of Morlaix and begin loading their treasure on to their ships. When the French Army, commanded by Guy XVI de Laval, arrives, it finds that most of the English soldiers are either sleeping or drunk after having celebrated a conquest, and about 700 English soldiers are massacred.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I begins his siege to expel the Knights of St. John in Rhodes.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Ottoman General Mehmed-Bey of Nikopol enters Târgoviște and takes control of the Principality of Wallachia, now part of Romania, as Radu of Afumați is forced to flee.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The Ottomans finally break into Rhodes, but the Knights continue fierce resistance in the streets.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights in Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually re-settle on Malta, and become known as the Knights of Malta.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Spanish conquistador Gil González Dávila sets out from the gulf of Panama to explore the Pacific coast of Central America. He explores Nicaragua and names Costa Rica when he finds copious quantities of gold in Pacific beaches.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – A group of 18 men, commanded by Captain Juan Sebastián Elcano, and including Antonio Pigafetta, Maestre Anes and Juan de Zubileta become the first people to have traveled around the world. Arriving on the ship Victoria, they had set off as part of 270 sailors on five ships on the Magellan expedition almost three years earlier. They return to the Spanish port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, from where they had departed on September 20, 1519.


text: Australia is sighted by a Portuguese expedition led by Cristóvão de Mendonça, who maps the continent and names it Jave la Grande ("The Greater Java"), according to the theory of the Portuguese discovery of Australia.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – The papal conclave to elect a successor to the late Pope Leo X is concluded as cardinal Adriaan Florensz Boeyens of the Netherlands, regent of Spain and bishop of Tortosa, is selected as a compromise candidate despite being absent from the proceedings. Cardinal Boeyens is proclaimed as Pope Adrian VI, the 218th pope and the last non-Italian pontiff for the next 450 years.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – The Grünwald Conference takes place in the Duchy of Bavaria in Germany, as the co-rulers, Duke Wilhelm IV and Duke Ludwig X agreed to retain the traditional Roman Catholic Church but to make their own reformation of the church within the Duchy, beginning what will eventually become the Counter-Reformation.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Daniil of Volotsk is appointed by the Grand Duke of Moscow as the new Metropolitan of Moscow, becoming the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Protestant reformer Martin Luther returns to Wittenberg in Germany after getting cleared to return home by his protector, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – In Wittenberg, as the first day of Lent arrives, Martin Luther begins preaching the first of his eight "Invocavit sermons", stressing the primacy of core Christian values, such as love, patience, charity, and freedom, and reminding his followers to trust God's word rather than violence to bring about necessary change.


date: May 10

text: May 10 –Pope Adrian VI, at the request of Spanish Emperor Carlos V, promulgates the papal bull Exponi nobis, allowing members of mendicant orders in the New World to exercise "almost all episcopal authority" when the closest Roman Catholic diocesan bishop is more than two days of travel away.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – The Knights' War erupts within the Holy Roman Empire as Franz von Sickingen leads a revolt against the Prince-Bishop of Trier and to seize the church properties within the Electorate of Trier


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Pope Adrian VI is crowned at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – The second Diet of Nuremberg opens to discuss various matters of the Holy Roman Empire, including the Protestant Reformation.


text: March 9 – In Zurich in Switzerland, the Affair of the Sausages begins as Pastor Huldrych Zwingli of Grossmünster publicly speaks out against the food restrictions during the Roman Catholic period of fasting during Lent, and advocating that followers of Martin Luther eat sausage, one of the prohibited foods. Zwingli defends his action in the sermon Von Erkiesen und Freiheit der Speisen ("Regarding the freedom of Choice of Foods"), in that the Bible does not prohibit the eating of meat during Lent. The public declaration sparks the Reformation in Zürich.


text: Chinese Ming dynasty War Ministry official He Ru is the first to acquire the Portuguese breech-loading culverin, while copies of them are made by two Westernized Chinese at Beijing, Yang San (Pedro Yang) and Dai Ming.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – A 6.8 magnitude earthquake kills more than 2,500 people in the Spanish city of Almería, near Alhama de Almería. It has a maximum felt intensity of X–XI (extreme), making it the most destructive earthquake in Spanish history, and destroys the city, as well as damaging 80 other towns; in Granada, large cracks are observed in various walls and towers.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – An EMS-X intensity earthquake kills more than 4,000 people on the Azores Islands as its strikes Vila Franca do Campo, the provincial capital, located on São Miguel Island.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, turns over control of the Duchy of Württemberg from the Duke Ulrich to the Emperor's brother, the Archduke Ferdiand of Austria.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Lord Erskine is appointed by Margaret Tudor, regent of Scotland, to be the "keeper" of Margaret's 10-year-old son, King James V, who is to remain within the confines of Erskine's home at Stirling Castle.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Luther Bible: Martin Luther's translation of the Bible's New Testament into Early New High German from Greek, Das newe Testament Deutzsch, is published in Germany, selling thousands in the first few weeks.


text: The third edition of Erasmus's Greek Textus Receptus of the New Testament, Novum Testamentum (with parallel Latin text), is published in Basel.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Charles II, Duke of Orléans, (d. 1545)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Miyoshi Nagayoshi, Japanese samurai and daimyō (d. 1564)


date: May 24

text: May 24 – John Jewel, English bishop (d. 1571)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert, Dutch writer and scholar (d. 1590)


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands (d. 1586)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Udai Singh II, King of Mewar (d. 1572)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Severinus of Saxony, Prince of Saxony; died young (d. 1533)


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Ulisse Aldrovandi, Italian naturalist (d. 1605)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Gabriele Paleotti, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1597)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Lucas Maius, Lutheran Reformation pastor, theologian and playwright (d. 1598)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Andrew Corbet, English landowner and politician (d. 1578)


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Albert de Gondi, Marshal of France (d. 1602)


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran reformer (d. 1586)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Flemish general and statesman (d. 1568)


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Raffaello Maffei, Italian theologian (b. 1451)


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Wolfgang I of Oettingen, German count (b. 1455)


date: February 25

text: February 25 – William Lilye, English classical scholar (b. c. 1468)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, Italian philosopher (b. 1466)


date: April

text: April – Queen Eleni of Ethiopia


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Piero Soderini, Florentine statesman (b. 1450)


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Elisabeth of the Palatinate, Landgravine of Hesse, German noble (b. 1483)


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Franchinus Gaffurius, Italian composer (b. 1451)


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Johann Reuchlin, German humanist and Hebrew scholar (b. 1455)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, sculptor, engineer and architect


date: September

text: September – Gavin Douglas, Scottish poet and bishop (b. c. 1474)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Jean Mouton, French composer (b. c. 1459)


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Anne of France, Princess and Regent of France (b. 1461)


text: date unknown – Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Italian painter (b. 1440)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – King Christian II of Denmark and Norway is forced to abdicate after the nobles of the herredag at Viborg have renounced their allegiance in favour of his uncle, Frederick, Duke of Holstein. Christian is exiled to the Netherlands in April.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Captain Antón Mayor formally claims for Spain what is now Nicaragua, after he arrives with Andrés Niño and other Spanish troops on the Central American coast at El Realejo.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Gustav Vasa is elected king of Sweden, establishing the full independence of Sweden from the Kalmar Union, which marks the end of the Kalmar Union. This event is also traditionally considered to be the establishment of the modern Swedish nation.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – In what is now Mexico, the conquistador Gonzalo de Sandoval founds the city of Colima.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – The Republic of Venice and the Holy Roman Empire conclude the Treaty of Worms to remove Venice from the Italian War that has gone for two years.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Construction of Fort Kastela by Portuguese invaders, on what is now the island of Ternate in Indonesia, is completed as Portugal claims the Spice Islands (now the Maluku Islands).


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Battle of al-Shihr on the Arabian Peninsula (in what is now Yemen): Troops from Portugal fight against the Kathiri Sultanate, ruled by the Emir Mutran bin Mansur. After a battle of one day, the Portuguese sack the capital, Al-Shihr, and establish a port on the Indian Ocean.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – In Spain's Kingdom of Valencia, a rebellion by the Brotherhoods of Mallorca is suppressed after two years, as the rebels surrender their capital, Palma de Mallorca, to Spanish and German troops.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Mirza Shah Hossein, Grand Vizier of Persia since 1514, is assassinated in Qazvin (now in Iran) by Shia nobles of the Qizilbash sect, and replaced by Jalal al-Din Mohammad Tabrizi.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – In Nicaragua, Diriangén, ruler of the Chorotega speakers, stages an attack on the Spanish invaders led by González Dávila. Having been warned by one of the Nicarao natives of the intended surprise attack, Spanish defenders on horses rout the Chorotega, but several of the Spaniards are wounded. The Spanish then decide to proceed no further inland.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – An assassination attempt is made against King Sigismund of Poland, who is shot at while walking outside his residence at Wawel Castle overlooking Kraków.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Swedish War of Liberation: The city of Kalmar in Sweden, occupied by troops of Denmark, falls to a Swedish Army force led by Arvid Västgöte after the city's magistrates agree to leave the northern gate of the city open. Kalmar Castle surrenders on June 4. With the fall of Kalmar, only Stockholm remains as a site of the Danish occupation.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Following the Battle of Sincouwaan at sea between the ships of the Chinese Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal, the Malay ambassador to China reluctantly departs from Guangzhou to present letters to the Portuguese governors of the occupied Malacca Sultanate, demanding the restoration of the deposed Sultan. Though fearing execution by the Portuguese, the messengers are allowed to leave. They return in September with a plea for help from the Malay Sultan, whose territory is under attack from the Europeans.


date: May

text: May – The Ningbo incident: Two rival trade delegations from Japan feud in the Chinese city of Ningbo, resulting in the pillage and plunder of the city.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Frederick begins the 8-day siege of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. The city surrenders on 6 January 1524.


date: June 12

text: June 12–July 19 – Franconian War: The Swabian League destroys 23 robber baron castles.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Swedish War of Liberation: The surrender of Stockholm by Denmark is accepted by Sweden's King Gustav Vasa. In return, the city's defenders are allowed safe passage out of Sweden. King Gustav then makes his triumphant entry to the city on June 24.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Wijerd Jelckama, a Frisian warlord and military commander, is executed in Leeuwarden, ending the Frisian rebellion fought by the Arumer Black Heap.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Lucien Grimaldi, Lord of Monaco, is assassinated by his nephew at the Prince's Palace. Bartolomeo Doria di Dolceaqua, the son of Lucien's sister Francesca, kills his uncle and then has his men drag the monarch's body down the palace stairs in front of a horrified crowd, who drive the Doria family out of the small principality. Lucien had become the ruler in 1505 after stabbing to death his brother, Jean II. Lucien's heir is his 8-month-old son, Honoré; Lucien's brother Augustine Grimaldi becomes the regent during Honoré's minority.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Setting off from the Mexican Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan with an army of 550 Spanish soldiers and 120 horses, Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras begins the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.


text: In northern Italy, a French army under Guillaume Gouffier tries to recover Milan but fails due to an offensive by Spanish, Imperial and English troops and they retreat in mid-November.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – The Spanish conquest of Nicaragua continues as Gil González Dávila and 17 other soldiers arrive at Lake Nicaragua and claim it for the Spanish crown, calling the freshwater source the Mar Dulce. Gonzalez and 100 men with him have been welcomed by Macuilmiquiztli Nicarao, leader of the friendly Nicarao people, to explore the area.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Santhome Church is established by Portuguese explorers over the tomb of Saint Thomas the Apostle at Madras (now Chennai) in India.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – The Spanish expedition into Nicaragua ends as the Europeans arrive back in Panama in canoes, having been forced to abandon their ships.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Spanish conquest of Nicaragua: An agreement is made for an expedition by conquistadores into Nicaragua organized by Pedrarias Dávila.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Hürrem Pasha, the Ottoman Empire's Governor-General of the Damascus Eyalet (which includes parts of what will become Syria, Israel, Jordan and Palestine) begins a punitive expedition through Lebanon against the Druze of Chouf. During the first campaign, Hürrem's troops burn 43 villages and kill at least 400 Druze.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Under a plan organized by Sister Katharina von Bora and Protestant reformer Martin Luther, fish merchant Leonhard Köppe helps carry out the rescue of Von Bora and other Cistercian Catholic nuns from the Nimbschen Abbey in Germany near Grimma and Leipzig. On the day before Easter, Köppe arrives at the convent under the pretext of bringing delivering herring and other foods to the Abbey, then uses empty barrels to smuggle the nuns to Wittenberg. Von Bora will later become Luther's wife.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Pargali Ibrahim Pasha is appointed as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Suleiman the Magnificent. He will serve as the Ottoman administrator for almost 13 years until his sudden arrest and execution in 1536.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake in Brussels at the Grote Markt. In response to the executions, Martin Luther composed a hymn called "A New Song Be By Us Begun".


date: October 1

text: October 1 – A conclave of 32 cardinals begins deliberations in Rome to elect a successor to the late Pope Adrian VI. Three other cardinals arrive on October 6 and balloting begins for a new Pope. Niccolò Fieschi and Bernardino López de Carvajal y Sande fail to receive the necessary majority in initial balloting, and Gianmaria del Monte comes within one vote (26 votes) of being elected. Voting continues for seven weeks before Cardinal Giulio de Medici wins 27 votes.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – At Santa Maria in Via Lata, Cardinal Marco Cornaro carries out the coronation of Pope Clement at the church of Santa Maria in Via Lata in Rome.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The Diet of Hungary, parliament for the Kingdom of Hungary under King Lajos II, passes a decree ordering the confiscation of property and execution of all followers of Martin Luther within the Kingdom.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – After receiving word from Malaya that Portuguese forces were attacking the Sultanate of Patani and the Malacca Sultanate on the Malaysian peninsula, the Chinese Emperor Zhengde orders extermination of all persons from Portugal, 23 envoys from Portugal are executed and mutilated.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, brings the Spanish Inquisition to the Netherlands with the appointment of Frans Van der Hulst as the inquisitor general of the Seventeen Provinces, which will later become parts of the Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the southern Netherlands.


text: The Ming dynasty Chinese navy captures two Western ships with Portuguese breech–loading culverins aboard, which the Chinese call a fo–lang–ji (Frankish culverin). According to the Ming Shi, these cannons are soon presented to the Jiajing Emperor by Wang Hong, and their design is copied in 1529.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Frederick I is provisionally declared as King of Denmark by Danish nobles at Viborg, although loyalists at Copenhagen refuse to recognize his claim to the throne.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Sir Thomas More, noted for being a Catholic social philosopher and author of the 1516 novel Utopia, is appointed by King Henry VIII as the Speaker of the English House of Commons for the first parliamentary session since 1515. He serves until the Parliament adjourns on August 15.


text: c. July – Martin Luther's translation of the Pentateuch into German (Das allte Testament Deutsch) is published by Melchior Lotter Jr. in Wittenberg.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Francesco Abbondio Castiglioni, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1568)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Valentin Naboth, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1593)


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Jan Blahoslav, Czech writer (d. 1571)


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Giovanni Francesco Commendone, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1584)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Kaspar Eberhard, German theologian (d. 1575)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Blaise de Vigenère, French diplomat and cryptographer (d. 1596)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Marco Antonio Bragadin, Venetian lawyer and military officer (d. 1571)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry (d. 1574)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Pier Francesco Orsini, Italian condottiero and art patron (d. 1583)


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Duke George II of Brieg (1547–1586) (d. 1586)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Sancho d'Avila, Spanish general (d. 1583)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, French church leader and pretender to the throne (d. 1590)


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Eleonore of Fürstenberg, wife of Philip IV, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1544)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Anna Jagiellon, daughter of Sigismund I of Poland (d. 1596)


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Elisabeth of Hesse-Marburg, German landgravine (b. 1466)


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Thomas Ruthall, English chancellor of the University of Cambridge


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Louis I, Count of Löwenstein, founder of the House of Löwenstein-Wertheim (b. 1463)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, English nobleman (b. 1479)


date: May 6

text: May 6 – In the Rhineland in Germany, the Knights' War, led by Franz von Sickingen since August 27, is finally put down at Landstuhl by troops of the Holy Roman Empire as the Nanstein Castle falls. Sickingen, mortally wounded in the final battle, dies of his wounds the next day.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Franz von Sickingen, German knight (b. 1481)


text: May 7 – Antonio Grimani, Italian admiral and Doge of Venice (b. 1434)


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Andrea Gritti is elected as the new Doge of the Republic of Venice, 13 days after the death of Antonio Grimani.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Gerard David, Flemish artist (b. c. 1455)


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Domenico Grimani, Italian nobleman (b. 1461)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Ulrich von Hutten, Lutheran reformer (b. 1488)


text: October 11 – Bartolomeo Montagna, Italian painter (b. 1450)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Lachlan Cattanach Maclean, 11th Chief, Scottish clan chief (b. 1465)


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Following the September 14 death of Pope Adrian VI, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici is elected 219th pope as Clement VII. The election of Cardinal Medici begins an unbroken reign of 44 consecutive Italian Popes over the next 455 years.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – By the Treaty of Malmö signed on Sweden withdraws from the Kalmar Union with Denmark, Norway and Sweden.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – The Bundesbrief is adopted by the members of the Three Leagues of Switzerland (the League of God's House, the League of the Ten Jurisdictions, and the Grey League) as a common constitution.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed between representatives of Honoré I, Lord of Monaco and of King Charles of Spain, and places Monaco under the protection of Spain.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Tecun Uman, the K'iche' Maya ruler of Guatemala's highlands, is killed in a battle near Quetzaltenango between the K'iche' Maya people and the invading Spanish conquistadors led by Pedro Alvarado.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado destroys the Kʼicheʼ kingdom of Qʼumarkaj, taking the capital, Quiché.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Battle of the Sesia: Spanish forces under Charles de Lannoy defeat the French army in Italy, under William de Bonnivet. The French, now commanded by François de St. Pol, withdraw from the Italian Peninsula.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Atiquipaque, the most important city of the Xinca people, is conquered by the Spanish, resulting in a significant reduction in the Xinca population.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Battle of Acajutla: Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado defeats a battalion of Pipiles, in the neighborhoods of present day Acajutla, El Salvador.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – The French city of Marseille is besieged by Holy Roman Empire forces commanded by the Charles III, Duke of Bourbon and lasts until September 26.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – A French army invading Italy, under King Francis, besieges Pavia, months before the Battle of Pavia.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – John Fleming, 2nd Lord Fleming, Lord Chancellor of Scotland since 1517, is assassinated by John Tweedie of Drummelzier (chief of Clan Tweedie) and others.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, on board La Dauphine in the service of Francis I of France, sets out from Madeira for the New World, to seek out a western sea route to the Pacific Ocean.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – da Verrazzano's expedition makes landfall at Cape Fear at what is later the U.S. state of North Carolina.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Verrazzano's expedition makes the first European entry into New York Bay, and sights the island of Manhattan.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Verrazzano's expedition returns to Dieppe.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, Hernando de Luque and Diego de Almagro all set off on the first of three expeditions to conquer Peru, taking along 80 men and 40 horses, but the venture is halted in Colombia.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba founds the city of Granada, Nicaragua, the oldest Hispanic city in the mainland America.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Protestant theologians Martin Luther and Andreas Karlstadt dispute at Jena.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – German Peasants' War: Hans Müller von Bulgenbach gathered peasants in Stühlingen and formed the "Evangelical Brotherhood", pledging to emancipate peasants across Germany. An revolt spread in southwestern Germany.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Two days before his coronation in Denmark, Frederick I is elected King of Norway.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – The coronation of Frederick I of Denmark takes place in Copenhagen.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Albrecht Giese, German politician and diplomat (d. 1580)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, French cardinal (d. 1574)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Selim II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1574)


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Johann Stössel, German theologian (d. 1576)


date: August 23

text: August 23 – François Hotman, French Protestant lawyer and writer (d. 1590)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (d. 1583)


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Pierre de Ronsard, French poet (d. 1585)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Francisco Vallés, Spanish physician (d. 1592)


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Rani Durgavati, Queen of Gond (d. 1564)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma (d. 1586)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Elizabeth of Denmark, Duchess of Mecklenburg, Danish princess (d. 1586)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Nicolas, Duke of Mercœur, French Catholic bishop (d. 1577)


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Diego de Landa, Bishop of the Yucatán (d. 1579)


text: Luís de Camões, Portuguese poet (d. 1580)


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Marko Marulić, Croatian poet (b. 1450)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan, daughter of King Alfonso II of Naples (b. 1470)


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Tecun Uman, Kʼicheʼ Mayan ruler (b. c. 1500)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – William Conyers, 1st Baron Conyers, English baron (b. 1468)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, French soldier (b. 1473)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier and statesman (b. 1443)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Ismail I, Safavid dynasty Shah of Persia (b. 1487)


text: May 23 – Tahmasp I becomes the ruler of the Safavid Empire, following the death of his father, Shah Ismail I.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Camilla Battista da Varano, Italian Roman Catholic nun and saint (b. 1458)


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Claude of France, queen consort of Francis I of France (b. 1499)


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Sir William Scott, English Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1459)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives on the island of Goa to become the new Viceroy of Portuguese India but dies three months later.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Thomas Linacre, English humanist and physician (b. 1460)