Historical
1546: Italy - Michelangelo Buonarroti is made chief architect of St. Peters Basilica
1547: Russia - Grand Prince Ivan the Terrible is crowned tsar of (All)Russia, thenceforth becoming the first Russian tsar
1547: Spain, Italy, Hungary - Battle of Muhlberg, Emperor Charles V decisively dismantles the Schmalkaldic League
1548: China, Japan - The Ming Dynasty government of China Issues a decree banning all foreign trade and closes down all seaports along the coast, these Hai jin laws came during the Wokou wars with Japanese pirates
1548: Japan - Battle of Uedahara, firearms are used for the first time on the battlefield in Japan, and Takeda Shingen is defeated by Murakami Yoshikiyo
1549: El Salvador, Brazil - Tome de Souza establishes Salvador in Bahia, northeast of Brazil
1550-1551: Spain, Americas - Valladolid debate concerning the existence of souls in AmerIndians
1550: Mongolia, China - Mongols led by Altan Khan Invade China and besiege Beijing
1551: England - Fifth outbreak of sweating sickness in England, John Caius of Shrewsbury writes the first full contemporary account of the symptoms of the disease
1551: Malta, Libya - North African pirates enslave the entire population of the Maltese Island Gozo, between 5,000 and 6,000, sending them to Libya
1552: Russia, Bulgaria - Russia conquers the Khanate of Kazan
1553: England - Mary Tudor becomes the first queen regnant of England
1554: Brazil - Portuguese missionaries Jose de Anchieta and Manuel da Nobrega establishes Sao Paulo, southeast Brazil
1555: England, Russia - The Muscovy Company is the first major English joint stock trading company
1556-1605: India - During his reign, Akbar expands the Mughal Empire in a series of conquests
1556: China - The Shaanxi Earthquake in China is the deadliest known earthquake in history
1556: Germany - Georgius Agricola of Germany, the "Father of Mineralogy", publishes his De re metallica
1556: India - Mir Chakar Khan Rind captured Delhi with Emperor Humayun
1556: India - Second Battle of Panipat, Akbar the Great defeats the Sultan of Bengal
1556: Italy - Pomponio Algerio, radical theologian, is executed by boiling in oil as part of the Roman Inquisition
1556: Italy - Publication in Venice of Delle Navigiationi et Viaggi (terzo volume) by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, secretary of Council of Ten, with plan La Terra de Hochelaga, an Illustration of Indian village Hochelaga
1556: Russia - Russia conquers the Astrakhan Khanate
1557: Portugal, China - The Portuguese settle in Macau in China
1557: Spain - Spain became the first sovereign nation in history to declare bankruptcy, Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596
1557: Turkey, Ethiopia - The Ottomans capture Massawa, all but Isolating Ethiopia from the rest of the world
1558-1583: Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, Russia - Livonian War between Poland, Grand Principality of Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark and Russia
1558-1603: England - The Elizabethan era is considered the height of the English Renaissance
1558: England, France - After 200 years, the Kingdom of England loses Calais to France
1558: England - Elizabeth Tudor becomes Queen Elizabeth I at age 25
1559: Italy - With the Peace of Cateau Cambresis, the Italian Wars conclude
1560: Hungary - Erzsebet Bathory is born in Nyirbator, Hungary
1560: Japan - By winning the Battle of Okehazama, Oda Nobunaga becomes one of the pre-eminent warlords of Japan
1560: Turkey, Spain - Battle of Djerba, Ottoman navy defeats the Spanish fleet
1561: western Europe - Guido de Bres draws up the Belgic Confession of Protestant faith
1562-1598: France - French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots
1562: France - Massacre of Wassy and Battle of Dreux in the French Wars of Religion
1562: India - Mughal leader Akbar reconciles the Muslim and Hindu factions by marrying into the powerful Rajput Hindu caste
1563: England - Plague outbreak claimed 80,000 people in Elizabethan England, in London alone, over 20,000 people died of the disease
1564: England - William Shakespeare baptized 26 April
1564: Italy - Galileo Galilei born on February 15
1565: Bazil - Estacio de Sa establishes Rio de Janeiro in Brazil
1565: India - Battle of Talikota fought between the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar and the Deccan sultanates
1565: Israel, Turkey - Siege of Malta, Hospitallers defeat the Ottoman Empire
1565: Pakistan - Mir Chakar Khan Rind dies at age of 97
1566–1648:: Spain, Netherlands - Eighty Years War between Spain and the Netherlands
1567: England, Scotland - Mary, Queen of Scots, is Imprisoned by Elizabeth I
1568-1570: Russia, Turkey - Russo-Turkish War (first of ten over the next 310 years), Russian victory, they were victorious in eight of the ten wars
1568-1571: Spain - Morisco Revolt in Spain
1568-1600: Japan - The Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan
1569: England - Rising of the North in England, also called the Revolt of the Northern Earls, and, Northern Rebellion, It is an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic noblemen from northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots
1569: Poland, Lithuiana - The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is created with the Union of Lublin, It lasts until 1795
1570: Russia - Ivan IV Vasilyevich (Ivan the Terrible) orders the massacre of Inhabitants of Novgorod
1571: Italy, Turkey - Battle of Lepanto )off Greece), The Holy League destroys the Ottoman Empire navy in a five-hour battle
1571: Italy, Turkey - Pope Pius V completes the Holy League as a united front against the Ottoman Turks
1571: Ukraine, Russia - Crimean Tatars (or Tartars) attack and sack Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin
1571: United States - Spanish missionaries are murdered by Indians at the later Jamestown Settlement, Virginia
1572: France - Catherine de Medici Instigates the St. Bartholomew Day massacre which takes the lives of Protestant leader Gaspard de Coligny and thousands of Huguenots, the violence spreads from Paris to other cities and the countryside
1572: Peru - Spanish conquistadores apprehend the last Inca leader Tupak Amaru at Vilcabamba, Peru, and execute him in Cuzco
1572: Portugal - First edition of the epic The Lusiads of Luis Vaz de Camoes, three years after the Portugese author returns from the East
1572: Spain, Netherlands, Austria - Brielle is taken from the House of Habsburg (also called the House of Austria) Spain by Protestant Watergeuzen in the Capture of Brielle during the Eighty Years War
1573: Spain, Netherlands - Siege of Haarlem, after heavy losses on both sides, the Spanish gain a victory
1574: Netherlands, Spain - After a siege of four months the Siege of Leiden ends in a comprehensive Dutch victory
1574: Spain, Netherlands - In the Eighty Years War the capital of Zeeland, Middelburg declares for the Protestants
1575: Japan - Oda Nobunaga finally captures Nagashima fortress in Japan
1576: Spain, Netherlands - Sack of Antwerp by badly paid Spanish soldiers
1577-1580: globe - Francis Drake circles the world
1578: Netherlands, Spain - Battle of Alcazarquivir, King Sebastian of Portugal is killed
1579: Netherlands, Spain - The Union of Arras unifies the southern Netherlands, a foundation for the later states of the Spanish Netherlands, the Austrian Netherlands and Belgium
1579: Netherlands - The Union of Utrecht unifies the northern Netherlands, a foundation for the later Dutch Republic
1580: Netherlands, Spain - Royal reception after his attacks on Spanish possessions, influences Philip II of Spain to build up the Spanish Armada, English ships in Spanish harbours are Impounded
1580: Spain, Portugal - Spain unifies with Portugal under Philip II, the struggle for the throne of Portugal ends the Portuguese Empire, the Spanish and Portuguese crowns are united for 60 years, ie until 1640
1582: Italy - Pope Gregory XIII Issues the Gregorian calendar, It took several centuries before being adoped by most all non-Catholic countries but It is still in use world wide today
1582: Russia - Yermak Timofeyevich conquers the Siberia Khanate on behalf of the Stroganovs
1584-1585: Netherlands - After the Siege of Antwerp, many of Its merchants flee to Amsterdam
1585-1604: Spain, New World - The Anglo-Spanish War is fought on both sides of the Atlantic
1585: United States - in Roanoke, Virginia, the first English colony in America, is born the first white baby, Virginia Dare
1587: England - Queen Elizabeth authorizes the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, for allegedly plotting against her
1588: England, Spain - England (with help from the weather) defeats the Spanish Armada
1589: Spain, England - Spain repulses the English Armada
1590: United States - Roanoke, Virginia "disappears", becoming "The Lost Colony"
1591: Morocco, Mali - In Mali, Moroccan forces of the Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur led by Judar Pasha defeat the Songhai Empire at the Battle of Tondibi
1591: Poland, Russia - Gazi Giray leads a huge Tatar/Tartar expedition against Moscow
1592-1593: England - John Stow reports 10,675 plague deaths in London, a city of approximately 200,000 people
1592-1598: Korea, China, Japan - Korea, with the help of Ming Dynasty China, repels two Japanese Invasions
1593-1606: Austria, Turkey - The Long War between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Turks
1598-1613: Russia - Russia descends into anarchy during the Time of Troubles
1598: France - The Edict of Nantes (one of the coolest names ever!) ends the French Wars of Religion
1600: Italy - Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake for heresy in Rome
1600: Japan - Battle of Sekigahara in Japan, end of the Warring States period and beginning of the Edo period
1601-1603: Russia - The Russian famine of 1601-1603 kills perhaps a third of Russia
1601: Ireland - Battle of Kinsale, one of the most Important battles in Irish history, fought
1601: Romania, Austria - Michael the Brave (first unificator of Romania), voivode of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania, is assassinated by the order of the Habsburg general Giorgio Basta at Campia TurzII
1602: Netherlands - Dutch East India Company founded, Its success contributes to the Dutch Golden Age
1603-1623: Iran, Turkey, Portugal - After modernizing his army, Abbas I expands the Persian Empire by capturing territory from the Ottomans and the Portuguese
1603: England, Scotland - Elizabeth I of England dies and is succeeded by her cousin King James VI of Scotland, uniting the crowns of Scotland and England
1603: Japan - Tokugawa Ieyasu seizes control of Japan and establishes the Tokugawa Shogunate which rules the country until 1868
1605: England - Gunpowder Plot failed in England
1605: Turkey, Hungary - The fortresses of Veszprem en Visegrad in Hungary are retaken by the Ottomans
1606: Netherlands, Australia - Captain Willem Janszoon and his crew aboard the Dutch East India Company ship Duyfken becomes the first recorded Europeans to sight and make landfall in Australia
1606: Turkey, Austria - The Long War between the Ottoman Empire and Austria is ended with the Peace of Zsitvatorok
1607: Ireland - Flight of the Earls (the fleeing of most of the native Gaelic aristocracy) occurs from County Donegal in the west of Ulster in Ireland
1607: United States - Jamestown, Virginia, is settled as what would become the first permanent English colony in North America
1608: Canada - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain in New France (present-day Canada)
1609: Germany - Maximilian of Bavaria establishes the Catholic League
1609: Netherlands, Spain - The Netherlands and Spain agree to a Twelve Years Truce in the Eighty Years War
1609: United States - Pedro de Peralta, a later governor of New Mexico, establishes the settlement of Santa Fe
1610: France - King Henry IV of France is assassinated and is succeeded by his nine year old son, King Louis XIII who rules until 1643
1610: Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden - Battle of Klushino, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth army defeats combined Russian-Swedish forces and conquers Moscow
1612: England - King James version of the Bible is published
1613-1617: Poland, Lithuania - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is Invaded by the Tatars (or Tartars) dozens of times
1613: Russia - The Time of Troubles in Russia ends with the establishment of the House of Romanov which rules until 1917
1613: United States - Pochahontas marries John Rolfe
1616: England - William Shakespeare dies
1616: Spain - The last remaining Moriscos (Moors who had nominally converted to Christianity) in the Spain are expelled
1618-1638: Germany - The Bohemian Revolt precipitates the Thirty Years War which devastates Europe in the years 1618-1648
1618: China - The Manchus start Invading China, their conquest eventually topples the Ming Dynasty
1618: Romania - Bethlen Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, joins Protestant Rebels
1619: Austria, Romania - Bethlen Gabor is defeated outside Vienna
1620-1621: Poland, Turkey - Polish-Ottoman War over Moldavia
1620: Poland - Battle of White Mountain, Emperor Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, defeats the Bohemian rebels
1620: Romania, Turkey - Bethlen Gabor allies with the Ottomans and an Invasion of Moldavia takes place, the Polish suffer a disaster at Cecora on the River Prut
1620: United States - The Puritan Pilgrims arrive in the Mayflower at Cape Cod
1621: Poland, Turkey - The Battle of Chocim Poles and Cossacks under Jan Karol Chodkiewicz defeat the Ottomans
1621: United States - The Pilgrims celebrate the first Thanksgiving with their Indian neighbors
1622: United States - Jamestown massacre Algonquian natives kill 347 English settlers outside Jamestown, Virginia (a third of the population of the colony) and burn the Henricus settlement
1623: Italy - Maffeo Barberini is elected Pope Urban VIII at the Papal conclave of 1623
1624-1642: France - As chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu centralises power in France
1625: United States - New Amsterdam founded by the Dutch West India Company in North America
1626: Italy - St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican completed
1626: United States - The Dutch buy Manhattan Island for $24, a presence is established but no large settlements made
1627: France - Cardinal Richelieu lays siege to Protestant La Rochelle which eventually capitulates
1629: France - Cardinal Richelieu allies with Swedish Protestant forces in the Thirty Years War to counter expansion by Ferdinand II
1631: Italy - Mount Vesuvius erupts near Naples
1632: germany - Battle of Lutzen (first of two), death of king of Sweden Gustav II Adolf
1633: Italy - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition
1633: United States - The city of Baltimore is settled
1634: Ethiopia - Emperor Fasilides expels the Catholic Patriarch Afonso Mendes and several Jesuit missionaries from Ethiopia
1634: Germany - Battle of Nordlingen (first of two), in Bavaria, results in Catholic victory
1636: Ethiopia - Emperor Fasilides founds the city of Gondar, which becomes the capital of Ethiopia for the next two centuries
1636: United States - Harvard University is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts
1636: United States - Roger Williams is driven from Puritan Massachusetts and settles Rhode Island, a haven for religious freedom
1638: United States - Delaware is settled by Peter Minuet
1639-1651: England, Ireland, Scotland - Wars of the Three Kingdoms, civil wars throughout Scotland, Ireland, and England
1639: Italy - Disagreements between the Farnese and Barberini Pope Urban VIII escalate into the Wars of Castro and last until 1649
1639: Spain, England - Naval Battle of the Downs, Republic of the United Provinces fleet decisively defeats a Spanish fleet in English waters
1639: United States - John Wheelwright is banished from Boston and founds a colony in New Hampshire
1640-1668: Portugal - The Portuguese Restoration War led to the end of the Iberian Union
1640: England - Torture is outlawed in England
1640: Scotland - King Charles was compelled to summon Parliament due to the revolt of the Scots
1640: United States - The population of the American Colonies is estimated at 5,700. Starting in the 1990's, Charles Anderson of the New England Historic Genealogical Society begins books that provides information about all persons in New England by 1640.