Historical
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