[Edit]

top

March 4 - Hernán Cortés lands in Mexico.

June 28 - Charles I of Spain becomes Emperor of Holy Roman Empire as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (ruled until 1556).

July 4 - Martin Luther joins the debate regarding papal authority against John Eck at Leipzig.

September 20 - Ferdinand Magellan leaves Europe to circumnavigate the world.

November 8 - Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with great pomp as would befit a returning god.

Erasmus publishes his Colloquia.

Martin Luther questions the infallibility of papal decrees.

Mannerism, artistic form appears in Italy and spreads.

Spanish find Barbados.

Cacao comes to Europe.

Panama founded.

Havana moved from the Southern to Northern part of Cuba.

top

February 5 - René of Châlon, Prince of the House of Orange (d. 1544)

February 16 - Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (died 1572)

February 17 - Francis, Duke of Guise, French soldier and politician (d. 1563)

March 31 - King Henry II of France (died 1559)

April 13 - Catherine de Medici, queen of Henry II of France (died 1589)

May 27 - Girolamo Mei, Italian humanist historian (died 1594)

June 6 - Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (died 1603)

June 12 - Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (died 1574)

June 24 - Theodore Beza, French theologian (died 1605)

July 22 - Pope Innocent IX (died 1591)

Thoinot Arbeau, French priest and author (died 1596)

Johannes Goropius Becanus, Dutch physician, linguist, and humanist (d. 1572)

Thomas Gresham, English merchant and financier (died 1579)

Nicholas Grimald, English poet (died 1562)

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, first Spanish Governor of Florida

Ikeda Nagamasa, Japanese military commander (died 1563)

Edwin Sandys, English prelate (died 1588)

Imagawa Yoshimoto, Japanese warlord

Stanislaw Zamoyski, Polish nobleman (died 1572)

top

January 12 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1459)

January 21 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer (born 1475)

May 2 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian inventor and painter (born 1452)

May 4 - Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (b. 1492)

June 24 - Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara (born 1480)

August 11 - Johann Tetzel, German opponent of the Reformation (born 1465)

August 23 - Philibert Berthelier, Swiss patriot (born c1465)

September 10 - John Colet, English churchman and educator (born 1467)

Francesco II of Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua (born 1466)

William Grocyn, English scholar (born 1446)

Cho Kwangjo, Korean scholar(born 1482)

Ambrosius Holbein, German painter (born 1494)

Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (born 1492)

Alonso Alvarez de Pineda, Spanish explorer and cartographer (born 1494)