Events

• January 5 - Felix Manz, co-founder of the Swiss Anabaptists , was drowned in the Limmat River in Zürich by the Zürich Reformed state church.
• May 6 - Spanish and German troops led by the Duke of Bourbon sack Rome (the infamous Sacco di Roma), forcing Pope Clement VII to make peace with Charles V.
• May 16 - Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.
• Spanish conquest of Guatemala highlands completed; first Guatemala City founded (Ciudad Vieja).
• Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo invades Yucatán.
• Battle of Tokay - Ferdinand of Austria defeats John Zapolya and takes over most of Hungary. John appeals to the Turks for help.
• Protestant Reformation begins in Sweden.
• Ahmed Gragn of Somalia defeats the Ethiopian army with his new firearms.
• People of the university of Wittenberg flee plague to Jena.
• Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK is founded by Bishop John Vesey.

Births

• March 21 - Hermann Finck, German composer, teacher, and music theorist
• May 21 - King Phillip II of Spain (d. 1598)
• July 13 - John Dee, mathematician, astronomer and geographer
• July 31 - Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
• Giuseppe Arcimboldo, artist
• Sakuma Nobumori, Japanese retainer and samurai

Deaths

• June 21 - Niccolò Machiavelli