1560s

1560

January–March

• January 7 – In the Kingdom of Scotland, French troops commanded by Henri Cleutin and Captain Corbeyran de Cardaillac Sarlabous sail across the Firth of Forth from Leith, which they are occupying, and fight with the Lords of the Congregation at Pettycur Bay near Kinghorn.
• February 27 – Treaty of Berwick: Terms are agreed upon with the Lords of the Congregation in Scotland, for forces of the Kingdom of England to enter Scotland, to expel French troops defending the Regency of Mary of Guise.
• March 7 – A Spanish-led expedition, commanded by Juan de la Cerda, 4th Duke of Medinaceli, overruns the Tunisian island of Djerba.
• March 17 – Leaders of the Amboise conspiracy, including Godefroy de Barry, seigneur de La Renaudie, make an unsuccessful attempt to storm the château of Amboise, where the young French king and queen are residing. La Renaudie is subsequently caught and executed, along with over 1,000 of his followers.
• March – Bairam Khan, the Vakil or prime minister of India's Mughal Empire, is forced to retire by the Emperor Akbar.

April–June

• April 15 – Denmark–Norway buys the Estonian island of Ösel, from its last prince-bishop.
• May 11 – In the Battle of Djerba, the Ottoman fleet, commanded by Piali Pasha, overwhelms a large joint European (mainly Spanish) fleet, sinking about half its ships.
• June 12 (19th day of 5th month of Eiroku 3) – In Japan, Oda Nobunaga defeats Imagawa Yoshimoto in the Battle of Okehazama.

July–September

• July 6 – The Treaty of Edinburgh is signed between England, France and Scotland, ending the Siege of Leith. The French withdraw from Scotland, largely ending the Auld Alliance between the two countries, and also ending the wars between England and its northern neighbour.
• August 2 – Livonian War – Battle of Ergeme: Russians defeat the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, precipitating the dissolution of the order.
• August 17 – The Scottish Reformation Parliament adopts a Protestant confession of faith and rejects papal authority, beginning the Scottish Reformation, and disestablishing Roman Catholicism in Scotland.
• August 21 – A total eclipse of the sun is observable in Europe, which inspires Tycho Brahe's interest in astronomy.
• September 18 – After Robert Sempill, 3rd Lord Sempill, a Scottish Catholic, continues to resist the Scottish Reformation, the Duke of Châtellerault and the Earl of Arran commence a siege of Castle Semple at Lochwinnoch. They begin firing artillery at the castle on September 23 and destroys the gatehouse.
• September 29 – Eric XIV becomes King of Sweden, upon the death of his father, Gustav Vasa.

October–December

• October 4 – Queen Elizabeth of England notifies the official treasurers and Lords Mayor throughout the kingdom that the existing coins will be replaced and that those in circulation are to be devalued, to be stricken with a special mark to indicate lesser worth. Treasurers are all instructed to send the coins withdrawn from circulation to be sent to the Royal Mint to be melted down for the new coins.
• October 19 – The siege of Castle Semple ends after 31 days when the defenders wave the white flag of surrender.
• October 29 – Queen Elizabeth directs the minting of the first machine produced coins in the Kingdom to completely replace hammered coinage, produced manually.
• November 8 – Eloy Mestrelle is given authority to commence the production of the new English coinage on machines he has brought over from France for the purpose of mass production.
• December 5 – Charles IX succeeds his brother Francis as King of France, after Francis dies of a severe ear infection at the age of 16. Francis's mother (Mary's mother-in-law), Catherine de' Medici, becomes regent of France.

Date unknown

• The complete Geneva Bible is published.
• The first scientific society, the Academia Secretorum Naturae, is founded in Naples by Giambattista della Porta.
• Solihull School is founded in the West Midlands of England.
• The oldest surviving violin (dated inside), known as the Charles IX, is made in Cremona, in northern Italy.
• The Mongols invade and occupy Qinghai.
• The great age of piracy in the Caribbean starts around this time.

1561

January–March

• January 4 – Paolo Battista Giudice Calvi is elected as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa, but serves for only eight months before dying in September.
• January 31
  • The Ordinance of Orléans suspends the persecution of the Protestant Huguenots in Kingdom of France.
  • Mughal Empire General Bairam Khan is assassinated by an Afghan warrior, Mubarak Khan Lohani, while traveling through Gujarat in India.
• February 13 – Queen Elizabeth of England summons the Ambassador from Spain, Álvaro de la Quadra, for a private audience to ask how the Spanish government would react if she were to marry Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, who had recently lost his wife Amy Robsart in a questionable accident.
• March 23 – Lope de Aguirre, a Basque Spanish conquistador, begins a rebellion against the Spanish Crown in an attempt to take over most of Spanish South America.
• March 29 – In India, the Mughal Empire Army, led by General Adham Khan defeats the Sultanate of Malwa in a battle at Sarangpur, forcing the Sultan Baz Bahadur to flee.

April–June

• April 9 – Ángel de Villafañe becomes the new Governor of Spanish Florida, assuming authority over the provinces of La Florida and of Punta de Santa Elena (now Parris Island in the U.S. state of South Carolina).
• April 14 – The citizens of Nuremberg see what appears to be an aerial battle, followed by the appearance of a large black triangular object and a large crash (with smoke) outside the city. A news notice (an early form of newspaper) is printed on April 14, describing the event.
• April 17 – Diego López de Zúñiga, 4th Count of Nieva becomes the fourth Spanish Viceroy of Peru, administering most of South America after the death on March 30 of Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza.
• April 19 – The Edict of 19 April, confirming the recent recommendation by the Estates General, is promulgated by the regency council for King Charles IX of France in an attempt to prevent a civil war between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Huguenot citizens of France
• May 8 – Madrid is declared the capital of Spain, by Philip II.
• June 4
  • The spire of Old St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London catches fire and crashes through the nave roof, probably as the result of a lightning strike. The spire is not rebuilt.
  • The nobility of Harrien-Wierland and the town of Reval (on June 6) of the Livonian Order swear allegiance to Sweden.
• June 25 – Francis Coxe, an English astrologer, is pilloried at Cheapside in London, and makes a public confession of his involvement in "sinistral and divelysh artes".
• June 29 – Erik XIV is crowned King of Sweden.

July–September

• July 12 – Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow (started in 1534) is finished.
• July – Arauco War: The hated encomendero Pedro de Avendaño and two other Spaniards are killed, triggering the Second Great Rebellion of the Mapuche.
• August 19 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is denied passage through England after returning from France. She arrives at Leith, Scotland later the same day.
• August 20 – English merchant Anthony Jenkinson arrives in Moscow on his second expedition to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
• September 2 – The Entry of Mary, Queen of Scots into Edinburgh, a civic celebration for the Queen of Scotland, is marred by religious controversy.
• September 28 – An inconclusive three day debate begins in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland between Protestant reformer John Knox and Quintin Kennedy, commendator of Crossraguel Abbey, on transubstantiation. The Reformation, confirmed by the Scottish government in 1560, continues.

October–December

• October 10 – The Siege of Moji in Japan ends with the defenders retaining their position.
• October 18 – Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima: Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin, in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.
• November 4 – Upon the death of his father, Diogo I Nkumbi a Mpudi, King Afonso II Mpemba a Nzinga becomes the new monarch of the Kingdom of Kongo, located in what is now the southern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the northern portion of Angola. Afonso II reigns for less than a month before being overthrown by his brother, Bernardo.
• November 28 – The Treaty of Vilnius is concluded during the Livonian War, between the Livonian Confederation and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. With the treaty, the non-Danish and non-Swedish part of Livonia, with the exception of the Free imperial city of Riga, subjects itself to Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus with the Pacta subiectionis (Provisio ducalis). In turn, Sigismund grants protection from the Tsardom of Russia, and confirms the Livonian estates' traditional privileges, laid out in the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti.
• December 1 – In the Kingdom of Kongo, Bernardo Mpemba a Nzinga overthrows his brother, King Afonso II, and becomes King Bernardo I.

Date unknown

• Merchant Taylors' School is founded in the City of London by Sir Thomas White, Sir Richard Hilles, Emanuel Lucar, and Stephen Hales.
• The first Calvinists settle in England, after fleeing Flanders.
• The Anglo-Genevan metrical psalter is published, including the Old 100th, the version of the hymn All People That on Earth Do Dwell made from Psalm 100, attributed to the probably-Scottish clergyman and biblical translator William Kethe, exiled in Geneva.
• Ruy López de Segura develops modern techniques of chess playing in Spain.
• William Baldwin's Beware the Cat (written early 1553), an early example of extended fiction (specifically horror fiction) in English, is published anonymously in London. This edition appears to have been suppressed, and no copies survive.
• Between 1561 and 1670, 3,229 alleged witches are executed in southwestern Germany, most by burning.

1562

January–March

• January 6 – Shane O'Neill of Tír Eoghain pleads his cause at the Palace of Whitehall in London, before Queen Elizabeth I of England, who recognises his status. He returns to Ireland on May 26, and resumes his rebellious activities by November.
• January 17 – Huguenots are recognized under the Edict of Saint-Germain.
• January 18
  • The Council of Trent reconvenes, after a gap of 10 years.
  • Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's play Gorboduc is performed for the first time, before Queen Elizabeth I of England. It is the first known English tragedy, and the first English language play to employ blank verse.
• February 6 – In the Mughal Empire in India, the Emperor Akbar marries Mariam-uz-Zamani, daughter of Raja Bharmal, the ruler of the Kingdom of Amber. The marriage takes place in Sambhar in what is now the state of Rajasthan, where Akbar has stopped on his way back to the Mughal capital of Agra.
• February 12 – After Catherine of Austria, the former Queen Consort of Portugal decides to step down as regent for her grandson, the 8-year-old King Sebastian at the age of 55, she turns the responsibility over to her late husband King João III's younger brother, Cardinal Henrique de Aviz.
• February 18 – The siege of the Portuguese fort of Mazagan begins in Morocco as the Sultanate tries to take back control of the area from the Portuguese occupiers.
• March 1 – Over 80 Huguenots are massacred by the ultra-Catholic François, Duke of Guise in Wassy-sur-Blaise, triggering the First War of Religion in France.
• March 4 – Prince Abu Abdallah Mohammed II Saadi, heir to the throne of the Sultanate of Morocco, arrives at Mazagan with 100,000 troops.
• March 15 – English merchant Anthony Jenkinson has an audience with Ivan the Terrible in Moscow, before departing the city on April 27 and continuing his second expedition through the Grand Duchy of Moscow to Qazvin, capital of the Safavid dynasty in Persia.
• March 24 – Portuguese Navy Captain Álvaro de Carvalho reaches Mazagan in Morocco with a relief force that includes 600 well-equipped troops. Another force of 1,565 volunteers arrives on March 26 from Lisbon.

April–June

• April 2 – Civil war breaks out in the Kingdom of France as Louis I, Prince of Condé, leader of the Protestant Huguenots, declares war against the French Catholic rulers, in retaliation for the March 1 massacre of Vassy. Condé and Gaspard de Coligny seize control of Orléans, and other uprisings follow throughout France.
• May 1 – Jean Ribault, French navigator, lands in Florida, and later establishes a Huguenot colony at Charlesfort on Parris Island, South Carolina.
• May 5 – Prince Abdullah of Morocco withdraws his troops after seeing no way to overcome Portuguese defenses at Mazagan.
• May 28 – The Siege of Rouen as Claude, Duke of Aumale, leads 3,000 French government troops against the Huguenot fortress at Rouen. The siege lasts for five months. He orders a retreat in June but returns on 29 July with a larger force and heavier artillery.
• June 10 – English Catholic printer Thomas Somerset is jailed at Fleet Prison "for translating an oratyon out of Frenche, made by the Cardinall of Lorraine, and putting the same without authority in prynte." On June 27, he is summoned before the Lords of the Council for a parole hearing, but is turned down because "he seamed to go about to justifye his cause" and returned to Fleet, "there to remaine until he shall have better considered of himself." He remains imprisoned for more than 19 years before finally being released on February 28, 1582.
• June 14 – At dinner at Dunfermline Castle, Mary, Queen of Scots, displays a gold ring set with a heart shaped diamond from her collection and declares that she will send it to Queen Elizabeth of England as a gift and a possible summit conference in the future.
• June 17 Full moon of Waso 924 ME– King King Bayinnaung of Burma establishes an army garrison at Dawei in preparation for an attack against the Siamese Kingdom of Ayutthaya.

July–September

• July 12 – Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatan, burns the sacred books of the Maya.
• August 3 – A severe hailstorm causes serious damage in the German town of Wiesensteig, and leads a few days later to the demand of Mayor Ulrich von Helfenstein for the arrest of several women on charges of practicing witchcraft. Six of the women are executed, the first of 63 women and men put to death after being convicted of practicing sorcery.
• August 7 – The Treaty of Mozhaysk is signed between Denmark and Russia to avoid going to war against each other over the Kingdom of Livonia, now divided into Estonia and Latvia.
• August 24 – In the French city of Bar-sur-Seine, at least 300 Huguenots are massacred by Catholic soldiers after their success in reconquering the citadel there. The killing occurs nine days after the burning alive of 94 Huguenots at Lauzerte.
• September 20 – The Treaty of Hampton Court, between Queen Elizabeth I of England and Huguenot leader Louis I, Prince of Condé, is signed.
• September 22 – Maximilian, son of the Emperor Ferdinand I, succeeds Ferdinand as ruler of the Kingdom of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic).

October–December

• October 4 – English forces under Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, land at Le Havre to aid the Huguenots against the French Crown.
• October 19 – La Herradura naval disaster: Twenty-five ships sink in a storm off of the coast of Spain in the bay of La Herradura, where 28 ships had been anchored to weather the elements. At least 3,000 people are killed, and perhaps as many as 5,000, while another 2,000 survivors, mostly slaves on the galleys, are able to escape to shore.
• October 26 – Rouen is captured by Royalist forces under King Antoine of Navarre, who is mortally wounded.
• October – Privateer John Hawkins undertakes the first of several slave trading voyages, attacking Portuguese slave ships off the West African coast and forcibly transporting the enslaved Africans onboard to Spanish colonies in the Americas to sell. Hawkins arrives at the island of Hispaniola in the Spanish West Indies, where he illicitly sells the enslaved Africans to local colonists, as his presence is technically in violation of Spanish law.
• November 5 – Battle of Corrichie in Scotland: The rebellion of George Gordon, Earl of Huntly is crushed by James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray.
• November 20 – Maximilian of Bohemia is elected King of the Romans.
• December 19 – Battle of Dreux: Huguenot and Catholic forces fight a bloody battle, narrowly won by the Catholic side. The official leaders of both armies are captured in the battle.

Date unknown

• Mughal Emperor Akbar conquers Malwa, and its last Sultan, Baz Bahadur, flees.
• Dudley Grammar School is established, and Gresham's School is granted a royal charter, in England.
• Fausto Sozzini publishes Brevis explicatio in primum Johannis caput, originating Socinianism.
• Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola publishes Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura (Rules of the Five Orders of Architecture); in succeeding centuries it will become the most published book in architectural history.
• The Pünte at Wiltshausen, a small, hand-operated ferry, which becomes a historic monument in the late 20th century, is first recorded.
• The Portuguese army is defeated at the Battle of Mulleriyawa, Sri Lanka, at the hand of the Sitawaka army commanded by Prince Tikiri Bandara (King Rajasinghe), leaving 1600 dead. This is considered the worst defeat the Portuguese have suffered up to this time.
• An arsenal in Paris explodes. As recorded by Ambroise Paré in The Workes of Ambrose Parey: "In the yeare of our Lord 1562, a quantity of this pouder [gunpowder] which was not very great, taking fire by accident in the Arcenall of Paris, caused such a tempest that the whole city shook, but it quite overturned many of the neighboring houses, and shook off the tiles and broke the windows of those which were further away; and to conclude, like a storm of lightning, it laid many here and there for dead, some lost their sight, others their hearing, and others their limbs were torn apart as if they had been rent with wild horses" (p.415).

1563

January–March

• January 11 (January 2, 1563 O.S., January 11, 1563 N.S.) – The convocation of bishops and clerics of the Church of England is opened at St Paul's Cathedral in London by the Dean of the Arches, Robert Weston to agree upon the wording of what will become the Thirty-nine Articles, with the assembly adopting all but three of the Forty-two Articles promulgated during the reign of King Edward VI in 1553. The conference lasts for three months before agreeing upon the Articles to be submitted for further modification.
• January 25 – In Italy, Instituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino, a constituent of the major financial group Sanpaolo IMI, is founded.
• February 1 – Sarsa Dengel succeeds his father Menas as Emperor of Ethiopia at age 14.
• February 18 – François, Duke of Guise, is assassinated while besieging Orléans by Jean de Poltrot.
• March 19 – The Edict of Amboise is signed at the Château d'Amboise by Catherine de' Medici, acting as regent for her son Charles IX of France, having been negotiated between the Huguenot Louis I, Prince of Condé, and Anne, duc de Montmorency, Constable of France. It accords some toleration to the Huguenots, especially to aristocrats. It officially ends the first phase of the French Wars of Religion, and the combined Huguenot and royal armies then march north to besiege the English in Le Havre.

April–June

• April 5 – The English galleon ship HMS Grehound strikes a sandbar off of the coast of Rye, East Sussex and sinks with all hands in the English Channel, including the Admiral of the Narrow Seas, John Malyn.
• April 10 – Royal assent is given by Queen Elizabeth of England to parliamentary approval of multiple laws, including the Highways Act 1562 (requiring all householders in a parish to provide six days labor per year on building highways); the Poor Act 1562 (providing for fines for persons who refuse to contribute to a fund for relief of the poor); the Supremacy of the Crown Act 1562 (making refusal to swear allegiance to the monarch punishable as treason); and the Witchcraft Act 1562 (limiting the death penalty for witchcraft to cases where a defendant caused another person's death)
• April 23 – The cornerstone is laid for the construction of El Escorial, the royal palace for the monarch of Spain. Construction will not be finished for 21 more years, with completion on September 13, 1584.
• May 5 (3rd day of 4th month, Eiroku 6) – The Battle of Yudokoru takes place in Japan at the Inaba Province (now the eastern Tottori Prefecture), as Takanobu Takeda defeats the shogun Toyokazu Yamana.
• May 25 – Elizabeth College, Guernsey is founded, by order of Queen Elizabeth I of England.
• May 30 – At Bornholm, the Danish fleet fires on the Swedish navy, leading to a Danish defeat and precipitating the Northern Seven Years' War.
• June 4 – The Parliament of Scotland passes the Witchcraft Act, making both the practice of witchcraft, and the act of consulting with witches, punishable by burning at the stake.

July–September

• July 28 – The English surrender Le Havre to the French after a siege.
• August 13 – Northern Seven Years' War: Denmark–Norway and the Free City of Lübeck declare war against the Kingdom of Sweden.
• August 18 – Merchants from the Bungo Province destroy the Portuguese settlement in Yokoseura, Japan
• September 4 – Northern Seven Years' War: King Frederick II of Denmark, advancing from Halland, takes Old Älvsborg from Sweden.

October–December

• October 7 – Giovanni Battista Lercari is elected as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa.
• November 9 – The Army of Sweden, under the command of King Eric XIV, suffers a severe defeat in the Battle of Mared against the Army of Denmark, commanded by King Frederik II. In the battle, near what is now the city of Oskarström in Sweden, the Swedes suffer at least 2,500 casualties. The Swedish Army is able to retreat and rebuild, but the Danes plunder the village of Övraby, which is never rebuilt.
• November 11 – The Council of Trent amends existing Roman Catholic canon law to deter unannounced marriages. In order for a marriage to be recognized by the Church, the names of the bride and groom are to be announced publicly in a chapel during Mass, and registered with the parish priests of both parties.
• December 4 – The Council of Trent (which had opened on December 13, 1545) officially closes. It reaffirms all major Roman Catholic doctrines, and declares the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament to be canonical, along with the rest of the Bible. Chapter 1, Session 24, promulgates the decree Tametsi, stipulating that for a marriage to be valid, consent (the essence of marriage) as expressed in the vows has to be given publicly before witnesses, one of whom has to be the parish priest.

1564

January–March

• January 26 – Livonian War – Battle of Ula: A Lithuanian surprise attack results in a decisive defeat of the numerically superior Russian forces.
• February 7 (11th waning of Tabodwe 925 ME) – Burmese–Siamese War: Invaders from Burma overcome the seaside defenses of the Siamese capital at Ayutthava, capturing the batteries of cannons and a set of ships sent by Portugal to help defend the kingdom.
• February 18 (8th waxing of Tabaung 925 ME) – The Burmese–Siamese War ends with the surrender of King Maha Chakkraphat of Ayutthaya (now Thailand) to King Bayinnaung of Burma). Chhakkraphat is allowed to go into exile and his son Mahinthrathirat is installed by Bayinnaung as the vassal king of Ayutthaya.
• February 19 – Francisco Coutinho III, Count of Redondo and the Viceroy of Portuguese India, dies and is succeeded by João de Mendonça Furtado
• February 20 – A group of four men assassinate the Spanish Viceroy of Peru, Diego López de Zúñiga, 4th Count of Nieva. López is succeeded temporarily by Hernando de Saavedra.
• March 15 - In India in Mughal Empire,emperor Akbar abolished Jizya tax on non-Muslims,especially Hindus.He was the first Muslim king in the world to do such thing.
• March 25 – Battle of Angol in Chile: Spanish Conquistador Lorenzo Bernal del Mercado defeats and kills the toqui Illangulién.

April–June

• April 20 – French explorer René Goulaine de Laudonnière and a group of 300 Huguenot Protestants depart from Le Havre on three ships (L'Élisabeth, Le Faucon and Le Breton) to colonize what is now the U.S. state of Florida.
• May 31 – The Swedish warship Mars, flagship of the Swedish Navy, catches fire while fighting against the navy of Denmark in the battle of Öland off of the coast of the island of the same name in the Baltic Sea, and sinks along with its crew of 350 sailors and 450 soldiers it had been transporting. The wreckage of the ship will go undiscovered for 447 years until being found on August 19, 2011.
• June 22 – French settlers abandon Charlesfort, the first French attempt at colonizing what is now the United States, and, with the help of a relief force commanded by René Goulaine, establish Fort Caroline in Florida, near what is now the city of Jacksonville.

July–September

• July 2 In India, the Mughal Emperor Akbar departs from the capital, Agra (now located in the state of Uttar Pradesh on the pretext of hunting elephants, in order to conceal his true purpose of punishing the rebel governor of Malwa, Abdullah Khan Ubzeg.
• July 24 (Full moon of Wagaung 926 ME) – In Burma (now Myanmar), Min Sekkya becomes the new King of Arakan when his half-brother, King Min Saw Hla, dies at age 31 after a long illness.
• July 25 – Maximilian II becomes the new Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of his father, Ferdinand I. Ferdinand's son Charles succeeds his father as the new Archduke of Austria.
• August 1 – Judge Francisco Ceinos becomes the new Viceroy of New Spain upon the death of Luís de Velasco.
• August 6 – In India Akbar, ruler of the Mughal Empire, defeats the rebellious governor of Malwa, Abdullah Khan Uzbeg. The defeat comes the day after the Imperial Army's arrival at Indore, now in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
• August 14 – Sweden's Army fights a second naval battle at Öland against Denmark and captures three Danish Navy ships (Böse Lejonet, Morian, and David) and 600 men.
• August 28 – King Eric XIV of Sweden, who has been commanding the Swedish Army himself since the start of the Northern Seven Years' War, turns over the responsibility to Nils Boije, who captures Varberg from Denmark.
• September 4 – The Ronneby Bloodbath takes place in Ronneby, Denmark (now in Sweden).
• September 10 – Battle of Kawanakajima in Japan: Takeda Shingen fights the forces of Uesugi Kenshin for the final time, to a draw.
• September 28 – English merchant Anthony Jenkinson returns to London from his second expedition to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, having gained a considerable extension of trading rights for the English Muscovy Company.

October–December

• October 10 – Lucrezia Di Siena, the first well-known female actress in Europe, begins her career by signing a contract with the Commedia dell'arte theatre company in Rome.
• October 23 – King Bayinnaung of Burma leads 64,000 men, 3,600 horses and 330 elephants on an invasion of the Lan Na kingdom (now part of Laos.
• October 30 – The Duchy of Savoy signs the Treaty of Lausanne with the Swiss canton of Bern and relinquishes all claims to the canton of Vaud.
• November 21 – Spanish Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi sails from Mexico. Later, he will conquer the Philippine Islands, founding Manila.
• November 25 – When four divisions of the Burmese Army arrive at Lamphun, 12.5 miles (20.1 km) from Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai's defenses flee the city. Bayinnaung spares the life of King Mekuti of Lan Na, and then spends next four months administering the annexed territory.
• December 3 – Ivan the Terrible, Tsar of all the Russias, sends his government a letter of abdication, ostensibly because of embezzlement and treason by the aristocracy and the clergy. Ivan leaves Moscow and moves to the city of Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, taking with him the relics of the palace and most of his royal court, until being persuaded to return in February on the promise that he will have absolute power.
• December 7 – King Charles IX of France agrees to the terms of a treaty with the cantons of Switzerland, agreeing for French payment of debts owed to the Swiss for loans made to Charles's father, King Henri II.

Date unknown

• The first recorded report is made of a "rat king".
• approx. date – Idris Alooma starts to rule the Kanem-Bornu Empire.
• The first Scottish Psalter is published.

1565

January–March

• January 3 – In the Tsardom of Russia, Ivan the Terrible originates the oprichnina (repression of the boyars (aristocrats)).
• January 23 – Battle of Talikota: The Vijayanagara Empire, the last Hindu kingdom in South India, is greatly weakened by the Deccan sultanates.
• February 13 – Spanish Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi lands with his troops on the shores of Cebu Island in the Philippines.
• March 1 – The city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is founded as São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro by Estácio de Sá.
• March 16 – Spanish Conquistador López de Legazpi makes a blood compact (sandugan) with Datu Sikatuna in the island of Bohol, Philippines.

April–June

• April 27 – Cebu City is established as San Miguel by López de Legazpi, becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
• May 2 – Huntingdon Grammar School is established in England.
• May 18 – Ottoman troops land on the island of Malta, beginning the Great Siege of Malta.
• June 4 – The Treaty of Cebu is signed between Miguel López de Legazpi, representing Philip II of Spain, and Rajah Tupas of Cebu. This effectively creates Spanish suzerainty over Cebu.
• June 17 – (19th day of 5th month, Eiroku 8); In Japan, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the Ashikaga shogun, commits ritual suicide after Matsunaga Hisahide invades Kyoto.

July–September

• July 29 – The widowed Mary, Queen of Scots, marries her half-cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, in a Catholic ceremony.
• August 6 – Sark, in the Channel Islands, is granted as a fief by Elizabeth I of England to Hellier de Carteret, Seigneur of Saint Ouen.
• August 26 – The Chaseabout Raid begins in Scotland as a rebellion against Mary, Queen of Scots by her half-brother, by James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, following her July 29 marriage to Lord Darnley.
• August 28 (feast day of St. Augustine) – The Spanish fleet of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés first sights land in Florida.
• August 31 – Chaseabout Raid: Moray and at least 1,000 of his rebels arrive in Edinburgh for a confrontation with the Scottish crown. After cannon fire from Edinburgh Castle, the rebels retreat toward England to seek help. The rebellion is ended by the end of September.
• September 4 – The Spanish fleet of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés lands in Florida to oust the French under Jean Ribault. He later destroys the French colony of Fort Caroline.
• September 8 – St. Augustine, Florida (named after Augustine of Hippo), is established by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, becoming the oldest surviving European settlement in the modern-day United States, and a mass of Thanksgiving is said.
• September 11 – The Knights of Malta lift the Great Siege of Malta after four months.

October–December

• October 11 – Ottavio Gentile Oderico is elected to a two-year term as the Doge of the Republic of Genoa.
• October 18 – Battle of Fukuda Bay: Ships belonging to the Matsura clan of Japan fail to capture a Portuguese trading carrack, in the first recorded naval battle between Japan and a European nation.
• October 20 – In the Northern Seven Years' War, the Battle of Axtorna is fought in Sweden, near Falkenberg, as Daniel Rantzau of the Army of Denmark and Norway leads 7,400 troops in defeating a counterattack by over 11,000 Swedish troops led by Jacob Henriksson Hästesko.
• October – The first Martello tower, the Tour de Mortella, designed by Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino (el Fratin), is completed as part of the Genovese defence system at Mortella (Myrtle) Point, in Upper Corsica.
• November 25 – The army of Burma, under the command of King Bayinnaung conquers Chiang Mai, capital of the Siamese Kingdom of Lan Na, and departs on November 30.
• December 31 – The Burmese Army conquers Vientiane, the main city of the kingdom of Lan Xang (now Laos).
• December – The Mariovo and Prilep rebellion occurs, the very first recorded rebellion by the Macedonian hajduks or voivode against the Ottoman Empire.

Date unknown

• The pencil is first documented by Conrad Gesner; it is becoming common in England.
• John Beddoes School is founded at Presteigne, Wales.
• Herlufsholm School is founded at Næstved, Denmark.
• Bungay Grammar School is established in England.

1566

January–March

• January 7 – Cardinal Michele Ghislieri is elected as the new Pope by two-thirds of the College of Cardinals, to succeed Pope Pius IV, who had died 28 days earlier on December 8. Ghislieri becomes the 225th pope, and takes the regnal name Pope Pius V.
• February 24 – In one of the first gun assassinations in Japanese (if not world) history, Mimura Iechika, the daimyō (warlord) of the Bitchū Province, is shot dead by two brothers (Endo Matajiro and Yoshijiro), sent by his rival Ukita Naoie.
• March 28 – The foundation stone of Valletta, which will become Malta's capital city, is laid by Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
• March – The Hanseatic city of Lübeck launches the galleon Adler von Lübeck, probably the largest ship in the world at this time.

April–June

• April 5 – The Compromise of Nobles is presented to Margaret of Parma, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, but it succeeds only in delaying the beginning of the Eighty Years' War in the Netherlands.
• May 1
  • Charles IX, King of France, completes his grand tour of his kingdom, returning to Paris a little more than 27 months and 2,500 miles (4,000 km) after his departure on January 24, 1564.
  • Suleiman the Magnificent, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, begins his last campaign, departing from Constantinople at the head of one of the largest armies he has ever commanded, with a plan to attack Vienna, capital of the Holy Roman Empire. However, he dies in September.
• May 13 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor imposes a Reichsexekution upon John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony. Augustus, Elector of Saxony is directed to carry out the order to begin the siege of the city of Gotha and John Frederick's home at the Grimmenstein Castle.
• May 25 – King Philip II of Spain issues laws against the remaining Spanish Muslims, including a ban against use of the Arabic language, wearing of traditional Arab or Muslim clothing, a requirement that doors in their homes and buildings be kept open every Friday and on Muslim feast days (in order to verify that Muslim rituals are not observed), and forces the tearing down of public and private bathhouses (to prevent purification rites).
• May 30 – The Augsburg Imperial Coin Edict issues from the Holy Roman Empire, authorizing a new coin, the thaler. The new unit of money, the Reichsthaler, follows standards providing that the weight should be based on one-ninth of a Cologne mark of silver (the "9 Thaler standard") with each minted coin to weigh 29.23 grams and to contain 25.96 grams of silver. The word thaler, an abbreviation for the "Joachimsthaler" minted from the silver mines at Joachimsthal (modern-day Jáchymov in the Czech Republic), is anglicized to dollar, the name of currencies in many nations.
• June 10 – In Znojmo (in the modern-day Czech Republic), Wilhelm von Rosenberg, commander of the Army of the Kingdom of Bohemia, begins raising an army to fight an expected invasion by the Ottoman Empire.

July–September

• July 22 – Pope Pius V issues an edict to expel most prostitutes from Rome, and the Papal States. The edict is soon reversed because of the loss of revenue from the taxation of houses of prostitution.
• July 25 – Feodor Stefanovich Kolychov is consecrated as the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church as Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow with the approval of the Tsar Ivan the Terrible, but soon defies the Tsar. Philip will be deposed in 16 months later and put to death on December 23, 1568.
• July 28 – John Sigismund Zápolya, uncrowned claimant to the throne of the King of Hungary, leads an invasion of Upper Hungary on the orders of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman.
• July 31 – King Philip II of Spain sends a final letter to the administrators and Catholic bishops of the Spanish Netherlands, rejecting a request to abolish ordinances treating Protestants as heretics. The decision leads to an uprising against Spain by Calvinists and ultimately to the Eighty Years War.
• August 6 – The siege of Szigetvár is begun by Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. This is the Ottoman Empire at its greatest extent.
• August 10 – The Beeldenstorm, also called the "Iconoclastic Fury", begins as Protestant Calvinists engage in widespread destruction of religious art in what are now the Netherlands and Belgium.
• August 16 – The Beeldenstorm arrives at Ypres and the St Martin's Cathedral is plundered, with the library and artifiacts of Bishop Martin Rythovius burned.
• August 25 – The vandalism of the Beeldenstorm reaches Leiden.
• September 7 – Suleiman the Magnificent dies in his tent of natural causes aged 71 the day before the end of the siege of Szigetvár, and Selim II succeeds him as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
• September 8 – The siege of Szigetvár ends in a fierce battle with the annihilation of 2,300 Hungarian and Croatian defenders, including their general, Nikola Šubić Zrinski, annihilated by an army of 90,000 soldiers of the Ottoman Empire, under Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. Before charging out with his remaining 600 troops, General Zrinski orders the gates to the fortress to be opened and fires a large cannon, loaded with broken iron, killing hundreds of Ottoman attackers as they enter. As a final measure, according to one source, Zrinski orders a long fuse to be lit to the fortress gunpowder magazine and the powder explodes while thousands of Ottomans are inside.

October–December

• October 2 – Richard Onslow (Solicitor General) is elected as the Speaker of the English House of Commons by a vote of 82 to 70.
• October 8 – Catherine of the Austrian Habsburgs, Queen of consort of Poland since 1553 as wife of Sigismund II Augustus, leaves Poland to return to Austria after the failure of her marriage. She never comes back to Poland, though she remains the official queen consort until her death in 1572.
• October 19 – Gastón de Peralta, 3rd Marquess of Falces becomes the Viceroy of New Spain, replacing Francisco Ceinos. Peralta is removed from office by King Philip II after charges are made that Peralta is planning a rebellion against the crown.
• October 28 – In Kneiphof, a city in the Duchy of Prussia (modern-day Ostrov Immanuinga Kanta in Russia), Albert, Duke of Prussia has three of the town's five councilors beheaded on charges of causing political and religious disputes with the other Prussian states. Johann Funck, Matthias Horst, and Hans Schnell are executed in the town's marketplace, while Paul Skalich and Johann Steinbach are able to flee the country.
• November 5 – Queen Elizabeth I of England addresses the English Parliament and champions English nationalism, asking "Was I not born in this realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country? Is there any cause I should alienate myself from being careful over this country? Is not my kingdom here?"
• November 23 – By decree of King Philip II of Spain, the content of gold in the Spanish gold escudo, is raised from 350 maravedis (equivalent to 338 centigrams) of gold to 400 (386 cg) and equivalent to 16 silver reales.
• November 26 – At the Craigmillar Castle, the advisers to Mary, Queen of Scots – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray; Secretary of State William Maitland of Lethington; Lord Chancellor George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly; Archibald Campbell, 5th Earl of Argyll; and James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell – advise her to divorce her husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. She refuses and the advisers decide that Darnley must be killed.
• December 17 – The baptism of Prince James, son of Mary Queen of Scots, takes place at Stirling Castle

Date unknown

• Between July 19, 1566 and July 7, 1567 (during the Islamic calendar year 974 AH) – The first bridge crossing the Neretva River at Mostar in Herzegovina is completed by the Ottoman Empire. The white marble bridge becomes known as Stari Most ("Old Bridge").

1567

January–March

• January 20 – Battle of Rio de Janeiro: Portuguese forces under the command of Estácio de Sá definitively drive the French out of Rio de Janeiro.
• January 23 – After 45 years' reign, the Jiajing Emperor, Zhu Houcong, dies in the Forbidden City of China.
• January – A Spanish force under the command of Captain Juan Pardo establishes Fort San Juan, in the Native American settlement of Joara. The fort is the first European settlement in modern-day North Carolina.
• February 4 – Prince Zhu Zaiji, son of the Jiajing Emperor, ascends the throne of Ming dynasty China as the Longqing Emperor.
• February 10 – Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered at the Provost's House in Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh.
• March 13 – Battle of Oosterweel: A Spanish mercenary army surprises and kills a band of rebels near Antwerp in the Habsburg Netherlands, beginning the Eighty Years' War.

April–June

• April 9 – In India, the Battle of Thanesar is fought in what becomes the state of Haryana. The Mughal Emperor Akbar, with 300 men, wins a victory over more than 7,000 warriors of the Sanyasi Hindu sect. Akbar's army has two cannons, 400 rifles and 75 elephants.
• April 10 – Henrique I Nerika a Mpudi becomes the new ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo in what becomes the western part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the northern portion of Angola. Henrique succeeds his nephew, Bernardo I of Kongo.
• April 12 – The Earl of Bothwell is acquitted on charges of murder in the February 10 killing of Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Upon acquittal he makes plans to become Mary's new husband.
• April 20 – The Ainslie Tavern Bond is signed by a group of Scottish clerics and nobles, recommending Bothwell as an appropriate husband for Queen Mary and approving his acquittal after trial for the murder of her previous husband.
• April 24 – Bothwell takes Mary prisoner at his castle at Dunbar after preventing her from traveling from her palace to Edinburgh, then rapes her.
• May 15 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Earl of Bothwell, under duress.
• May 24 – Sture Murders: The mentally unstable King Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated nobles at Uppsala Castle.
• June 15 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is defeated by Scottish nobles at the Battle of Carberry Hill and imprisoned in Lochleven Castle.

July–September

• July 24 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate, and replaced by her one-year-old son James VI.
• July 25 – The city of Santiago de León de Caracas is founded by Diego de Losada.
• July 29 – James VI is crowned at Stirling.
• August 22 – The Duke of Alba is sent to the Netherlands with a strong Spanish force, to suppress unrest there. He replaces Margaret of Parma as Governor of the Netherlands. Prince William of Orange is outlawed, and Lamoral, Count of Egmont imprisoned.
• September 9 – At a dinner, the Duke of Alba arrests Lamoral, Count of Egmont and Philip de Montmorency, Count of Horn for treason.
• September 27 – After the 2-week Siege of Inabayama Castle, the Oda clan capture Gifu Castle from the Saitō clan in Japan.
• September 29 – The Second War of Religion begins in France, when Louis I, Prince of Condé and Gaspard de Coligny fail in an attempt to capture King Charles IX and his mother at Meaux. The Huguenots do capture several cities (including Orléans), and march on Paris.

October–December

• October 7 – Bible translations into Welsh: The New Testament is first published in Welsh, in William Salesbury's translation from the Greek.
• November 10 – Battle of Saint-Denis: Anne de Montmorency, 1st Duke of Montmorency, with 16,000 Royalists, falls on Condé's 3,500 Huguenots. The Huguenots surprisingly hold on for some hours before being driven off. Montmorency is mortally wounded.
• November 21 (10th day of 11th month, Eiroku 10) – In Japan, the Tōdai-ji Great Buddha Hall in the Nara Prefecture is destroyed after a six-month siege by Matsunaga Hisahide against Miyoshi Nagaitsu and the Miyoshi clan. Reconstruction of the temple does not take place until 140 years later in 1709.
• December 4 – Antão de Noronha, Viceroy of Portuguese India (the modern-day Indian state of Goa) issues decrees prohibiting the public performance of Hindu rituals for marriages, cremations, and sacred thread wearing. Other rules require all natives 15 or older to attend Christian religious services, upon penalty of punishment.
• December 12 – The Scottish Parliament votes to approve the Act Anent the demission of the Crown in favour of our Sovereign Lord, and his Majesty's Coronation 1567, an act regarding the abdication of Mary Queen of Scots in favor of her son James VI and the coronation of James, and confirms James as the legal ruler. Mary's half brother, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, is appointed as the regent to rule on behalf of the 18-month-old King of Scotland. In that Moray is absent from Scotland at the time, the Parliament appoints a committee of seven deputy regents to rule on behalf of Moray's power to rule on behalf of King James.

Date unknown

• King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway founds Fredrikstad in Norway.
• Construction of Villa Capra "La Rotonda" in Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio, begins. It will be one of the most influential designs in the history of architecture.
• Rugby School, one of the oldest public schools in England, is founded.
• Although sparse maritime trade existed since its founding, the Ming dynasty government of China officially revokes the haijin maritime trade ban, reinstating foreign trade with all countries except Japan.

1568

January–March

• January 6 – In the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom, the delegates of Unio Trium Nationum to the Diet of Torda convene in a session that ends on January 13, during which freedom of religion is debated.
• January 28 – The Edict of Torda, Europe's first declaration of religious freedom, is adopted by the Kingdom of Hungary.
• February 7 – Members of a Spanish expedition, commanded by Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, become the first Europeans to see the Solomon Islands, landing at Santa Isabel Island.
• February 16 – Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, governor of the Spanish Netherlands issues an edict condemning to death those who rebel against Spanish authority to combat religious unrest.
• February 17 – Treaty of Adrianople (sometimes called the Peace of Adrianople): The Habsburgs agree to pay tribute to the Ottomans.
• February 23 – Akbar the Great of the Mughal Empire captures the massive Chittor Fort in northern India from the Kingdom of Mewar after the Siege of Chittorgarh that began on October 23, 1567.
• February 28 – French Huguenots begin the Siege of Chartres, but fail to take the walled city after 15 days.
• March 23 – The Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. Again Catherine de' Medici and Charles IX make substantial concessions to the Huguenots.

April–June

• April 23 – Eighty Years' War: The Battle of Dahlen takes place in the Duchy of Jülich near the modern-day Rheindahlen borough in the German city of Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia. Spanish troops, commanded by Sancho d'Avila, overwhelm a larger force of Dutch rebels led by Jean de Montigny, Lord of Villers.
• May 2 – The deposed Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Lochleven Castle.
• May 13 – Marian civil war in Scotland: Battle of Langside – The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland and her half-brother.
• May 16 – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees across the Solway Firth from Scotland to England but on May 19 is placed in custody in Carlisle Castle on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I, her cousin.
• May 23 – Battle of Heiligerlee: Troops under Louis of Nassau, brother of William the Silent, defeat a smaller loyalist force under Jean de Ligne, in an attempt to invade the Northern Netherlands. This effectively begins the Eighty Years' War.
• June 1 – A mass execution is carried out in the Spanish Netherlands at Sablon, near Brussels, as 18 persons who signed the Compromise of Nobles on April 5, 1566, are beheaded.
• June 13 – Thomas Lancaster is consecrated as the Archbishop of Armagh, spiritual leader of the Church of Ireland, succeeding Archbishop Adam Loftus.
• June 27 – Ottoman pirate Kılıç Ali Pasha, formerly Italian farmer Giovanni Dionigi Galeni, is appointed as the Ottoman Beylerbey of Ottoman Algeria by the Sultan Selim II.

July–September

• July 21 – Battle of Jemmingen: The main Spanish army of the Duke of Alba utterly defeats Louis of Nassau's invading army in the Northeastern Netherlands.
• August 18 – The Third War of Religion begins in France, after an unsuccessful attempt by the Royalists to capture Louis I, Prince of Condé and Gaspard II de Coligny, the Huguenot leaders.
• September 24 – Battle of San Juan de Ulúa (Anglo-Spanish War): In the Gulf of Mexico, a Spanish fleet forces English privateers under John Hawkins to end their campaign.
• September 29 – The Swedish king Eric XIV is deposed by his half-brothers John and Charles. John proclaims himself king John III the next day.

October–December

• October 5 – William the Silent invades the southeastern Netherlands.
• October 18 — Ashikaga Yoshiaki is installed as Shōgun, beginning the Azuchi–Momoyama period in Japan.
• October 20 – Battle of Jodoigne: Spanish forces under the Duke of Alba destroy William the Silent's rearguard and William abandons his offensive.
• November 12 – Dutch rebels commanded by William the Silent defeat Spanish Habsburg troops led by Sancho d'Avila in the battle of Le Quesnoy in northern France.
• November 22 – The second treaty of Roskilde is signed between representatives of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Kingdom of Sweden to end the Northern Seven Years' War. Sweden cedes the Duchy of Estonia (Estland) to Danish control.
• November 27 – Burmese–Siamese War: Dispatched by King Bayinnaung, 55,000 Burmese troops arrive at Phitsanulok (in modern-day Thailand) and drive back the attack by armies from the Ayutthaya Kingdom (Thailand) and Lan Xang (Laos), then prepare to invade Ayutthaya to put down the rebellion by Ayutthayan King Maha Chakkraphat
• December 24 – The Morisco Revolt against King Philip II of Spain begins as Aben Humeya (formerly Fernando de Válor) is proclaimed as King of the Granadan rebels.
• December 28 – Ludwig III becomes the Duke of Württemberg in German Bavaria after the death of his father, Christoph.

Date unknown

• The Russo-Turkish War begins in Astrakhan.
• Álvaro I succeeds his stepfather Henrique I as ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo forming the Kwilu dynasty that rules the kingdom without interruption until May 1622.
• Polybius' Histories are first translated into English, by Christopher Watson.

1569

January–March

• January 11 — The first recorded lottery in England begins and continues, nonstop, at the west door of St Paul's Cathedral in London until May 6, when the winner is drawn. Each share costs ten shillings, and proceeds are used to repair harbours, and for other public works.
• February 26 — Pope Pius V issues a papal bull expelling all Jews from Italian and French territories.
• March 13 – Battle of Jarnac: Royalist troops under Marshal Gaspard de Tavannes surprise and defeat the Huguenots under Louis I, Prince of Condé, who is captured and murdered. A substantial proportion of the Huguenot army manages to escape, under Gaspard II de Coligny.

April–June

• April 15 – Burmese–Siamese War: Mahinthrathirat reclaims the throne of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (modern Thailand) upon the death of King Maha Chakkraphat.
• May 8 – King Bayinnaung of Burma puts down the revolt by Setthathirath of Lan Xang (modern Laos), and ending Lan Xang's attempt to rescue Thailand's Ayutthaya Kingdom from conquest.
• May 31 – Kasim Pasha of the Ottoman Empire begins the Ottoman attempt to conquer Astrakhan with tens of thousands of troops and a plan to build a canal between the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea to send Ottoman ships on the conquest. The attempt to build a canal proves to be unfeasible.
• June 10 – German Protestant troops reinforce Coligny, near Limoges.

July–September

• July 1 – The Union of Lublin unites the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, following votes in the Assemblies of three Lithuanian provinces (Volhynia, Ukraine and Podlasie) in favour of the incorporation.
• July 24 – Huguenot forces under Gaspard II de Coligny and 15-year-old Prince Henry of Navarre begin the siege of Poitiers, a Roman Catholic stronghold. The siege fails and the Huguenots depart on September 7.
• August 2 – Burma invades Siam and captures Ayutthaya. Siam becomes a vassal of Burma.
• August 24 – Battle of Orthez: Huguenot forces under Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery defeat Royalist forces under General Terride, in French Navarre. Catholics surrender under the condition that their lives will be spared. Huguenots agree, but then massacre the Catholics anyway.
• August 27 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany is formed.
• September 7 – A Royalist army under the Duc d'Anjou and Marshal Tavannes forces Coligny to abandon the siege of Poitiers.
• September 17 – Pope Pius V issues the papal bull Consueverunt Romani Pontifices setting specific elements for the devotion of the Rosary.
• September 26 – Kasim Pasha ends his attempt to conquer Astrakhan after realizing that his troops have only one month's supply of food left.
• September 28 – The first complete printed Bible in a Spanish translation (La Biblia), made by Casiodoro de Reina, is published in Basel.
• September 29 – Maha Thammarachathirat is installed by the Burmese Army as the vassal king of Ayutthaya.

October–December

• October 3 – Battle of Moncontour: The Royalist forces of Gaspard de Saulx Tavannes and the Duc d'Anjou defeat Gaspard II de Coligny's Huguenots, killing 8,000 and taking 3,000 prisoner.
• November 9 – The Rising of the North begins in England as the Earl of Westmorland and the Earl of Northumberland, both Catholic nobles, set off from Brancepeth Castle in County Durham with 700 men, in hopes of overthrowing Queen Elizabeth I and placing the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, on the English throne.
• November 11 — Danish General Daniel Rantzau arrives at the Swedish-held Varberg castle at Halland and orders his artillery to shell the castle with cannon fire. The Swedish defenders fire back with their own artillery and Rantzau's head is taken off by a cannonball on the first day.
• November 14 — The siege of Varberg Castle by Denmark ends after three days of shelling the Swedish defenders.
• November 26 — Francisco Álvarez de Toledo becomes the new Spanish Viceroy of Peru, succeeding Lope García de Castro as the governor-general of all Spanish territory in South America.
• December 2 — The Catholic army of the Duc d'Anjou inflicts another defeat on the Huguenots of Coligny, successfully besieging Saint-Jean-d'Angély.
• December 6 — The Kanbara castle, held by the Hōjō clan in what becomes the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan falls after a siege by Takeda Katsuyori of the Takeda clan. Hōjō Ujinobu, who had 1,000 men defending, commits suicide after the defeat.
• December 13 — An English counterattack against the Northern rebels begins as Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, marches from York with 10,000 men against the rebels' 6,000. The rebels disperse and flee northward back to Scotland, ending the Rising of the North.

Dates unknown

• The Mercator projection is first used in Gerardus Mercator's world map, Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendata.
• 1569 Plot: The first of three conspiracies with the intent to depose John III of Sweden and reinstate the imprisoned Eric XIV on the Swedish throne is exposed in Sweden.
• The trade compact of 1536 is renewed, exempting French merchants from Ottoman law, and allowing them to travel, buy and sell throughout the sultan's dominions, and to pay low customs duties on French imports and exports.
• Mughal Emperor Akbar founds Fatehpur Sikri, to honor the Muslim holy man Shaikh Salim Chisti, who has foretold the birth of Akbar's son and heir, Jahangir.