From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries: 15th century · 16th century · 17th century
Decades: 1500s 1510s 1520s 1530s 1540s
1550s 1560s 1570s 1580s 1590s
Categories: Births – Deaths
Establishments – Disestablishments

David
Michelangelo, 1515
Carrara Marble
Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia

Mona Lisa
(Italian: La Gioconda, French:La Joconde)
Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1506
Oil on poplar
77 × 53 cm, 30 × 21 in
Musée du Louvre, Paris

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century lasted from 1501 through 1600.

Events

1500–1509

• 1500s: Mississippian culture disappears.
• 1500: Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral officially discovers Brazil.
• 1500: The Ottoman fleet of Kemal Reis defeats the Venetians at the Second Battle of Lepanto.
• 1501: Michelangelo returns to his native Florence to begin work on the statue David.
• 1501: Safavid dynasty rules Iran until 1736. Safavids adopt a Shia branch of Islam.[1]
• 1503: Nostradamus was born on either December 14, or December 21.
• 1503: Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa and completes it three or four years later.
• 1503: Spain defeats France at the Battle of Cerignola. Considered to be the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms.
• 1504: A droughty period, with famine in all of Spain.
• 1506: At least two thousand converted Jews are massacred in a Lisbon riot.
• 1506: Christopher Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain.
• 1506: Poland is invaded by Tatars from the Crimean Khanate.
• 1509: The Battle of Diu marks the beginning of Portuguese dominance of the Spice trade.

1510s

• 1511: Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca, the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca.
• 1512: Copernicus writes Commentariolus, and moves the sun to the center of the solar system.
• 1512: The southern part (historical core) of the Kingdom of Navarre is invaded by Castile and Aragon.
• 1513: Machiavelli writes The Prince a novel about political philosophy
• 1513: The Portuguese mariner Jorge Álvares lands at Macau, China, during the Ming Dynasty.
• 1513: Henry VIII crush the French at the Battle of the Spurs.
• 1513: The Battle of Flodden Field in which invading Scots are defeated by Henry VIII's forces.
• 1513: Sultan Selim I ("The Grim") orders the massacre of Shia Muslims in Anatolia.
• 1514: The Battle of Orsha halts Muscovy's expansion into Eastern Europe.
• 1515: The Ottoman Empire wrests Eastern Anatolia from the Safavids after the Battle of Chaldiran.
• 1516-17: The Ottomans defeat the Mamluks and gain control of Egypt, Arabia, and the Levant.
• 1517: The Protestant Reformation begins when Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses in Saxony.
• 1518: Mir Chakar Khan Rind leaves Baluchistan and settled in Punjab.
• 1519: Leonardo da Vinci dies of natural causes at May 2.
• 1519: Wang Yangming, the Chinese philosopher and governor of Jiangxi province, describes his intent to use the fire power of the fo-lang-ji, a breech-loading Portuguese culverin, in order to suppress the rebellion of Prince Zhu Chen-hao.
• 1519: Barbary pirates led by Hayreddin Barbarossa raid Provence and Toulon in southern France.
• 1519: Charles I of Spain becomes Emperor of Holy Roman Empire as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (ruled until 1556).
• 1519-22: Spanish expedition commanded by Magellan and Elcano first to circle Earth
• 1519-21: Hernán Cortés leads the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

1520s

• 1520-1566: The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent marks the zenith of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1521: Belgrade is captured by the Ottoman Empire.
• 1521: After building fortifications at Tuen Mun, the Portuguese attempt to invade Ming Dynasty China, but are expelled by Chinese naval forces.
• 1521: Philippines discovered by Ferdinand Magellan. He was later killed in battle in central Philippines in the same year.
• 1522: Rhodes falls to the Ottoman Turks of Suleiman the Magnificent.[2]
• 1523: Sweden gains independence from the Kalmar Union.
• 1524-25: Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano is the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between South Carolina and Newfoundland.
• 1525: Spain and Germany defeat France at the Battle of Pavia, Francis I of France is captured.
• 1526: The Ottomans conquer the Kingdom of Hungary at the Battle of Mohács.
• 1526: Mughal Empire, founded by Babur, rules India until 1739 and hold titles until 1857.
• 1527: Sack of Rome is considered the end of the Italian Renaissance.
• 1527: Protestant Reformation begins in Sweden.
• 1529: The Siege of Vienna marks the Ottoman Empire's furthest advance into Europe.

1530s

• 1531-32: The Church of England breaks away from the Roman Catholic Church and recognizes King Henry VIII as the head of the Church.
• 1531: The Inca Civil War is fought between the two brothers, Atahualpa and Huáscar.
• 1532: Francisco Pizarro leads the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
• 1534: Jacques Cartier claims Quebec for France.
• 1534: The Ottomans capture Baghdad.
• 1534: Affair of the Placards - Francis becomes more active in repression of French Protestants.
• 1535: The Münster Rebellion, an attempt of radical, millennialist, Anabaptists to establish a theocracy ends in bloodshed.
• 1537: Portuguese establishes Recife in Pernambuco, north-east of Brazil.
• 1538: Spanish-Venetian fleet is defeated by the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Preveza.
• 1539: Hernando de Soto explores inland North America.