16th century

1550s

• 1550: Mongols led by Altan Khan invade China and besiege Beijing.
• 1550-1551: Valladolid debate concerning the existence of souls in Amerindians
• 1551: Fifth outbreak of sweating sickness in England. John Caius of Shrewsbury writes the first full contemporary account of the symptoms of the disease.
• 1551: North African pirates enslave the entire population of the Maltese island Gozo, between 5,000 and 6,000, sending them to Libya.
• 1552: Russia conquers the Khanate of Kazan.
• 1553: Portuguese found a settlement at Macau.
• 1555: The Muscovy Company is the first major English joint stock trading company.
• 1556: Publication in Venice of Delle Navigiationi et Viaggi (terzo volume) by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, secretary of Council of Ten, with plan La Terra de Hochelaga, an illustration of Indian village Hochelaga. See »http://jacquescartier.org/plan-hochelaga/index.html
• 1556: The Shaanxi Earthquake in China is history's deadliest known earthquake.
• 1556: Georgius Agricola, the "Father of Mineralogy", publishes his De re metallica.
• 1556: Akbar the Great defeats the Sultan of Bengal at the Second battle of Panipat
• 1556: Russia conquers the Astrakhan Khanate.
• 1556-1605: During his reign, Akbar expands the Mughal Empire in a series of conquests.
• 1556: Mir Chakar Khan Rind captured Delhi with Emperor Humayun.
• 1556: Pomponio Algerio, radical theologian, is executed by boiling in oil as part of the Roman inquisition.
• 1557: The Portuguese settle in Macau.
• 1557: Spain became the first sovereign nation in history to declare bankruptcy. Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596.
• 1558-1603: The Elizabethan era is considered the height of the English Renaissance.
• 1558-83: Livonian War between Poland, Grand Principality of Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark and Russia.
• 1558: After 200 years, the Kingdom of England loses Calais to France.
• 1559: With the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis, the Italian Wars conclude.

1560s

• 1560: Ottoman navy defeats the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Djerba.
• 1560: Erzsebet Bathory is born in Nyirbator, Hungary.
• 1561: Guido de Bres draws up the Belgic Confession of Protestant faith.
• 1562: Mughal leader Akbar reconciles the Muslim and Hindu factions by marrying into the powerful Rajput Hindu caste.
• 1562-98: French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots.
• 1562: Massacre of Wassy and Battle of Dreux in the French Wars of Religion.
• 1563: Plague outbreak claimed 80,000 people in Elizabethan England. In London alone, over 20,000 people died of the disease.
• 1564: Galileo Galilei born on February 15
• 1564: William Shakespeare baptized 26 April
• 1565: Battle of Talikota fought between the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar and the Deccan sultanates.
• 1565: Mir Chakar Khan Rind died age of 97.
• 1565: Estácio de Sá establishes Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
• 1565: Siege of Malta by Ottoman Turkish forces.
• 1566-1648: Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands.
• 1567: Mary, Queen of Scots is imprisoned by Elizabeth I.
• 1568-1571: Morisco Revolt in Spain.
• 1568-1600: The Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan.
• 1569: Rising of the North in England.
• 1569: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is created with the Union of Lublin which lasts until 1795.

1570s

• 1570: Ivan the Terrible orders to massacre inhabitants of Novgorod.
• 1571: Pope Pius V completes the Holy League as a united front against the Ottoman Turks.
• 1571: The Holy League defeats a force of Ottoman galleys in the Battle of Lepanto.
• 1571: Crimean Tatars attack and sack Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin.
• 1571: Spanish missionaries are murdered by Indians at the later Jamestown Settlement, Virginia.
• 1572: Brielle is taken from Habsburg Spain by Protestant Watergeuzen in the Capture of Brielle, in the Eighty Years' War.
• 1572: Spanish conquistadores apprehend the last Inca leader Tupak Amaru at Vilcabamba, Peru, and execute him in Cuzco.
• 1572: Catherine de' Medici instigates the St. Bartholomew's 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.
• 1573: After heavy losses on both sidee the Siege of Haarlem ends in a Spanish victory.
• 1574: in the Eighty Years' War the capital of Zeeland, Middelburg declares for the Protestans.
• 1574: After a siege of 4 months the Siege of Leiden ends in a comprehensive Dutch victory.
• 1575: Oda Nobunaga finally captures Nagashima fortress.
• 1576: Sack of Antwerp by badly paid Spanish soldiers.
• 1577-80: Francis Drake circles the World.
• 1578: King Sebastian of Portugal is killed at the Battle of Alcazarquivir.
• 1579: The Union of Utrecht unifies the northern Netherlands, a foundation for the later Dutch Republic.
• 1579: The Union of Arras unifies the southern Netherlands, a foundation for the later states of the Spanish Netherlands, the Austrian Netherlands and Belgium
• 1580: Drake's 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 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, i.e. until 1640.

1580s

• 1582: Pope Gregory XIII issues the Gregorian calendar.
• 1582: Yermak Timofeyevich conquers the Siberia Khanate on behalf of the Stroganovs.
• 1584-85: After the Siege of Antwerp, many of its merchants flee to Amsterdam.
• 1585-1604: The Anglo-Spanish War is fought on both sides of the Atlantic.
• 1588: England repulses the Spanish Armada.
• 1589: Spain repulses the English Armada.

1590s

• 1591: Gazi Giray leads a huge Tatar expedition against Moscow.
• 1591: In Mali, Moroccan forces of the Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur led by Judar Pasha defeat the Songhai Empire at the Battle of Tondibi.
• 1592-1593: John Stow reports 10,675 plague deaths in London, a city of approximately 200,000 people.
• 1592-98: Korea, with the help of Ming Dynasty China, repels two Japanese invasions.
• 1593-1606: The Long War between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Turks.
• 1598: The Edict of Nantes ends the French Wars of Religion.
• 1598-1613: Russia descends into anarchy during the Time of Troubles.
• 1600: Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake for heresy in Rome.
• 1600: Battle of Sekigahara in Japan. End of the Warring States period and beginning of the Edo period.

Significant people

• Henry VII of England, founder of the Tudor dynasty. Introduced ruthlessly efficient mechanisms of taxation which restored the kingdom after a state of virtual bankruptcy due to the effects of the Wars of the Roses (1457 - 1509).
• Zygmunt I the Old, King of Poland, established a conscription army and the bureaucracy needed to finance it (1467 - 1548).
• György Dózsa, leader of the peasants' revolt in Hungary (1470 - 1514)
• Martin Luther, German religious reformer (1483 - 1546).
• King Henry VIII of England, founder of Anglicanism (1491 - 1547).
• Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (1491 - 1556).
• King Francis I of France, considered the first Renaissance monarch of his Kingdom (1494 - 1547).
• Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Conqueror and legal reformer (1494 - 1566).
• King Gustav I of Sweden, restored Swedish sovereignty and introduced Protestantism in Sweden (1496-1560).
• Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and the first to reign as King of Spain. Involved in almost constant conflict with France and the Ottoman Empire while promoting the Spanish colonization of the Americas (1500 - 1558).
• Cuauhtémoc, the last Tlatoani of the Aztec, led the native resistance against the Conquistadores (1502 - 1525).
• Michel Nostradamus, French astrologer and doctor, author of Les Propheties, a book of world prophecies (1503 - 1566).
• Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi, Somali Imam and general (1507 - 1543).
• John Calvin, theologian, and reformer. Founder of Calvinism (1509 - 1564).
• Mary I of England. Attempted to counter the Protestant Reformation in her domains. Nick-named Bloody Mary for her Religious persecution (1516 - 1558).
• Andrea Amati, (c. 1520 – c. 1578) was the earliest maker of violins whose instruments still survive today.
• John Knox (c. 1510 – 1572) was a Scottish clergyman and leader of the Protestant Reformation who is considered the founder of the Presbyterian denomination.
• King Philip II of Spain, self-proclaimed leader of Counter-Reformation (1527 - 1598).
• Ivan IV of Russia, first Russian tsar (1533-1584).
• William the Silent, William I of Orange-Nassau, main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish (1533-1584).
• Wanli Emperor, Emperor of China during the Ming Dynasty, aided Korea in the Imjin War, (1563 - 1620)
• Elizabeth I of England, central figure of the Elizabethan era (1533 - 1603). She was the granddaughter of the aforementioned Henry VII, daughter of Henry VIII and paternal half-sister of Mary I. Though some within her court thought of her merely as a bastard, due to the fact that her father executed her supposedly criminal mother Anne Boleyn, her reign is still considered one of the greatest ever in England's history.
• Oda Nobunaga , daimyo of the Sengoku period of Japanese civil war. First ruler of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1534 - 1582).
• Toyotomi Hideyoshi , daimyo of the Sengoku period of Japanese civil war. Second ruler of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1536 - 1598).
• Edward VI of England, notable for further differentiating Anglicanism from the practices of the Roman Catholic Church (1537 - 1553).
• Lady Jane Grey, Queen regnant of England and Ireland. Notably deposed by popular revolt (1537 - 1554).
• Mary I of Scotland, First female head of the House of Stuart (1542 - 1587).
• Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Dutch politician and Grand Pensionary, played a pivotal role in organizing the Dutch revolt against Spain (1542 - 1619).
• Admiral Yi Sun-sin , Korean admiral, respected as one of the greatest admirals in world history. (1545 - 1598).
• King Henry IV of France and Navarre, ended the French Wars of Religion and reunited the kingdom under his command (1553 - 1610).
• Michael the Brave, ruler of Walachia, national symbol of Romanians for uniting the three provinces under his rule in 1600 (1558 - 1601)
• Giovanni Battista Ramusio, diplomat and secretary of council of Ten of Venice Italy, author of Delle Navigationi et Viaggi. Third volume (terzo volume) containing plan La Terra de Hochelaga showing village of Hochelaga (1585 - 1657). See »http://jacquescartier.org/ramusio/index.html
• Matteo Ricci, Italian Jesuit who traveled to Macau, China in 1582, and died in Beijing, (1552 - 1610)

Exploration

• Vasco Núñez de Balboa (c. 1475 - 1519) - Spanish explorer. The first European to cross the Isthmus of Panama and view the Pacific ocean from American shores.
• Pedro Álvares Cabral, first European to arrive in Brazil in 22 April, 1500 (c. 1467 - 1520).
• Jacques Cartier (1491 – 1557) - French explorer. Discovered Canada.
• Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (c. 1510 - 1554) - Spanish explorer. Searched for the Seven Cities of Gold and discovered the Grand Canyon in the process
• Hernán Cortés, Spanish Conquistador (1485 - 1547).
• Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 - 1596) - English explorer. The first English captain to sail around the world and survive.
• Juan Sebastián Elcano (1476 - 1526) - Spanish explorer. Completed the first circumnavigation of the globe in a single expedition after its captain, Magellan, was killed.
• Vasco da Gama, Portuguese navigator, first one to sail around the Cape of Good Hope (c. 1469 - 1524).
• Juan Ponce de León (c. 1460 - 1521) - Spanish explorer. He explored Florida while attempting to locate a Fountain of Youth.
• Ferdinand Magellan Portuguese navigator who sailed around the world (1480 - 1521).
• Francisco de Orellana (1511-1546) - Spanish explorer in 1541-42 sails the length of the Amazon River.
• Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475 - 1541) - Spanish explorer. Conquered the Inca Empire.
• Hernando de Soto (c. 1496 - 1542) - Spanish explorer. Explored Florida, mainly northwest Florida, and discovered the Mississippi River.
• Luis Váez de Torres (c. 1565-1607) Spanish or Portuguese navigator. Explored the Pacific for the Spanish crown.
• Giovanni da Verrazzano (c. 1485 - 1528) - Italian explorer for France. Explored the northeast coast of America, from about present day South Carolina to Newfoundland.

Visual artists

• Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian painter and sculptor (1475 - 1564).
• Caravaggio, Italian artist (1571 - 1610).
• Albrecht Dürer, German artist, (1471 - 1528)
• Hans Holbein the Younger, German artist, (1497 - 1543)
• Raphael, Italian painter, (1483 - 1520)
• Titian, Italian painter, (c. 1485 - 1576)
• Paolo Veronese, Italian painter, (1528 – April 19 1588)
• Leonardo da Vinci famous artist and inventor and scientist (1452 – 1519).
• Qiu Ying, Chinese painter who belonged to the Wu School and used gongbi brush style (1494 - 1552)

Musicians and Composers

• Andrea Amati (c. 1520 – c. 1578)
• Felice Anerio (c. 1560–1614)
• Adriano Banchieri (c. 1557–1634)
• Giovanni Bassano (c. 1558–1617)
• William Brade (1560–1630)
• John Bull (c. 1562–1628)
• Giulio Caccini (c. 1545–1618)
• Dario Castello (c. 1560–c. 1640)
• Jacques Champion (before 1555–1642)
• Manuel Rodrigues Coelho (c. 1555–c. 1635)
• John Dowland (1563–1626)
• Giles Farnaby (1565–1640)
• Alfonso Fontanelli (1557–1622)
• Hans Leo Hassler (1562–1612)
• Sebastian Aguilera de Heredia (1565–1627)
• Ascanio Mayone (1565–1627)
• Giovanni Bernardino Nanino (c. 1560–1623)
• Johannes Nucius (c. 1556–1620)
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, (1525-1594)
• Jacopo Peri (1561–1633)
• Peter Philips (c. 1560–1628)
• Hieronymus Praetorius (1560–1629)
• Paolo Quagliati (c. 1555–1628)
• Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621)
• Jean Titelouze (1563–1633)
• Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (1564–1627)

Literature

• Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar, Spanish poet and painter, (1483 - 1541)
• Luís de Camões, Portuguese poet (c. 1524 –1580).
• Baldassare Castiglione, Italian author (1478 - 1529)
• Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author (1547 - 1616).
• John Donne, English metaphysical poet (1572 - 1631)
• John Ford, English dramatist (1586 - c. 1640).
• Thomas Heywood, English dramatist (c, early 1570s - 1641)
• Ben Jonson, English dramatist c.1572 - 1637)
• Thomas Kyd, English dramatist (1558 – 1594)
• Thomas Lodge, English dramatist (1558 - 1625)
• Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian author (1469 - 1527)
• Christopher Marlowe, English poet and dramatist (1564 – 1593).
• Michel de Montaigne, French essayist (1533 – 1592).
• Thomas More, English politician and author (1478 - 1535).
• Miyamoto Musashi, famous warrior in Japan, author of The Book of Five Rings, a treaty on strategy and martial combat. (1584 - 1645)
• François Rabelais, French author (c. 1493 - 1553).
• Mikołaj Rej, Polish writer (1505 - 1569).
• Pierre de Ronsard, French poet. Called the 'Prince of poets' of his generation. (1524 – 1585).
• William Shakespeare, English author (1564 - 1616).
• Edmund Spenser, English poet (c. 1552 - 1599)
• Lope de Vega, Spanish dramatist (1562 – 1635).

Science and Philosophy

• Sir Francis Bacon, (1561 – 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, and essayist. He is also known as a catalyst of the scientific revolution.
• Tycho Brahe, (1546 – 1601), Danish astronomer.
• Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher and astronomer/astrologer (1548 - 1600).
• Nicolaus Copernicus, (1473 – 1543) astronomer, developed the heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory using scientific methods.
• Galileo Galilei (1564 Drake (1978, p.1). The date of Galileo's birth is given according to the Julian calendar, which was then in force throughout the whole of Christendom. In 1582 it was replaced in Italy and several other Catholic countries with the Gregorian calendar. Unless otherwise indicated, dates in this article are given according to the Gregorian calendar. – 1642) was a Tuscan (Italian) physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution.
• Konrad Gessner (1516 – 1565) was a Swiss naturalist, bibliographer, Botanist, His three-volume Historiae Animalium (1551-1558) is considered the beginning of modern zoology
• William Gilbert, also known as Gilbard, 1544 – 1603) was an English physician and a natural philosopher.
• Edward Wright, (baptized 1561; died 1615), English mathematician and cartographer who determined the mathematical basis of the Mercator projection and produced the first maps in England according to this method.

Inventions, discoveries, introductions