WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 16. CENTURY
Find out what all happened in the first half of the 16. century

The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is first explored by the Portuguese. (1. January 1502)

King Francis I of France succeeds to the French throne. (1. January 1515)

Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I of Austria as King of Croatia in the Parliament on Cetin. (1. January 1527)

Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. (3. January 1521)

Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zurich, Switzerland, is executed by drowning. (5. January 1527)

King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves. (6. January 1540)

Gustav I of Sweden crowned king of Sweden. (12. January 1528)

Treaty of Toledo signed by King Francis I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. (12. January 1539)

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey is sentenced to death. (13. January 1547)

Spain annexes Cuba. (14. January 1539)

King Francis I of France gives Jean-François Roberval a commission to settle the province of New France (Canada) and provide for the spread of the "Holy Catholic faith". (15. January 1541)

Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Czar of Russia. (16. January 1547)

Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean. (17. January 1524)

Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founds Lima, the capital of Peru. (18. January 1535)

Mirandola surrenders to the French. (19. January 1511)

Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund. (19. January 1520)

Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway. (20. January 1523)

The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. (21. January 1525)

Following the Affair of the Placards, French Protestants are burned at the stake in front of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris (21. January 1535)

The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican. (22. January 1506)