WHAT HAPPENED IN 16. CENTURY
Find out what all happened in the 16. century

The Ava Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in what is now present-day Burma. (22. January 1555)

Having published nothing for eleven years, François Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel. (23. January 1546)

The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000. (23. January 1556)

James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such. (23. January 1570)

The Royal Exchange opens in London. (23. January 1571)

The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands. (23. January 1579)

Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn. (25. January 1533)

Founding of São Paulo city, Brazil. (25. January 1554)

Battle of Mikatagahara: In Japan, Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu. (25. January 1573)

Luanda, the capital of Angola, is founded by the Portuguese navigator Paulo Dias de Novais. (25. January 1575)

Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake—thousands die. (26. January 1531)

The Council of Trent issues its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. (26. January 1564)

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Tsardom of Russia in the Battle of Ula during the Livonian War. (26. January 1564)

Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Islamic sultanates of the Deccan, leads to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subcontinent. (26. January 1565)

Job is elected as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. (26. January 1589)

The Vatican opens the seven-year trial of scholar Giordano Bruno. (27. January 1593)

The Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25. (28. January 1521)

Henry VIII dies. His nine-year-old son, Edward VI becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler of England. (28. January 1547)

Articles of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland. (28. January 1573)

France cedes Naples to Aragon. (31. January 1504)