1550s

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1520s 1530s 1540s – 1550s – 1560s 1570s 1580s
Years:	1550 1551 1552 1553 1554 1555 1556 1557 1558 1559
1550s-related categories:	Births – Deaths – By country Establishments – Disestablishments

This is a list of events occurring in the 1550s, ordered by year.

January–June

• January 6 – Spanish Captain Hernando de Santana founds the city of Valledupar in what is now Colombian territory.
• February 8 – Pope Julius III succeeds Pope Paul III as the 221st pope.
• March 12 – Several hundred Spanish and indigenous troops under the command of Pedro de Valdivia defeat an army of 60,000 Mapuche at the Battle of Penco during the Arauco War in present-day Chile.
• June 12 – The city of Helsinki, Finland (belonging to Sweden at the time) is founded by King Gustav I of Sweden.

July–December

• July 21 – The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is approved by Pope Julius III.

Date unknown

• Altan Khan besieges Peking.
• Iceland becomes fully Protestant.
• The first grammatical description of the French language is published by Louis Maigret.
• The first book in Slovene, Catechismus, written by Protestant reformer Primož Trubar, is printed in Schwäbisch Hall, Holy Roman Empire.
• Nostradamus' first almanac is written.
• John Dee finishes his studies at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
• Sherborne School is established.
• Navigable summit level canal completed between Alster and the Trave.
• Approximate date – The discovery of silver at Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico, and Potosí in Bolivia, stimulates silver rushes.

January–June

• January–February – Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, and Tsar Ivan IV of Russia preside over the reforming Stoglavy Synod ("Hundred-Chapter") church council. A calendar of the saints and an ecclesiastical law code (Stoglav) are introduced.
• January 11 – Ketumati, Burma, is conquered by Bayinnaung.
• May 12 – The National University of San Marcos is founded in Lima (Peru), being the first officially established university in the Americas.

July–December

• July – Invasion of Gozo: Ottoman Turks and Barbary pirates invade the Mediterranean island of Gozo, enslaving all inhabitants (estimated at 5,000 to 6,000) and transporting them to Tarhuna Wa Msalata (in modern-day Libya).
• August 15 – Siege of Tripoli ends with the Knights of Malta surrendering Tripoli to the Ottoman Empire.
• September 21 – The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico is founded in Mexico City (Mexico), being the second officially established university in the Americas.
• October 11 – John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, de facto Lord Protector of the Kingdom of England, is created Duke of Northumberland.

Date unknown

• Persian forces raid and destroy the cave monastery of Vardzia in Georgia (country).
• In Henan province, China, during the Ming Dynasty, a severe frost in the spring destroys the winter wheat crop. Torrential rains in mid summer cause massive flooding of farmland and villages (by some accounts submerged in a metre of water). In the fall a large tornado demolishes houses and flattens much of the buckwheat in the fields. Famine victims either flee, starve, or resort to cannibalism. This follows a series of natural disasters in Henan in the years 1528, 1531, 1539, and 1545.
• The fifth outbreak of sweating sickness occurs in England. John Caius of Shrewsbury writes the first full contemporary account of the symptoms of the disease.
• In Slovakia, Guta (modern-day Kolárovo) receives town status.
• Portugal founds a sugar colony at Bahia.
• Juan de Betanzos begins to write his "Narrative of the Incas".
• New edition of the Genevan psalter, Pseaumes octantetrois de David, with Louis Bourgeois as supervising composer, including first publication of the hymn tune known as the "Old 100th".

January–June

• January 15 – Henry II of France and Maurice of Saxony sign the Treaty of Chambord.
• February 12 – Pedro de Valdivia founds the Chilean city of Valdivia as "Santa María la Blanca de Valdivia".
• February 24 – The privileges of the Hanseatic League are abolished in England.
• March – The Act of Uniformity imposes the Protestant Book of Common Prayer in England.
• March 26 – Guru Amar Das becomes the Third Sikh Guru.
• April – War breaks out between Henry II of France and Emperor Charles V. Henry invades Lorraine and captures Toul, Metz, and Verdun.
• April 16 – Pedro de Valdivia founds the city of La Imperial, Chile.
• May – Maurice of Saxony captures Augsburg and almost seizes Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor at Innsbruck.

July–December

• July – In Hungary, Drégely Castle is attacked by the Turks. Captain Szondy and cca 140 soldiers in the castle died after 4 days of fight against 8000 Turk raiders
• August 2
  • John Frederick, Elector of Saxony and Philipp I of Hesse, taken prisoner by Charles V in 1546, are released.
  • The Peace of Passau revokes the Augsburg Interim of 1548 and promises religious freedom to the Protestant princes.
• September – In Hungary, captain István Dobó commands the breaking of the Siege of Eger, led by Kara Ahmed Pasha of the Ottoman Empire.
• October 2 – The Khanate of Kazan falls to troops of Ivan IV of Russia.

Date unknown

• In the Persian Gulf, the Ottoman Empire Red Sea Fleet attacks the Portuguese stronghold of Hormuz but fails to capture it.
• Spain's Bartolomé de Las Casas publishes his attack on colonial practices in the New World, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.

• In Italy, Bartolomeo Eustachi completes his Tabulae anatomicae, presenting his discoveries on the structure of the inner ear and heart, although, for fear of the Inquisition, it will not be published until 1714.
• King Edward VI of England founds 35 grammar schools by royal charter, including Shrewsbury; Leeds Grammar School is also established.
• The Debatable Lands on the border of England and Scotland are divided between the two kingdoms by a commission in an unsuccessful attempt to halt lawlessness there. This gives both Scotland and England their modern borders.

January–June

• May – The first Royal Charter is granted to St. Albans in England.
• June 26 – Christ's Hospital and King Edward's School, Witley, England, are created by Royal Charter.

July–December

• July 9 – Battle of Sievershausen: Prince-elector Maurice of Saxony defeats the Catholic forces of Margrave Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. Maurice is mortally wounded.
• July 10 – Four days after the death of her cousin King Edward VI of England, Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England – a position she holds for the next nine days.
• July 18 – The Lord Mayor of London proclaims Mary I the rightful Queen; Lady Jane Grey voluntarily abdicates.
• July 19 – Queen Mary I of England begins her reign.
• August 3 – Queen Mary I of England arrives in London from East Anglia.
• August 22 – John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, a supporter of Lady Jane Grey, is executed.
• August – English explorer Richard Chancellor enters the White Sea and reaches Arkhangelsk, going on to the court of Ivan IV of Russia, opening up trade between England and Russia.
• September – Anglican bishops in England are arrested and Roman Catholic bishops are restored.
• October 6: Şehzade Mustafa, oldest son of Suleiman the Magnificent is executed in Konya by order of his father.
• September 23 – The Sadians consolidate their power in Morocco by defeating the last of their enemies.
• October 27 – Geneva's governing council burns Michael Servetus at the stake as a heretic.
• December 25 – Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and execute Pedro de Valdivia, the first Royal Governor of Chile.

Date unknown

• Tonbridge School founded by Sir Andrew Judde under letters patent of Edward VI of England.
• Publication in London of The xiii Bukes of Eneados of the famose Poete Virgill, the first published complete translation of any major work of classical antiquity into one of the English languages.
• In Ming Dynasty China:
  • The addition of a new section of the Outer City fortifications is completed in southern Beijing, bringing the overall size of Beijing to 18 square miles (4662 hectares).
  • Shanghai is fortified for the first time.

January–June

• January 5 – A great fire breaks out in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• January 12 – Bayinnaung is crowned king of the Burmese Taungoo dynasty.
• January 25 – São Paulo, Brazil, is founded.
• February 9 – Thomas Wyatt surrenders to government forces in London.
• February 12 – After claiming the throne of England the previous year, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.
• March 18 – Princess Elizabeth is imprisoned in the Tower of London.
• April 12 – Mary of Guise becomes Regent of Scotland.

July–December

• July 23–July 25 – Queen Mary I of England marries King Philip of Naples, the only son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in Winchester, England.
• August 2 – Battle of Marciano: Senese–French forces are defeated by the Florentine–Imperial army.
• August 12 – Battle of Renty: French forces led by Francis, Duke of Guise turn back an invasion of Picardy by Charles V.
• November – English captain John Lok voyages to Guinea.

Date unknown

• Mikael Agricola becomes the bishop of Turku.
• Saadi conquer the Kingdom of Fez.
• Exact center year of Counter Reformation.
• Name of beer brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company based on a recipe from this date called "1554."

January–June

• January 22 – Fall of the Ava Kingdom in Upper Burma.
• February 2 – The Diet of Augsburg begins.
• February 4 – John Rogers, burned at the stake in London, becomes the first Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.
• February 8 – Laurence Saunders becomes the second Marian Protestant martyr in England, being led barefoot to his execution by burning at the stake.
• February 9 – Rowland Taylor, Rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk, and John Hooper, deposed Bishop of Gloucester, are burned at the stake in England.
• April 10 – Pope Marcellus II succeeds Julius III as the 222nd pope. He will reign for 22 days.
• April 17 – After 18 months of siege, the Republic of Siena surrenders to the Florentine–Imperial army.
• May 23 – Pope Paul IV succeeds Marcellus II as the 223rd pope.
• June 1 – Treaty of Amasya between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia concludes the Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555).

July–December

• July 12 – Pope Paul IV creates the first Jewish ghetto in Rome.
• September 25 – The Peace of Augsburg is signed between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League establishing the principle Cuius regio, eius religio, that is, rulers within the Empire can choose the religion of their realm.
• October 16 – Two of the Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, are burned at the stake in England.
• October 25 – Charles V abdicates as Holy Roman Emperor and is succeeded by his brother Ferdinand.

Date unknown

• Russia breaks a 60-year-old truce with Sweden by attacking Finland.
• Humayun resumes rule of the Mughal Empire.
• Bairam Khan defeats Hindu forces at Panipat.
• Collapse of the Adal Sultanate in the Horn of Africa.
• The Muscovy Company is chartered in England to trade with Muscovy and Richard Chancellor negotiates with the Tsar.
• English captain John Lok returns from Guinea with 5 Africans to train as interpreters for future trading voyages.
• Richard Eden publishes The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, a translation into English of parts of Pietro Martire d'Anghiera's De orbe novo decades, Gonzalo Oviedo's Natural hystoria de las Indias and others including the first recorded use in English of the country name 'China'.
• "Negro" – the Spanish term for "black person" – is coined.
• Gresham's School is founded by Sir John Gresham at Holt, Norfolk in England.
• William Annyas becomes the Mayor of Youghal in Ireland, the first Jew to hold such a position in Ireland.
• John Dee is charged, but cleared, of treason in England.
• Orlande de Lassus' first book of madrigals is published, in Antwerp.
• Lorenzo de' Medici orders a violin from Andrea Amati of Cremona.

January–June

• January 16 – Charles I, having already abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor, resigns the Kingdom of Spain in favour of his son, Philip II, and retires to a monastery.
• January 23 – The Shaanxi earthquake, the deadliest earthquake in history, occurs with its epicenter in Shaanxi province, China; 830,000 people may have been killed.
• February 5 – Truce of Vaucelles: Fighting temporarily ends between France and Spain.
• February 14
  • Akbar ascends to the throne of the Mughal Empire at age 13; he will rule until his death in 1605 by which time most of the north and centre of the Indian subcontinent will be under his control.
  • Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
• February 22 (approx.) – Sophia Jagiellon marries Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
• March 21 – In Oxford, Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake for treason.

July–December

• November – The Truce of Vaucelles collapses, and war resumes between Henry II of France and Philip II of Spain.
• November 5 – Second Battle of Panipat: Fifty miles north of Delhi, a Mogul Army defeats Hindu forces of General Hemu, to ensure Akbar the throne of India.

Date unknown

• The kings of Spain take control of the Flanders region, including what is now the French département of Nord.
• The Plantations of Ireland are started in King's County (now County Offaly) and Queen's County (now County Laois), the earliest attempt at systematic ethnic cleansing in Ireland, by the Roman Catholic ruler Queen Mary I of England.
• Future King John III of Sweden becomes ruler of Finland as Hertig Johan.
• Ivan the Terrible conquers Astrakhan, opening the Volga River to Russian traffic and trade.
• Welser banking families of Augsburg lose colonial control of Venezuela.
• Lorenzo Priuli becomes Doge of Venice.
• The false Martin Guerre appears in the French village of Artigat.
• The first printing press in India is introduced by Jesuits at Saint Paul's College, Goa.

January–June

• April 12 – The Spanish settlement of Cuenca, Ecuador, is founded.
• April 30 – Arauco War: Battle of Mataquito: Spanish forces of the Governor Francisco de Villagra launch a dawn surprise attack against the Mapuche headed by their toqui Lautaro in present-day Chile.
• June 7 – Mary I of England joins her husband Philip II of Spain in his war against France.
• June 10 – The New Testament of the Geneva Bible, a Protestant Bible translation into English produced under the supervision of William Whittingham and printed in Roman type, is published in Geneva.

July–December

• August 10 – Battle of St. Quentin: French forces under Marshal Anne de Montmorency are decisively defeated by the Spanish and English under Duke Emanuel Philibert of Savoy. Montmorency himself is captured, but Philip II refuses to press his advantage, and withdraws to the Netherlands.
• September 11–October 8 – The Colloquy of Worms convenes.
• October 27 – Emperor Ōgimachi accedes to the throne of Japan.

Date unknown

• Özdemir Pasha conquers the Red Sea port of Massawa for the Ottoman Empire.
• Cossack chieftain Dimitrash tries to take Azov.
• With the permission of the Ming Dynasty government of China and the benefit of both Western and Eastern merchants, the Portuguese settle in Macau (retroceded in 1999). Direct Sino-Portuguese trade had existed since 1513, but this is the first official legal treaty port on traditional Chinese soil that will form a long-term Western settlement. Soon after, China legalizes foreign trade, and Chinese began to migrate overseas.
• Spain becomes bankrupt, throwing the German banking houses into chaos.
• Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, is refounded by John Caius.
• The following schools are founded in England:
  • Brentwood School, Essex, by Sir Antony Browne.
  • Hampton School, Hampton, London, by Robert Hammond.
  • Repton School, by Sir John Port.
• Welsh-born mathematician Robert Recorde publishes The Whetstone of Witte in London, containing the first recorded use of the equals sign and also the first use in English of plus and minus signs.

January–June

• January 7 – French troops led by Francis, Duke of Guise take Calais, the last continental possession of the Kingdom of England.
• January 9 – Geneva becomes independent from the Canton of Bern.
• January 22 – Beginning of the Livonian War.
• February 2 – The University of Jena is founded in Thuringia, Germany.
• February 5 – during the Arauco War, Pedro de Avendaño with sixty men capture Caupolicán, the Mapuche Gran Toqui leading their first revolt against the Spanish Empire, nearby Antihuala encamped with a small band of followers.
• April 24 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Francis, Dauphin of France, at Notre Dame de Paris.

July–December

• July 13 – Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Lamoral, Count of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul de Thermes at Gravelines.
• July 18 – The city of Tartu, capital of the Bishopric of Dorpat (in modern-day Estonia) surrenders to Russia.
• October 17 – Postal history of Poland: King Sigismund II Augustus appoints an Italian merchant living in Kraków to organise a consolidated postal service in Poland, the origin of Poczta Polska.
• November 17 – The Elizabethan era begins in England: the Catholic Queen Mary dies and is succeeded by her younger Protestant half-sister Elizabeth who will rule for 44 years.

Date unknown

• John Knox's attack on female rulers, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women, is published anonymously from Geneva.
• Queen Elizabeth grants rest and refreshment to pilgrims and travellers who pass by the Holy Well Spring, Malvern in England.
• English explorer Anthony Jenkinson travels from Moscow to Astrakhan and Bukhara. He is the first Englishman to note that the Amu Darya changed course to start flowing into the Aral Sea.

January–June

• January – King Philip II of Spain marries his third wife, 14-year-old Elisabeth of Valois.
• January 15 – Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
• February 27 – Queen Elizabeth I of England establishes the Church of England, with the Act of Uniformity 1558 and the Act of Supremacy 1558. The Oath of Supremacy is reinstated.
• March 23 – Emperor Gelawdewos of Ethiopia, defending his lands against the invasion of Nur ibn Mujahid, Sultan of Harar, is killed in battle. His brother Menas succeeds him as king.
• April 2–April 3 – Peace of Cateau Cambrésis: France makes peace with England and Spain, ending the Italian War of 1551–59. France gives up most of its gains in Italy (including Savoy), keeping only Saluzzo, but keeps the three Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and the formerly English town of Calais.
• May 2 – John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the beginning Scottish Reformation.
• May 13 – At Basel, the body of Dutch Anabaptist leader David Joris is exhumed and burned, following his posthumous conviction of heresy.
• June 2 – A royal edict in France makes heresy punishable by death.

July–December

• July 10 – Francis II becomes King of France following the death of his father, Henry II, in a jousting accident.
• August 15 – Led by Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano, a Spanish missionary colony of 1,500 men, on 13 ships, arrives from Vera Cruz at Pensacola Bay, founding the oldest European settlement in the mainland U.S. (St. Augustine is founded in 1565.)
• September 19 – Just weeks after arrival at Pensacola, the Spanish missionary colony is decimated by a hurricane that kills hundreds, sinks five ships, with a galleon, and grounds a caravel; the 1,000 survivors divide to relocate/resupply the settlement, but suffer famine & attacks, and abandon the effort in 1561.
• September 21 – The 15-year-old King Francis II of France is crowned at Reims. The crown is too heavy for him and has to be held in place by his nobles.
• December 25 – Pope Pius IV succeeds Pope Paul IV as the 224th pope.

Date unknown

• Oda Nobunaga wins control of his native province of Owari.
• Margaret of Parma becomes Governor of the Netherlands in place of her brother, King Philip II of Spain.
• Jean Nicot, French ambassador to Portugal 1559–61, describes the medicinal properties of tobacco which he introduces in the form of snuff to the French court.
• Pope Paul IV promulgates the Pauline Index, an early version of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
• Between 1559 and 1736 almost 1,000 people accused of being witches are executed in England.