Events

• March 4 - Hernán Cortés lands in Mexico.
• June 28 - Charles I of Spain becomes Emperor of Holy Roman Empire as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (ruled until 1556).
• September 20 - Ferdinand Magellan leaves Europe to circumnavigate the world.
• November 8 - Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with great pomp as would befit a returning god.

• Erasmus publishes his Colloquia .
• Martin Luther questions the infallibility of papal decrees.
• Mannerism, artistic form appears in Italy and spreads.
• Spanish find Barbados.
• Cacao comes to Europe.
• Panama founded.

Births

• February 16 - Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (d. 1572)
• March 31 - King Henri II of France (d.1559)
• April 13 - Catherine de Medici, Queen of France (d. 1589)
• June 12 - Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1575)
• June 15 - Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, illegitimate son of Henry VIII of England and Elizabeth Blount
• July 22 - Pope Innocent IX (d. 1591)
• Thoinot_Arbeau (anagram of Jehan Tabourot), author of Orchesographie

Deaths

• January 12 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
• January 21 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer
• May 2 - Leonardo da Vinci, inventor, painter and widely regarded genius (b. 1452).
• June 24 - Lucrezia Borgia, illegitimate daughter of deceased Pope Alexander VI (b.1480)
• August 11 - Johann Tetzel, Dominican priest.