Events

• May 10 - Jacques Cartier explores Newfoundland while searching for the Northwest Passage.
• June 9 - Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the St. Lawrence River.
• July 7 - First known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick.
• Cambridge University Press given Royal Charter by Henry VIII and becomes the first of the privileged presses
• Henry VIII angry at the Pope's refusal to grant divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Henry declares himself Supreme Head of the English church a.k.a. the Anglican Church or Church of England
• Publication of Gargantua by François Rabelais
• The Anabaptists seize control of Münster
• Martin Luther's translation of the New Testament into German appears

Births

• June 23- Oda Nobunaga, Japanese warlord (daimyo) (d. 1582)
• July 1 - King Frederick II of Denmark
• September 24 - Guru Ram Das, fourth Sikh Guru (d. 1581)

Deaths

• March 5 - Antonio da Correggio, Italian painter (b. 1489)
• April 20 - Elizabeth Barton Christian prophet, executed
• September 25 - Pope Clement VII
• Lambert Simnel, former Pretender to the throne of England, claiming to be Edward, Earl of Warwick (estimated date).