- Jan 9 Adriaan F Boeyens elected only Dutch pope (Adrian VI)
- Jan 21 Head inquisitor Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected pope
- Jan 30 Duke of Albany takes captured French back to Scotland
- Feb 7 Treaty of Brussels: Habsburgers split into Spanish and Austrian Branches
Anne Boleyn's Court Debut
Mar 4 Anne Boleyn makes her debut at the English court at the Green Castle pageant
Luther's Invocavit Sermons
Mar 9 Martin Luther begins preaching his "Invocavit Sermons" in the German city of Wittenberg, reminding citizens to trust God's word rather than violence and thus helping bring to a close the revolutionary stage of the Reformation
- Apr 27 Battle of Bicocca: a combined French and Venetian force is decisively defeated by a Spanish-Imperial and Papal army
- May 25 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V returns to Spain
- May 30 French troops driven out of Genoa
- Jun 24 Portuguese begin construction of Fort Kastela on the island of Ternate in the Maluku Islands after being encouraged to so by Sultan Bayanullah of Ternate
- Jul 13 Hunger appeal by women of Utrecht
- Aug 11 Uprising of adel/burgerij in Austria fails
First Circumnavigation of the Globe
Sep 6 Ferdinand Magellan's Spanish expedition now led by Juan Sebastián Elcano returns to Seville without their captain after three years. First to circumnavigate the globe
Cortés Appointed Governor
Oct 15 King of Spain Charles V names Hernán Cortés governor of Mexico
Knights of Rhodes Surrender
Dec 20 Suleiman the Magnificent accepts surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle in Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
- Dec 25 Ottoman troops occupy the island of Rhodes after a six-month siege
Gregory I
Gregory XIII
Julius II
Julius III
Leo X
Pius V