- Jan 27 French King Francis I signs classified treaty with Landgrave of Hesse
- Feb 26 Pope Paul II affirms George van Egmond as bishop of Utrecht
- Mar 23 Aragonese legal code formally recognised
- Mar 26 Lübeck accepts free Dutch ships into East Sea
Cromwell Appointed Chief Secretary
Apr 15 Thomas Cromwell is appointed Chief Secretary to King Henry VIII of England
More Locked in the Tower
Apr 17 Thomas More confined in the Tower of London
Cartier for Newfoundland
Apr 20 French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail with two ships from Saint-Malo for Newfoundland, tasked by Francis I to look for gold and riches [1]
- May 10 French navigator Jacques Cartier reaches Newfoundland
- May 12 German Duchy of Wurttemberg becomes Lutheran under Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg
- Jun 9 French explorer Jacques Cartier is the 1st European to sail into mouth of St Lawrence River
- Jun 12 Turkish admiral Chaireddin "Barbarossa" allows Giulia Gonzaga to kidnap and plunder in Naples
- Jun 29 French explorer Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover Prince Edward Islands, Canada
King Christian III
Jul 4 Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye
- Jul 7 European colonization of the Americas: first known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick
- Jul 7 First act of trade between the French and Amerindians when Jacques Cartier trades items with Micmacs at Chaleur Bay [1]
- Jul 24 French explorer Jacques Cartier claims for France the lands around Gaspé by erecting a 30ft cross at Pointe-Penouille [1]
- Aug 15 Ignatius of Loyola co-founds the Society of Jesus (Jesuit) religious order at Sanit Densi Church in Montmartre, France
- Aug 20 Turkish admiral Chaireddin "Barbarossa" occupies Tunis
- Oct 13 Alessandro Farnese elected as Pope Paul III
- Oct 18 New pursuit of French protestants
Act of Supremacy
Nov 3 English parliament passes the Act of Supremacy making Henry VIII and all subsequent monarchs the Head of the Church of England
- Nov 6 Zealand hit by heavy storm
Suleiman Occupies Bagdad
Dec 4 Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent occupies Baghdad
- Dec 6 Quito, Ecuador, founded by Spanish colonists on the ruins of an Inca city
Gregory I
Gregory XIII
Julius II
Julius III
Leo X
Pius V