Massacre of Novgorod
Jan 2 Tsar Ivan the Terrible's march to Novgorod begins
- Jan 4 Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"
- Jan 9 Tsar Ivan the Terrible kills 1,000-2,000 residents of Novgorod
- Jan 23 Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland, assassinated; civil war breaks out
Elizabeth I Excommunicated
Feb 25 Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England for heresy and persecution of English Catholics during her reign. Also absolves her subjects from allegiance to the crown.
- Feb 28 Anti-Portuguese uprising on Ternate, Moluccas
- Mar 4 King Philip II bans foreign Dutch students as part of his attempted suppression of Protestantism
- Apr 14 Polish Calvinists, Lutherans and Hernhutters unify against Jesuits
- Apr 24 Battles between Spanish troops & followers of Sultan Suleiman
- May 22 First atlas 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum' (Theatre of the World), published by Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp with 70 maps
- Jul 2 Ottoman Empire invades Venetian controlled Cyprus and lays siege to its cities. Gains control of the island August 1571.
Battle of Arnay-le-Duc
Jul 25 Battle of Arnay-le-Duc, Burgundy: Huguenot victory forces Charles IX of France to agree to a peace treaty that ends the Third War of Religion
- Aug 8 Peace of Saint-Germain-and-Laye, more freedom for Huguenots
Treaty of Speyer
Aug 16 Treaty of Speyer establishing Principality of Transylvania signed by King of Hungary John Sigismund Zápolyai and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II
- Sep 9 Cyprian city of Nicosia falls to the Ottomans, afterwards an estimated 20,000 citizen are massacred and the rest sold into slavery
- Nov 1 All Saints Flood, tidal wave in the North Sea devastates the coast from Holland to Jutland; killing more than 1,000 people.
- Dec 9 The Geuzen (a confederacy of Calvinist Dutch nobles) under Herman de Ruyter occupies Loevestein
- Dec 13 Sweden and Denmark signs Peace of Stettin
Gregory I
Gregory XIII
Julius II
Julius III
Leo X
Pius V