1559

Years: 1556 1557 1558 - 1559 - 1560 1561 1562
Decades: 1520s 1530s 1540s - 1550s - 1560s 1570s 1580s
Centuries: 15th century - 16th century - 17th century

January 15 - Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
March 23 - Emperor Gelawdewos of Ethiopia, defending his lands against the invasion of Nur ibn Mujahid, Sultan of Harar, is killed in battle. His brother Menas succeeds him as king.
April 3 - Peace of Cateau Cambrésis - France makes peace with England and Spain. France gives up most of its gains in Italy (including Savoy), keeping only Saluzzo, but keeps the three Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and the formerly English town of Calais.
July 10 - Francis II becomes King of France following the death of his father, Henry II in a jousting accident.
End of the Italian Wars.
The Decameron expurgated.
Spanish Pensacola was established by Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano as the first European settlement in the continental United States.
A royal edict in France makes heresy punishable by death.
Elizabeth I establishes the Church of England, with the Act of Uniformity 1559 and the Act of Supremacy 1559.
Beginning of the Reformation in Scotland.

February 18 - Isaac Casaubon, French-born classical scholar (died 1614)
July 22 - Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian saint (d. 1619)
October 12 - Jacques Sirmond, French scholar and Jesuit (died 1651)
November 15 - Archduke Albert of Austria, Governor of the Low Countries (died 1621)
Francesco Bassano the Younger, Italian painter (died 1592)
Catherine de Bourbon, sister of Henry IV of France (died 1604)
George Chapman, English dramatist (died 1634)
Ikeda Motosuke, Japanese military commander (died 1584)
Nurhaci, Chinese founder of the Qing Dynasty (died 1626)
John Penry, Welsh protestant martyr (died 1593)
Honinbo Sansa, Japanese player of Go (died 1623)
John Spenser, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (died 1614)
Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly, a famous and able Bavarian mercenary general on the Catholic side, died 1632 from wounds received in battle from forces under the redoubtable Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty years war. The novel 1632 gives an account of his death, and several of his battles.

January 1 - King Christian III of Denmark and Norway (born 1503)
January 25 - King Christian II of Denmark Norway, and Sweden (born 1481)
March 16 - Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland (born 1496)
March 23 - Emperor Gelawdewos of Ethiopia (killed in battle) (born 1522)
March 30 - Adam Ries, German mathematician (born 1492)
July 10 - King Henry II of France (killed in jousting accident) (born 1519)
August 18 - Pope Paul IV (born 1476)
September 7 - Robert Estienne, French printer (born 1503)
September 10 - Anthony Denny, confidant of Henry VIII of England (born 1501)
October 2 - Jacquet of Mantua, French composer (born 1483)
November 5 - Kano Motonobu, Japanese painter (born 1476)
November 18 - Cuthbert Tunstall, English church leader (born 1474)
November 20 - Lady Frances Brandon, claimant to the throne of England (born 1517)
Realdo Colombo, Italian surgeon and anatomist (born 1516)
Leonard Digges, English mathematician and surveyor
Owen Oglethorpe, English priest
Thomas Tresham I, English Catholic politician
Conn O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone, Irish rebel (born 1480)
William the Rich, count of Nassau-Dillenburg (born 1487)
Wen Zhengming, Chinese painter

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