Explore 37 historical events from 1540–1549.
Sir Richard Grenville, also spelt Greynvile, Greeneville, and Greenfield, was an English privateer and explorer. Grenville was lord of the manors of Stowe, Cornwall and Bideford, D…
Richard Grenville, English captain and explorer (died 1591)
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador, who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's…
Hernando de Soto, Spanish-American explorer (born 1496)
Leo Jud, known to his contemporaries as Meister Leu, was a Swiss reformer who worked with Huldrych Zwingli in Zürich.
Leo Jud, Swiss theologian and reformer (born 1482)
Henry VIII was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. After the Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry passed legislation that severe…
King Henry VIII orders English-language Bibles be placed in every church
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador, who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's…
Hernando de Soto stops near present-day Walls, Mississippi, and sees the Mississippi River (then known by the Spanish as
Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, and his wife Isabel Neville. As a result of Margaret's marriag…
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (born 1473)
Hernando de Alarcón was a Spanish explorer and navigator of the 16th century, noted for having led a 1540 expedition to the Colorado River Delta, during which he became one of the …
Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California
Pratap Singh I, popularly known as Maharana Pratap, was king of the Kingdom of Mewar, in north-western India in the present-day state of Rajasthan, from 1572 until his death in 159…
Maharana Pratap, Indian ruler (died 1597)
Charles II Francis of Austria was an Archduke of Austria and a ruler of Inner Austria from 1564. He was a member of the House of Habsburg.
Charles II, Archduke of Austria (died 1590)
Barnabe Googe, also spelt Barnabe Goche and Barnaby Goodge, was a poet and translator, one of the earliest English pastoral poets.
Barnabe Googe, English poet and translator (died 1594)
Juan Luis Vives y March was a Spanish (Valencian) scholar and Renaissance humanist who spent most of his adult life in the southern Habsburg Netherlands. His beliefs on the soul, i…
Juan Luís Vives, Spanish scholar (born 1492)
Francesco Guicciardini was an Italian historian and statesman. A friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli, he is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renais…
Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and politician (born 1483)
Konrad von Thüngen was the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1519 until his death in 1540.
Konrad von Thüngen, German nobleman (born c