Explore 118 historical events from 1550–1559.
William Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of Britannia, the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain an…
William Camden, English historian and topographer (died 1623)
Thomas Drury was an English government informer, messenger and swindler, who is noted for having been one of the main people responsible for accusations of heresy, blasphemy, and …
Thomas Drury, English government informer and swindler (died 1603)
Martin Anton Delrio SJ was a Dutch Jesuit theologian. He studied at numerous institutions, receiving a master's degree in law from Salamanca in 1574. After a period of political se…
Martin Delrio, Belgian occultist and theologian (died 1601)
Barbara Radziwiłł was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the second wife of Sigismund II Augustus, the last male monarch of the Jagiellon dynasty. Barbara, already w…
Barbara Radziwiłł, queen of Poland (born 1520)
Shin Saimdang was a Korean artist, writer, calligraphist, and poet, who lived during the Joseon period. She was born in Gangneung, Gangwon Province. Her birth home, Ojukheon, which…
Shin Saimdang, South Korean poet and calligraphist (born 1504)
Domenico di Pace Beccafumi was an Italian Renaissance-Mannerist painter active predominantly in Siena. He is considered one of the last undiluted representatives of the Sienese sch…
Domenico di Pace Beccafumi, Italian painter (born 1486)
Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell was an English nobleman. He was the only son of the Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell and Elizabeth Wyckes.
Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, English politician (born 1514)
Sir John Wallop, KG was an English soldier and diplomat who belonged to an old Hampshire family from the village of Farleigh Wallop.
John Wallop, English soldier and diplomat (born 1490)
Margaret Leijonhufvud or Margareta Eriksdotter was Queen of Sweden from 1536 to 1551 by marriage to King Gustav I. She played a political role as the advisor and intermediary to he…
Margaret Leijonhufvud, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (born 1516)
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller, is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of …
The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Castello of Gozo to the Ottoman Empire following a brief siege, leading to the…
Helsinki, until about 1930 known in English by its Swedish name of Helsingfors, is the capital and most populous city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is t…
The city of Helsinki, Finland (belonging to Sweden at the time) is founded by King Gustav I of Sweden
Moses Isserles, also known by the acronym Rema, was an eminent Polish Ashkenazi rabbi, talmudist, and posek.
Rabbi Moses Isserles issues his ruling in the Bragadin-Giustiniani dispute, one of the earliest instances of a…
Camillus de Lellis, M.I., was an Italian Catholic priest who founded the Camillians, a religious order dedicated to the care of the sick. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in t…
Camillus de Lellis, Italian saint and nurse (died 1614)
Charles IX was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate mon…
Charles IX, king of France (died 1574)
Jacobus Gallus was a late-Renaissance composer of presumed Slovene ethnicity. Born in Carniola, which at the time was one of the Habsburg lands in the Holy Roman Empire, he lived a…
Jacobus Gallus, Slovenian composer (died 1591)
Tabin-shwë-hti, also called Black Tongue (လျှာနက်မင်း), was King of Burma from 1530 to 1550, and the founder of the First Toungoo Empire. His military campaigns (1534–1549) created…
Tabinshwehti, Burmese king (born 1516)
Jean de Lorraine was the third son of the ruling Duke of Lorraine, and a French cardinal, who was archbishop of Reims (1532–1538), Lyon (1537–1539), and Narbonne (1524–1550), bisho…
Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine (born 1498)
Ashikaga Yoshiharu was the twelfth shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate from 1521 through 1546 during the late Muromachi period of Japan. He was the son of the eleventh shōgun Ashikag…
Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Japanese shōgun (born 1510)
Veronica Gambara was an Italian poet and politician. She was the ruler of the County of Correggio from 1518 until 1550.
Veronica Gambara, Italian poet (born 1485)
Jorge de Lencastre was a Portuguese prince, illegitimate son of King John II of Portugal and Ana de Mendonça, a lady-in-waiting to Joanna la Beltraneja. He was created the second D…
Jorge de Lencastre, Duke of Coimbra (born 1481)
Antonio Ferramolino was a 16th-century Italian architect and military engineer. He is also known as Sferrandino da Bergamo, and is called Hernan Molin in Spanish sources. He is mos…
Antonio Ferramolino, Italian architect and military engineer
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, was an English peer, secretary of state, Lord Chancellor and Lord High Admiral. A naturally skilled but unscrupulous and devious politi…
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, English politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (born 1505)