1556

Events

• January 16 - Abdication of Emperor Charles V. His son, Philip II becomes King of Spain, while his brother Ferdinand becomes Holy Roman Emperor
• January 23 - The Shaanxi earthquake, the deadliest earthquake in history, occurs with its epicenter in Shaanxi province, China. 830,000 people may have been killed.
• February - Truce of Vaucelles - Temporary end to the fighting between France and Spain.
• February 14 - Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic
• March 21 - In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake for treason.
• November - Collapse of the Truce of Vaucelles. War resumes between Henry II of France and Philip II of Spain
• November 5 - Second Battle of Panipat - Fifty miles north of Delhi, a Mogul Army defeats Hindu forces of General Hemu to ensure Akbar the throne of India.
• Lorenzo Priuli becomes Doge of Venice
• Queen Mary establishes the Fort of Maryborough , in what is now Portlaoise, County Laois, Ireland
• The kings of Spain take control of the Flanders region, including what is now the French département of Nord
• The false Martin Guerre appears in the French village of Artigat.
• King John III of Sweden becomes ruler of Finland as Hertig Johan.
• Jellaladin Mahommed Akbar ascends to the throne of the Mughal Empire; he rules until his death in 1605
• Welser banking families of Augsburg lose colonial control of Venezuela
• Ivan the Terrible conquers Astrakhan, opening the Volga River to Russian traffic and trade

Births

• January 8 - Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord
• Adriaen de Vries, Dutch sculptor
• Guillaume du Vair, French statesman and philosopher
• Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer (birth year estimated)

Deaths

• March 21 - Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1489)
• July 31 - St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order
• Lorenzo Lotto, Italian Renaissance painter best known for his portraits
• Tullia d'Aragona , Italian courtesan and writer adopted by modern feminists
• Saito Dosan, daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japan.
• Nicholas Udall, English dramatist who wrote Ralph Roister Doister, regarded by many as the first comedy written in the English language.
• Count Miklós Zrínyi, Croat-Hungarian war hero who distinguished himself in the Siege of Vienna
• Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet, credited with introducing the epigram into Italian poetry
• Martin Agricola, German composer
• Jacob Clemens non Papa, Flemish composer
• Fuzuli, famous Turkish poet