Events

• January 9 - Adrian Dedens becomes Pope Adrian VI.
• February 26 - Execution by hanging of Cuauhtémoc, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan under orders of conquistador Hernán Cortés.
• April 22 - Battle of Bicocca - French and Swiss forces under Odet de Lautrec are defeated by the Spanish in their attempt to retake Milan, and are forced to withdraw into Venetian territory.
• July 28 - Beginning of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I's siege of the Knights of St. John in Rhodes.
• September 6 - The Vittoria, one of the surviving ships of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returns to Sanlcar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.
• December 18 - The Turks finally break into Rhodes, but the Knights continue fierce resistance in the streets.
• December 20 - Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually re-settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
• First Diet of Nuremberg.
• The third edition of the Textus Receptus is published.

Births

• March 28 - Albert The Warlike
• Catharine de Ricci

Deaths

• February 26 - Cuauhtémoc, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan (executed).