Events

• 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.
• 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.

Births

• November 15 - Archduke Albert of Austria, governor of the Low Countries.
• Nurhaci, later chieftain of the Jurchens and founder of the Qing Dynasty.

Deaths

• January 1 - King Christian III of Denmark and Norway (b. 1503)
• March 23 - Gelawdewos , Emperor of Ethiopia (killed in battle)
• July 10 - Henry II of France (b. 1519)
• August 18 - Pope Paul IV
• Christian II of Denmark (b. 1481)