1566

Year 1566 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

* January 7 - Pope Pius V succeeds Pope Pius IV as the 225th pope.
* March 28 - The foundation stone of Valletta (Malta's Capital City) is laid by Grand Master Jean de la Valette.
* (August 5 - September 7) - Battle of Szigetvár: 2,300 Hungarian defenders are annihilated by an army of 90,000 soldiers of the Ottoman Empire.
* August - Calvinists destroy religious art in the Low Countries.
* September - Selim II succeeds Suleiman I as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

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thumb|200px|right|_1566:_Stari Most" bridge built.]

Undated

* Religious rioting in the Netherlands signifies the beginning of the Eighty Years' War in the Netherlands.
* The first bridge crossing the Neretva river at Mostar (in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) is completed by the Ottoman Empire. The white marble bridge is now known as "Stari Most" (or "Old Bridge").
* The Spanish doubloon is first made during the reign of Phillip II of Spain.
* Pope Pius IV expels all the prostitutes from Rome.

Births

* May 26 - Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1603)
* June 19 - King James VI of Scotland/James I of England and Ireland (d. 1625)
* June 20 (O.S.) - King Sigismund III Vasa (d. 1632)
* August 12 - Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (d. 1633)
* September 1 - Edward Alleyn, English actor (d. 1626)
* September 18 - King Sigismund III Vasa/Sigismund I of Sweden (d. 1632)
* October 13 - Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, Irish politician (d. 1643)
* November 10 - Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, English politician (d. 1601)
* December 11 - (baptised) - Manuel Cardoso, Portuguese composer (d. 1650)
* December 20 - Edward Wightman, English Baptist martyr (d. 1612)
*"date unknown"
**Pietro Cerone, Italian music theorist (d. 1625)
**Giovanni Baglione, Italian painter and historian of art (d. 1643)
**Jan Jesenius, Slovak physician (d. 1621)
**Michal Sedziwój, Polish alchemist (d. 1636)
**James Sempill, Scottish theologian (d. 1626)

Deaths

* January 7 - Louis de Blois, Flemish mystical writer (b. 1506)
* February 3 - George Cassander, Flemish theologian (b. 1513)
* March 9 - David Rizzio, Italian secretary of Mary I of Scotland (b. 1533)
* March 26 - Antonio de Cabezón, Spanish composer and organist (b. 1510)
* March 28 - Sigismund von Herberstein, Austrian diplomat (b. 1486)
* April 25 - Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henri II of France (b. 1499)
* April 25 - Louise Labé, French poet (b. 1525)
* May 4 - Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist (b. 1490)
* May 10 - Leonhart Fuchs, German physician and a botanist (b. 1501)
* July 2 - Nostradamus, French astrologer (b. 1503)
* July 17 - Bartolomé de Las Casas, Spanish priest (b. 1484)
*July 30 - Guillaume Rondelet, French doctor (b. 1507)
*September 2 - Taddeo Zuccari, Italian painter (b. 1529)
* September 5 - Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1494)
* September 22 - Johannes Agricola, German Protestant reformer (b. 1494)
*September 27 - Marco Girolamo Vida, Italian poet (b. 1490)
*"date unknown"
**Jacob Acontius, Swiss jurist
**Charles Dumoulin, French jurist (b. 1500)
**Richard Edwards, English poet (b. 1523)
**Thomas Hoby, English diplomat and translator (b. 1530)
**Kimotsuki Kanetsugu, Japanese samurai (b. 1511)
**Calvagh O'Donnell, Irish chieftain