1531

Year 1531 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events of 1531

January - June

* January 26 - Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake in which thousands die.
* February 27 - Lutheran princes in the Holy Roman Empire form a defensive alliance known as the Schmalkaldic League.
* February (or March) - Battle of Antukyah: Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi of Adal defeats the Ethiopian army.
* February 11 - Henry VIII of England is recognised as supreme head of the Church of England.
* April - Battle of Puná: Francisco Pizarro defeats the island's native inhabitants.
* April 16 - The city of Puebla, Mexico is founded.
* June 24 - The city of San Juan del Río, Mexico is founded.

July - December

* July 25 - The city of Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico is founded.
* September 22 - Battle of Obertyn: The Moldavians are defeated by Polish forces under Jan Amor Tarnowski, allowing the Polish Crown to retrieve Pokucie.
* October 11 - Battle of Kappel: The forces of Zürich are defeated by the Catholic cantons. Huldrych Zwingli, the Swiss religious reformer, is killed.
* October 28 - Battle of Amba Sel: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeats the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia. The southern part of Ethiopia thus falls under Imam Ahmad's control.
* December 12 - The Virgin Mary, in the guise of Our Lady of Guadalupe, appears to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec convert to Catholicism.

Undated

* Andrea Alciato publishes the first part of his "Emblemata".
* The Comet Halley appears.
* Conquistador Francisco de Montejo claims Chichen Itza as capital of Spanish ruled Yucatán.
* The University of Sarajevo is founded by Gazi Husrev-beg.
* Kõpu lighthouse is completed.
* An enormous drought in Henan province of China during the Ming Dynasty is coupled with the disaster of a gigantic swarm of locusts in the summer, forcing many in destitute agricultural communities to turn to cannibalism instead of dying off by starvation.
* Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor abolishes the worst abuses of the encomienda system by pressure of Bartolome de Las Casas.
* Witch-hunt in the town of Schiltach, Germany

Births

* September - Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby (d. 1594)
* October 12 - Jacques de Savoie, 2nd Duc de Nemours (d. 1585)
* 14 November - Richard Topcliffe, notorious English torturer and sadist (d. 1604)
* November 18 - Roberto di Ridolfi, Italian conspirator against Elizabeth I (d. 1612)
*"date unknown"
**Henry, Count of Bréderode (d. 1568)
**Akiyama Nobutomo, Japanese nobleman (d. 1575)
**John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England (d. 1607)
**António, Prior of Crato, claimant to the throne of Portugal (d. 1595)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* January 21 - Andrea del Sarto, Italian painter (b. 1487)
* February 16 - Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician (b. 1452)
* March 6 - Pedrarias Dávila, Spanish colonial administrator (b. c. 1440)
* May 19 - Jan Łaski, Polish statesman and diplomat (b. 1456)
* July 7 - Tilman Riemenschneider, German sculptor (b. 1460)
* July 17 - Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese military commander (b. 1484)
* July 23 - Louis de Brézé, seigneur d'Anet, Marshal of Normandy and husband of Diane de Poitiers
* October 10 - Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss reformer (in battle) (b. 1484)
* September 22 - Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I of France (b. 1476)
* November 24 - Johannes Oecolampadius, German religious reformer (b. 1482)
*"date unknown"
**Vallabhacharya, founder of the Hindu Vallabha sect (b. 1479)
*"probable"
**Fernan Perez de Oliva, Spanish man of letters (b. 1492)

: "See also ."