1558

Events

* January 7 - French troops led by Francis, Duke of Guise take Calais, the last continental possession of the Kingdom of England
*January 9 - Geneva becomes independent from the Canton of Bern.
*January 22 - Beginning of the Livonian War.
*February 2 - The University of Jena is founded.
*February 5 - during the Arauco War, Pedro de Avendaño with sixty men capture Caupolicán, the Mapuche Gran Toqui leading their first revolt agianst the Spanish Empire, nearby Antihuala encamped with a small band of followers.
* July 13 - Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul des Thermes at Gravelines.
* July 18 - The city of Tartu, capital of the Bishopric of Dorpat, now in Estonia, surrenders to Russia.
* April 24 - Mary I of Scotland marries Francis II of France.
* November 17 - The Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her younger half-sister Elizabeth.
* Tobacco comes to France.
* The University of Jena is founded in Thuringia, Germany.

Births

* September 9 - Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercoeur, French soldier (d. 1602)
* October 12 - Archduke Maximilian III of Austria (d. 1618)
* November 3 - Thomas Kyd, author of "The Spanish Tragedy" (d. 1594)
*"date unknown"
**François, Prince of Conti (d. 1614)
**Hendrik Goltzius, Dutch painter (d. 1617)
**Robert Greene, English writer (d. 1592)
**Meir Lublin, Polish rabbi (d. 1616)
**Koriki Masanaga, Japanese military commander (d. 1599)
**Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, French merchant (d. 1628)
**Bessho Nagaharu, Japanese nobleman (d. 1580)
**Oda Nobutaka, Japanese nobleman (d. 1583)
**Olivier van Noort, first Dutchman to circumnavigate the world (d. 1627)
**Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (d. 1586)
**Tokuhime, Japanese noblewoman
**Mihai Viteazul, Prince of Wallachia (1593-1601)

"See also ."

Deaths

* February 25 - Eleonore of Austria, Queen of Portugal and France (b. 1498)
* March 24 - Anna of Egmond, Countess of Egmond and Buren (b. c. 1533)
* March 25 - Marcos de Niza, French Franciscan explorer (b. c.1495)
* April 18 - Roxelana, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent (b. c. 1500)
* April 20 - Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer (b. 1485)
* May 31 - Philip Hoby, English politician (b. 1505)
* October - Mellin de Saint-Gelais, French poet (b. c. 1491)
* October 18 - Maria of Austria, queen of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1505)
* October 21 - J.C. Scaliger, Italian scholar (b. 1484)
* November 17 - Queen Mary I of England (b. 1516)
* November 17 - Reginald Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1500)
* December 15 - Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the "Cinque Ports" (b. c. 1485)
* December 28 - Hermann Finck, German composer (b. 1527)
*"date unknown"
**Archibald Campbell, 4th Earl of Argyll, Scottish nobleman and politician (b. 1507)
**Hugh Aston, English composer (b. 1485)
**Jean Fernel, French physician (b. 1497)
**Robert Recorde, Welsh physician and mathematician (b. 1510)
**Francisco de Sa de Miranda, Portuguese poet (b. 1485)

"See also ."