16th Century

John Dee (1527 – 1609)

John Dee was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. As a political advisor, he advocated the foundation of English colonies in the New World to form a “British Empire“, a term he is credited with coining. Dee eventually left Elizabeth’s service and went on a quest for additional knowledge in the deeper realms of the occult and supernatural. He aligned himself with several individuals who may have been charlatans, travelled through […]

1577 Florentine Camerata: The Beginnings of Opera

16th Century, Music, Renaissance

The Florentine Camerata, also known as the Camerata de’ Bardi, were a group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals in late Renaissance Florence who gathered under the patronage of Count Giovanni de’ Bardi to discuss and guide trends in the arts, especially music and drama. They met at the house of Giovanni de’ Bardi, and their gatherings had the reputation of having all the most famous men of Florence as frequent guests. After first meeting in 1573, the activity of the Camerata reached its height between 1577 and 1582. While propounding a revival of the Greek dramatic style, the Camerata’s musical experiments […]

Events 1520s – Sack of Rome 1527

16th Century, Events Decade, With Podcast

Events 1520s Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition that circumnavigated the globe in 1519–1522. 1520–1566: The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent marks the zenith of the Ottoman Empire. 1520: The first European diplomatic mission to Ethiopia, sent by the Portuguese, arrives at Massawa 9 April, and reaches the imperial encampment of Emperor Dawit II in Shewa 9 October. 1520: Vijayanagara Empire forces under Krishnadevaraya defeat the Adil Shahi under at the Battle of Raichur 1521: Philippines encountered by Ferdinand Magellan. He was later killed in the Battle of Mactan in central Philippines in the same year. 1521: November, Ferdinand Magellan‘s expedition reaches Maluku (in present-day Indonesia) and after trade with Ternate returns to Europe with a load of cloves. 1523: The Cacao bean is introduced to Spain by Hernán Cortés 1524: Giovanni da Verrazzano is the first […]

Events 1550s – Elizabeth I Queen of England

16th Century, Events Decade

1558 Elizabeth becomes Queen Elizabeth I Events 1550s 1550: The architect Mimar Sinan builds the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. 1550: Mongols led by Altan Khan invade China and besiege Beijing. 1550–1551: Valladolid debate concerning the human rights of the Indigenous people of the Americas. 1551: Fifth outbreak of sweating sickness in England. John Caius of Shrewsbury writes the first full contemporary account of the symptoms of the disease. 1551: North African pirates enslave the entire population of the Maltese island Gozo, between 5,000 and 6,000, sending them to Libya. 1552: Russia conquers the Khanate of Kazan in central Asia. 1552: Jesuit China Mission, Francis Xavier dies. 1553: Mary Tudor becomes the first queen regnant of England and restores the Church of England under Papal authority. 1553: The Portuguese found a settlement at Macau. 1554: Missionaries José […]

Events 1530s – Hernando De Soto

16th Century, Events Decade

Events 1530s 1531–1532: The Church of England breaks away from the Catholic Church and recognizes King Henry VIII as the head of the Church. 1531: The Inca Civil War is fought between the two brothers, Atahualpa and Huáscar. 1532: Francisco Pizarro leads the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. 1532: Foundation of São Vicente, the first permanent Portuguese settlement in the Americas. 1533: Anne Boleyn becomes Queen of England. 1533: Elizabeth Tudor is born. 1534: Jacques Cartier claims Canada for France. 1534: The Ottomans capture Baghdad from the Safavids. 1534: Affair of the Placards, where King Francis I becomes more active in repression of French Protestants. 1535: The Münster Rebellion, an attempt of radical, millennialist, Anabaptists to establish a theocracy, ends in bloodshed. 1535: The Portuguese in Ternate depose Sultan Tabariji (or Tabarija) and […]

Events 1540s – Copernicus publshes his theory

16th Century, Events Decade

1543 Copernicus publshes his theory 1540s 1540: The Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, is founded by Ignatius of Loyola and six companions with the approval of Pope Paul III. 1540: Sher Shah Suri founds the Suri dynasty in South Asia, an ethnic Pashtun (Pathan) of the house of Sur, who supplanted the Mughal dynasty as rulers of North India during the reign of the relatively ineffectual second Mughal emperor Humayun. Sher Shah Suri decisively defeats Humayun in the Battle of Bilgram (May 17, 1540). 1541: Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago in Chile. 1541: An Algerian military campaign by Charles V of Spain (Habsburg) is unsuccessful. 1541: Amazon River is encountered and explored by Francisco de Orellana. 1541: Capture of Buda and the absorption of the major part of Hungary by […]

Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603)

16th Century, With Docu, With Movie

Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Sometimes referred to as the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor In government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and half-siblings had been. One of her mottoes was “video et taceo” (“I see and keep silent”). In religion, she was relatively tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. After the pope declared her illegitimate in 1570 and released her subjects from obedience to her, several conspiracies threatened her life, all of which were defeated with the help of her ministers’ secret service, run by Francis Walsingham. […]

Events 1500 – Da Vinci begins painting Mona Lisa

16th Century, Events Decade

1503 Da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa Events 1500s 1501: Michelangelo returns to his native Florence to begin work on the statue David. 1501: Safavid dynasty reunifies Iran and rules over it until 1736. Safavids adopt a Shia branch of Islam. 1501: First Battle of Cannanore between the Third Portuguese Armada and Kingdom of Cochin under João da Nova and Zamorin of Kozhikode‘s navy marks the beginning of Portuguese conflicts in the Indian Ocean. 1502: First reported African slaves in the New World 1502: The Crimean Khanate sacks Sarai in the Golden Horde, ending its existence. 1503: Spain defeats France at the Battle of Cerignola. Considered to be the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms. 1503: Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa and completes it three years later. 1503: Nostradamus is born on either December […]

1500 Brasil is discovered

16th Century

Pedro Álvares Cabral (1467 – 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. In 1500, Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral’s early life remain unclear, it is known that he came from a minor noble family and received a good education. He was appointed to head an expedition to India in 1500, following Vasco da Gama‘s newly-opened route around Africa. The undertaking had the aim of returning with valuable spices and of establishing trade relations in India—bypassing the monopoly on the spice trade then […]

16th Century

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