Major Events
- Jun 30 Spanish conquistadors are expelled from Tenochtitlan following an Aztec revolt against their rule under Hernán Cortés during "La Noche Triste" (the Night of Sadness). Many soldiers drown in the escape, and Aztec emperor Moctezuma II dies in the struggle
- Jul 7 Battle of Otumba, Mexico: Hernán Cortés and the Tlaxcalans defeat a numerically superior Aztec force
- Sep 30 Suleiman the Magnificent succeeds his father Selam I as Ottoman Sultan (rules till 1566)
- Nov 28 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan begins crossing the Pacific Ocean
- Dec 10 Martin Luther publicly burns papal edict demanding he recant
- More 1520 Events
Did You Know?
Explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet reach Cape Virgenes after transiting the Magellan Strait between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, becoming the first Europeans to sail into the Pacific
Born in 1520
- Jan 1 Francois Baudouin [Franciscus Balduinus], French lawyer and humanist (controversial Calvinist who converted to Catholicism), born in Arras, France (d. 1573)
- Mar 3 Matthias Flacius, Croatian Lutheran Protestant reformer, born in Labin, Venetian Republic (d. 1575)
- Aug 1 Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland (1548-72), born in Kraków, Poland (d. 1572)
- Aug 10 Madeleine of Valois, French princess who briefly became Queen of Scotland after marrying James V, born in the St. Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France (d. 1537)
- Sep 13 William Cecil, 1st baron Burghley, English statesman, born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England (d. 1598)
Raphael
Moctezuma IIMore 1520 Deaths
Martin Luther
Michelangelo
Charles V
Francis I of France
Henry VIII