Major Events
- Jan 7 Antonio "Michele" Ghislieri is elected Pope Pius V
- Mar 9 David Rizzio, the private secretary to Mary I of Scotland, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Mar 28 Foundation stone laid for the new city of La Valletta in Malta by Knights Hospitaller Grand Master Jean de Valette
- Apr 5 200 Brussel nobles offer Margaretha of Parma a petition
- Jul 27 Tribunal convicts Agnes Waterhouse of witchcraft, and sentences her to be first British woman executed for the crime (Chelmsford, England)
- Jul 29 Great Britain executes Agnes Waterhouse, the first British woman convicted of witchcraft in Chelmsford, England
- Aug 10 Protestant Iconoclasm "Beeldenstorm" begins in European Low Countries
- Aug 20 Iconoclasm reaches Antwerp, Belgium; the Cathedral's interior is torn apart by Protestants
- Aug 23 Beeldenstorm reaches Amsterdam
- Aug 25 Iconoclastic fury begins in Dutch province Utrecht
- More 1566 Events
James I and VI
Sigismund III Vasa
Nostradamus
Suleiman the Magnificent
Elizabeth I
Philip II of Spain
