1527

Events 
 January 5 – Felix Manz, co-founder of the Swiss Anabaptists, is drowned in the Limmat River in Zürich by the Zürich Reformed state church.
 May 6 – Spanish and German troops led by the Duke of Bourbon sack Rome (the infamous Sacco di Roma), forcing Pope Clement VII to make peace with Charles V.
 May 16 – Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.
 Spanish conquest of Guatemala highlands completed; first Guatemala City founded (Ciudad Vieja).
 Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo invades Yucatán.
 Battle of Tokay: Ferdinand of Austria defeats John Zapolya and takes over most of Hungary. John appeals to the Turks for help.
 Protestant Reformation begins in Sweden.
 Ahmed Gragn of Somalia defeats the Ethiopian army with his new firearms.
 People of the University of Wittenberg flee plague to Jena.
 Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK is founded by Bishop John Vesey.

 Births 
 March 21 – Hermann Finck, German composer and music theorist (died 1558)
 April 14 – Abraham Ortelius, cartographer and geographer (died 1598)
 July 13 – John Dee, English mathematician, astronomer, and geographer (died 1608)
 July 31 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1576)
 Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Italian artist (died 1593)
 Charles of Guise, French Cardinal and member of the powerful House of Guise (died 1574)
 Lawrence Humphrey, president of Magdalen College, Oxford (died 1590)
 Luis Ponce de León, Spanish lyric poet (died 1591)
 Sakuma Nobumori, Japanese retainer and samurai (died 1581)
 Annibale Padovano, Italian composer and organist (died 1575)
 Philip II of Spain

 Deaths 
 January 21 – Juan de Grijalva, Spanish conquistador (born 1489)
 June 21 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian writer and statesman (born 1469)
 July 28 – Rodrigo de Bastidas, Spanish conquistador and explorer (born 1460)
 Boabdil, last Moorish king of Granada (of the Nasrid dynasty)
 Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, Count of Montpensier and Dauphin of Auvergne (born 1490)
 Francesco Colonna, Italian Dominican priest (born 1433)
 Thomas Docwra, Grand Prior of the Knights Hospitaller (born 1458)
 Felix Manz, co-founder of the original Swiss Brethren Anabaptist congregation in Zürich
 Cristoforo Solari, Italian sculptor and architect
 Jan "Ciezki" Tarnowski, Polish nobleman