1566

1566 (MDLXVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday in the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.

 Events 

 Births 
 March 8 – Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer and murderer (died 1613)
 May 26 – Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (died 1603)
 June 19 – King James VI of Scotland/James I of England and Ireland (died 1625)
June 20 (O.S.) – King Sigismund III of Poland (d. 1632)
 August 12 – Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (d. 1633)
 September 1 – Edward Alleyn, English actor (died 1626)
 September 18 – King Sigismund III of Poland/Sigismund I of Sweden (died 1632)
 October 13 – Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, Irish politician (died 1643)
 November 10 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, English politician (died 1601)
 December 11 – (baptised) – Manuel Cardoso, Portuguese composer (died 1650)
 December 20 – Edward Wightman, English Baptist martyr (died 1612)
 Pietro Cerone, Italian music theorist (died 1625)
 Giovanni Baglione, Italian painter and historian of art (died 1643)
 Jan Jesenius, Slovak physician (died 1621)
 Michal Sedziwój, Polish alchemist (died 1636)
 James Sempill, Scottish theologian (died 1626)
 Deaths