1562

1562 (MDLXII) was a common year starting on Thursday in the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Monday in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.

 Events 
 May 1 – Jean Ribault, French navigator, lands in Florida.
 September 22 – Maximilian becomes King of Bohemia.
 October – John Hawkins starts the English slave trade. He ships slaves from Sierra Leone to Hispaniola in the Caribbean.
 November 20 – Maximilian of Bohemia is elected King of the Romans.
 The Mughal Emperor Akbar conquers Malwa.

 Births 
 January 13 – Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet and soldier of fortune 
 January 20 – Ottavio Rinuccini, Italian composer 
 Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dutch composer 
 May 6 – Pietro Bernini, Italian sculptor 
 July 25 – Katō Kiyomasa, Japanese samurai 
 November 25 – Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and dramatist
 Isabella Andreini, Italian actress 
 John Bull, English composer
 Henry Constable, English poet
 Maeda Toshinaga, Japanese nobleman 
 Cornelis van Haarlem, Dutch painter

 Deaths 
 January – Ilie II Rareş, Prince of Moldavia 
 January 9 – Amago Haruhisa, Japanese samurai and warlord 
 October 9 – Gabriele Falloppio, Italian anatomist 
 October 13 – Claudin de Sermisy, French composer 
 November 17 – Antoine de Bourbon, father of Henry IV of France 
 December 6 – Jan van Scorel, Dutch painter 
 December 7 – Adrian Willaert, Flemish composer 
 Matteo Bandello, Italian novelist 
 Nicholas Grimald, English poet and theologian