1537

Events

January–June

• January
• * Bigod's Rebellion, an uprising by Roman Catholics against Henry VIII of England, is crushed.
• * Battle of Ollantaytambo: Emperor Manco Inca Yupanqui is victorious against the Spanish and their Indian allies led by Hernando Pizarro.
• January 6 - Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, is assassinated.
• March - Diego de Almagro successfully charges Manco Inca's siege of Cuzco, thereby saving his antagonists, the Pizarro brothers.
• March 12 - Recife is founded by the Portuguese, in Brazil.
• April 1 - The Archbishop of Norway Olav Engelbrektsson flees from Trondheim to Lier, Belgium.
• April 20 - Spanish conquest of the Muisca: Bacatá, the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation, is conquered by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, effectively ending the Confederation in the Colombian Eastern Andes.
• June 2 - Pope Paul III publishes the encyclical Sublimis Deus, which declares the natives of the New World to be rational beings with souls, who must not be enslaved or robbed.
• June 23 - Siege of Hamar ends with the arrest of Bishop Mogens Lauritssøn, and the Catholic rebellion is definitively ended in Norway.

  July–December

• July - Rodrigo Orgóñez occupies and sacks the Inca center of Vitcos but Manco Inca Yupanqui escapes and establishes the independent Neo-Inca State elsewhere in Vilcabamba, Peru.
• August 15 - Asunción is founded by Juan de Salazar de Espinosa.
• August 25 - The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
• August-September - The Ottoman Empire fails to capture Corfu, but does this year conquer the islands of Paros and Ios.

  Date unknown

• The Spaniards bring the potato to Europe.
• Kiritimati is probably sighted by the Spanish mutineers from Hernando de Grijalva's expedition.
• Bangalore is first mentioned.
• Dissolution of the Monasteries: Religious buildings dissolved by Henry VIII of England include: Bisham Priory, Bridlington Priory, Castle Acre Priory, Chertsey Abbey, Furness Abbey, London Charterhouse and Valle Crucis Abbey.
• Dissolution of all Monasteries in Norway: Religious buildings dissolved by Christian III include: Bakke Abbey, Munkeby Abbey, Tautra Abbey, Nidarholm Abbey, Gimsøy Abbey and Utstein Abbey.
• Publication of complete Bible translations into English, both based on Tyndale's:
• * Myles Coverdale's 1535 text, the first to be printed in England
• * The Matthew Bible edited by John Rogers under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew" and printed in Antwerp.

  Births

• January 1 - Jan Krzysztof Tarnowski, Polish noble
• January 16 - Albrecht VII, Count of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
• January 21 - Antonio Maria Salviati, Italian Catholic cardinal
• February 26 - Christopher II, Margrave of Baden-Rodemachern
• March 17 - Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japanese warlord
• March 4 - Longqing Emperor, Emperor of China
• May 18 - Guido Luca Ferrero, Italian Catholic cardinal
• May 20 - Hieronymus Fabricius, Italian anatomist
• May 27 - Louis IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg, son of Landgrave Philip I
• May 28 or May 31 - Shah Ismail II of Persia
• June 3 - João Manuel, Prince of Portugal, Portuguese prince
• July 20 - Arnaud d'Ossat, French diplomat and writer
• July 29 - Pedro Téllez-Girón, 1st Duke of Osuna, Spanish duke
• July 30 - Christopher, Duke of Mecklenburg and administrator of Ratzeburg
• August 9 - Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician
• August 15 - Shimazu Toshihisa, Japanese samurai
• October 12 - King Edward VI of England
• November 21 - Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Duke of Alba, Spanish military leader
• December 5 - Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shōgun
• December 20 - King John III of Sweden
• December 24 - Willem IV van den Bergh, Stadtholder of Guelders and Zutphen
• December 26 - Albert, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
• date unknown
• * Jane Lumley, English translator
• * Shimizu Muneharu, Japanese military commander
• * John Almond, English Cistercian monk
• * Lady Jane Grey, claimant to the throne of England

  Deaths

• January 6
• * Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence
• * Baldassare Peruzzi, Italian architect and painter
• January 12 - Lorenzo di Credi, Florentine painter and sculptor
• February 2 - Johann Carion, German astrologer and chronicler
• February 3 - Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare
• February 8
• * Otto von Pack, German conspirator
• * Saint Gerolamo Emiliani, Italian humanitarian
• January 11 - John, Hereditary Prince of Saxony, German prince
• March 25 - Charles, Duke of Vendôme, French noble
• March 28 - Francesco of Saluzzo, Marquess of Saluzzo
• May 10 - Andrzej Krzycki, Polish archbishop
• May 24 - Sophie of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach, German princess
• June 2 - Francis Bigod, British noble
• June 23 - Pedro de Mendoza, Spanish conquistador
• June 29 - Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland
• July 7 - Madeleine of Valois, queen of James V of Scotland
• July 12 - Robert Aske
• September 4 - Johann Dietenberger, German theologian
• September 7 - Nikolaus von Schönberg, German Catholic cardinal
• September 20 - Pavle Bakić, last Serb Despot and medieval Serb monarch
• October 24 - Jane Seymour, Third Queen of Henry VIII of England
• October 29 - Elizabeth Lucar, English calligrapher
• December 11 - Andrey of Staritsa, son of Ivan III of Russia the Great
• date unknown - John Kite, Archbishop of Armagh and Bishop of Carlisle
• probable - Thomas Murner, German satirist