1509

January–June

• February 3 - Battle of Diu: The Portuguese defeat a coalition of Indians, Muslims and Italians.
• April 21 - Henry VIII becomes King of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.
• April 27 - Pope Julius II places Venice under interdict and excommunication, for refusing to cede part of Romagna to papal control.
• May 14 - Battle of Agnadello: French forces defeat the Venetians.
• June 11
• * Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon.
• * Luca Pacioli's De divina proportione, concerning the golden ratio, is published in Venice, with illustrations by Leonardo da Vinci.
• June 19 - Brasenose College, Oxford is founded by a lawyer, Sir Richard Sutton, of Prestbury, Cheshire, and the Bishop of Lincoln, William Smyth.
• June 24 - King Henry VIII of England and Queen Consort Catherine of Aragon are crowned.

  July–December

• July 26 - Krishnadevaraya ascends the throne of the Vijayanagara Empire.
• September 10 - The Constantinople earthquake destroys 109 mosques and kills an estimated 10,000 people.
• September 11 - Portuguese fidalgo Diogo Lopes de Sequeira becomes the first European to reach Malacca, having crossed the Gulf of Bengal.
• November 4 - Afonso de Albuquerque becomes the governor of the Portuguese settlements in India.

  Date unknown

• Erasmus writes his most famous work, In Praise of Folly.
• St Paul's School, London is founded by John Colet, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral.
• Royal Grammar School, Guildford, England, is founded under the will of Robert Beckingham.
• Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, England, is founded as a grammar school for boys.

  Births

• January 1 - Guillaume Le Testu, French privateer
• January 2 - Henry of Stolberg, German nobleman
• January 3 - Gian Girolamo Albani, Italian Catholic cardinal
• January 25 - Giovanni Morone, Italian Catholic cardinal
• February 2 - John of Leiden, Dutch Anabaptist leader
• February 10 - Vidus Vidius, Italian surgeon and anatomist
• March 27 - Wolrad II, Count of Waldeck
• April 23 - Afonso of Portugal, Roman Catholic cardinal
• July 4 - Magnus III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Lutheran bishop of the Prince-Bishopric of Schwerin
• July 10 - John Calvin, French religious reformer
• July 25 - Philip II, Count of Nassau-Saarbrücken, German noble
• August 3 - Étienne Dolet, French scholar and printer
• August 7 - Joachim I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, German prince
• August 25 - Ippolito II d'Este, Italian cardinal and statesman
• October 20 - Arthur Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, Scottish prince
• November 4 - John, Duke of Münsterberg-Oels and Count of Glatz
• date unknown
• * John Erskine of Dun, Scottish religious reformer
• * Stanisław Odrowąż, Polish noble
• * Anneke Esaiasdochter, Dutch Anabaptist
• * Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Spanish conquistador
• * Bernardino Telesio, Italian philosopher and natural scientist
• * Kamran Mirza, Mughal prince

  Deaths

• January - Adam Kraft, sculptor and architect
• January 27 - John I, Count Palatine of Simmern
• March 14 - Giovanni Antonio Sangiorgio, Italian cardinal
• April 21 - King Henry VII of England
• April 27 - Margaret of Brandenburg, abbess of the Poor Clares monastery at Hof
• May 28 - Caterina Sforza, countess and regent of Forli
• June 29 - Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of Henry VII of England
• July 11 - William II, Landgrave of Hesse
• July 16
• * Joao da Nova, Portuguese explorer
• * Mikalojus Radvila the Old, Lithuanian nobleman
• December 1 - Lê Uy Mục, 8th king of the later Lê Dynasty of Vietnam
• date unknown
• * Hans Seyffer, German sculptor and woodcarver
• * Shen Zhou, Chinese painter
• * Eleanor de Poitiers, Burgundian courter and writer
• * Viranarasimha Raya, ruler of the Vijayanagar Empire