1561
Centuries: 15th century - 16th century - 17th century
Decades: 1510s 1520s 1530s 1540s 1550s - 1560s - 1570s 1580s 1590s 1600s 1610s
Years: 1556 1557 1558 1559 1560 - 1561 - 1562 1563 1564 1565 1566
Events
- The Edict of Orleans suspends the persecution of the Huguenots
- Mary, Queen of Scots is denied passage through England after returning from France. She arrives at Leigh, Scotland on August 19.
- The first Calvinistss settle in England after fleeing Flanders
- Madrid is declared the capital of Spain by Philip II
- St. Paul's Cathedral in London is badly damaged by fire
- January 21 - Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, scientist and statesman (+ 1626)
- August 20 - Jacopo Peri, composer
- Luis de Góngora y Argote of Spain, baroque poet. (died in 1627)
- Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (died in 1633)
- September 25 - Suleiman the Magnificent has his son Bayezid executed.
- Alonso Berruguete, Spanish painter, sculptor and student of Michelangelo (born in 1480)
- The Book of the Courtier (Il Cortegiano) is translated into English by Sir Thomas Hoby
- Poetics by Julius Caesar Scaliger
- Institution of the Christian Religion is translated into English by Thomas Norton
- Basilica of St. Basil in Moscow is finished (started in 1534)
- Michelangelo Buonarroti finishes St. Maria degli Angeli in Rome
- Gabriele Fallopius publishes Observationes anatomicae (anatomical observations)
- Ruy López develops modern techniques of chess playing in Spain
