Directory

1570 CE

The ambassador of the Ottoman Sultan Selim II goes before the governing Council of the Venetian Republic and requests that Venice surrender the island of Cyprus. The Council rejects the demand and prepares to go to war with the Ottoman Empire. The siege of Nicosia by the Ottoman Empire begins in Cyprus and lasts for seven weeks. The Peace of Saint-Germain ends the Third War of Religion in France. Again, the Huguenots are promised religious freedom and political autonomy.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • June 10 – The Kingdom of Livonia is established.source
  • August 16 – The Treaty of Speyer is signed between John Sigismund Zápolya, Prince of Transylvania and Maximilian II, King of Hungary.source
  • December 13 – The Treaty of Stettin ends the Northern Seven Years' War.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 8 – Ivan the Terrible begins the Massacre of Novgorod.source
  • January 23 – The assassination of Scottish regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, by James Hamilton, the first known shooting of a national leader, throws Scotland into civil war. Having loaded a carbine rifle and carried it into the Linlithgow home of his uncle, the Archbishop of St Andrews, Hamilton stands at an upstairs window overlooking the street where Moray will ride by on horseback as part of cavalcade. Once Moray comes into range, Hamilton fires and fatally wounds the regent for King James VI.source
  • March 28 – The ambassador of the Ottoman Sultan Selim II goes before the governing Council of the Venetian Republic and requests that Venice surrender the island of Cyprus. The Council rejects the demand and prepares to go to war with the Ottoman Empire.source
  • May 24 – Battle of Manila: The Spanish, led by Martín de Goiti, defeat the forces of Rajah Sulayman.source
  • July 3 – The Ottoman conquest of Cyprus begins as more than 350 Ottoman ships and over 60,000 troops land near Larnaca and then march toward the Cypriot capital, Nicosia.source
  • July 22 – The siege of Nicosia by the Ottoman Empire begins in Cyprus and lasts for seven weeks.source
  • July 30 (28th day of 6th month of Genki 1) – Battle of Anegawa: The allied forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu defeat the combined forces of the Azai and Asakura clans.source
  • September 9 – Nicosia falls to the Turks under the command of General Lala Mustafa Pasha. After the Ottomans breach the walls, the Venetian defenders are massacred and the women and boys are sold into slavery.source
  • September 25 (26th day of 8th month of Genki 1) – The 10-year-long Ishiyama Hongan-ji War begins in Japan as Oda Nobunaga stages simultaneous attacks on two fortresses (Ishiyama Hongan-ji and Nagashima) of the Ikkō-ikki faction near Osaka.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • September 10 – A party of ten Spanish Jesuit missionaries land on the Virginia Peninsula of North America to establish the Ajacán Mission, which will be massacred in February 1571.source
  • Spanish conquistador Juan de Salcedo (in the service of Miguel López de Legazpi) begins the conquest of the Kingdom of Maynila.source

Religion & Belief

  • February 25 – Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England with the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis.source
  • April 7 – In Scotland, Colin Campbell of Glenorchy receives permission from the Regent, the Earl of Morton, to execute the chief of Clan Gregor, his son-in-law Gregor Roy MacGregor, and carries out MacGregor's beheading at Balloch in front of the Earl of Atholl.source
  • April 27 – Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England, and all persons who show allegiance to her, with the bull Regnans in Excelsis.source
  • July 14 – Pope Pius V issues Quo primum, promulgating the 1570 edition of the Roman Missal.source
  • August 8 – The Peace of Saint-Germain ends the Third War of Religion in France. Again, the Huguenots are promised religious freedom and political autonomy.source
  • Construction of the original Catedral Nuestra Señora de La Asunción, the oldest church in Venezuela, begins.source

Economy & Finance

  • July 22 – Thomson Snell & Passmore is founded in England, the oldest law firm in operation.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is known to be in existence in London. By 2017, when it closes its premises in Whitechapel, it will be the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain.source

Science & Discovery

  • May 20 – Abraham Ortelius publishes the first modern atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, in Antwerp.source
  • Andrea Palladio publishes I quattro libri dell'architettura in Venice.source

Health & Medicine

  • The Andean population of the Viceroyalty of Peru reaches 1.3 million.source

Climate & Environment

  • February 5 – Venus occults Jupiter; this will next happen in 1818.source
  • February 8 – An estimated 8.3 magnitude earthquake occurs in Concepción, Chile.source
  • November 17 – A major earthquake strikes the Italian city of Ferrara at 3:00 in the morning local time, destroying 40 percent of the buildings in the city, but causing only 171 deaths. After the initial shocks, a sequence of aftershocks continue for four years, with over 2,000 in the period from November 1570 to February 1571.source
  • Volcanic eruption in the Santorini caldera begins.source

Culture & Society

  • October 3 – Princess Anna of Austria arrives in Spain to become the Queen Consort of Spain as the bride of her uncle King Philip of Spain, whom she had married by proxy on May 4. Having traveled through the Netherlands, she asks King Philip to spare the life of the rebel Floris of Montmorency, but the King arranges the strangulation of Floris on October 14.source

Births

  • January 1 – Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Spouse of Charles I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (d. 1649)source
  • March 25 – Henry Lennard, 12th Baron Dacre, English baron and politician (d. 1616)source
  • April 13 – Guy Fawkes, English conspirator (d. 1606)source
  • May 22 – Johann II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, German duke (d. 1605)source
  • June 7 – Sultan Murad Mirza, Mughal prince (d. 1599)source
  • August 19 – Salamone Rossi, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1630)source
  • August 21 – Christopher, Duke of Brunswick-Harburg, co-ruler of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Harburg (1603–1606) (d. 1606)source
  • August 22 – Franz von Dietrichstein, German Catholic bishop (d. 1636)source
  • October 3 – George Coke, British bishop (d. 1646)source
  • October 4 – Péter Pázmány, Hungarian cardinal and statesman (d. 1637)source
  • November 1 – Phineas Pett, English shipwright and member of the Pett Dynasty (d. 1647)source
  • November 20 – Giovanni Battista Agucchi, Italian churchman, papal diplomat, and writer on art theory (d. 1632)source
  • November 26 – Christian, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Ærø (1622–1633) (d. 1633)source
  • November 28 – James Whitelocke, English judge (d. 1632)source

Deaths

  • January 8 – Philibert de l'Orme, French architect (b. 1510)source
  • January 23 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland (assassinated) (b. c.1531)source
  • February 13 – Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, politically active Italian duchess (b. 1493)source
  • February – Henry Balnaves, Scottish politician and religious reformer (b. 1512)source
  • March 1 – Bernhard VII, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (b. 1540)source
  • April 13 – Daniele Barbaro, Italian architect (b. 1514)source
  • July 3 – Aonio Paleario, Italian humanist and reformer (executed) (b. c. 1500)source
  • September 11 – Johannes Brenz, German theologian and Protestant Reformer (b. 1499)source
  • October 1 – Frans Floris, Flemish painter (b. 1520)source
  • October 18 – Manuel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit missionary in Brazil (b. 1517)source
  • October 20 – Francesco Laparelli, Italian architect (b. 1521)source
  • October 20 – João de Barros, Portuguese historian (b. 1496)source
  • November 27 – Jacopo Sansovino, Italian sculptor and architect (b. 1486)source
  • November – Jacques Grévin, French dramatist (b. 1539)source