1566

Events

• January 7 - Pius V becomes Pope
• Selim II succeeds Suleiman I as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
• Religious rioting in the Netherlands signifies the beginning of the Eighty Years War in the Netherlands.
• The first bridge crossing the Neretva river at Mostar (in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) is completed by the Ottoman Empire. The white marble bridge is now known as Stari Most (or "Old Bridge").

Births

• March 8 - Carlo Gesualdo, Italian nobleman, composer, and murderer
• May 26 - Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1603)
• June 19 - Prince James Stewart, later King James VI of Scotland and King James I of England and Ireland (d. 1625)
• June 20 - Prince Sigismund Vasa, later King Sigismund III of Poland and King Sigismund I of Sweden
• December 11 (baptised) - Manuel Cardoso, Portuguese composer

Deaths

• April 25 - Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henri II of France (b. 1499)
• July 1 - Nostradamus, astrologer
• Kimotsuki Kanetsugu, Japanese samurai and daimyo
• Suleiman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1494)