History
1541
General
Population: 493 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Giambattista Cinzio Giraldi (classical Italian tragedy),
Art includes Michelangelo "The Last Judgement"
- Religion: Loyola elected General of the Jesuits
- Deaths: Conquistador Francisco Pizarro, Alchemist and physician Paracelsus, Painter Rosso Fiorentino, Artist Jean Clouet, Sculptor Damian Forment,
Composer Wulfard Hellinck,
Americas
- General: Last of Cartier's voyages in new world
- Brazil: Francisco de Orellana descends Amazon River
Tsunami
- North America: Coronado takes expedition across New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas
Hernando de Soto discovers Mississippi river
- Peru: Death of Francisco Pizarro the Spanish conquerer of Peru
Europe
- England: Queen Catherine Howard sent to the Tower on suspicion of immoral conduct – paramours Thomas Culpepper and Dereham executed
- Hungary: Suleiman I takes Buda and annexes Hungary defeating Habsburg leader Ferdinand – see 1686
- Ireland: Irish parliament declares Henry VIII king of Ireland and head of Irish Church - Ireland becomes kingdom
- Scotland: John Knox leads Calvinist reformation in Scotland
- Switzerland: Leadership of John Calvin in Geneva begins - introduces puritan Protestant society
Middle East
- Ottoman Empire: Suleiman I takes Buda and annexes Hungary – see 1686