History
1551
General
Population: 501 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Sir Thomas More Utopia translated into English from Latin,
Art includes Titian creates Philip II portrait
- Science: Pierre Belon writes "Historie naturelle des estranges poisons"
Konrad von Gesner writes treatise on modern zoology "Historia animalium"
Americas
- Mexico: Zapotec Kingdom submits to Spain giving them control of Oaxaca
- Peru: University of Lima founded
Asia
- General: Bayinnaung inherits Burmese throne and overruns Thailand
- Japan: End of mission of Jesuit St. Francis Xavier
Europe
- General: Treaty of Friedewalde between Saxony and France
- England: First licensing of alehouses and taverns in England and Wales
Archbishop Cranmer puclished Forty-two articles of religion
Last major outbreak of "The Sweat" in England – viral pulmonary disease
- German States: Jews persecuted in Bavaria
- Hungary: Turkey and Hungary at war to 1562
- Italian States: Jesuits found Collegio Romano in Rome as Papal University
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina made director of music at St. Peter's in Rome
- Malta: Tornado kills 600
Middle East
- Ottoman Empire: Turks fail to capture Malta but take Tripoli
Turkey and Hungary at war to 1562