History
1568
General
Population: 515 Million*
- Entertainment: Art includes Pieter Brueghel "The Faithlessness of the World",
- Exploration: Gerardus Mercator devises cylindrical projection of maps, also publishes map of the Americas
- Food: Alezander Nowell Dean of St. Paul's in London invents bottled beer
- Medicine: Costanzo Variolo studies anatomy of the brain
- Religion: Archbishop Parker's "Bishop's Bible"
Pope Pius V issues revised "Brevarium Romanun"
- Deaths: General Jean de la Valette, Don Carlos the prince of Spain, Composer and cleric William Whytbroke
Africa
- Ethiopia: End of reign of Christian emperor Zera Yacub
Asia
- India: Akbar of the Mughals captures the Rajput fortresses of Chittaurgarh and Rathambhor
- Japan: Period of national unification in Japan begins when old feudal lord, Oda Nobunaga, captures Kyoto
End of Ashikaga family rule in Japan
Jesuit missionaries welcomed in Japan
Europe
- Belgium: Counts Egmont and Hoorn pronounced guilty of high treason and beheaded in Brussels
- Czechoslovakia: First translation of the Bible into Czech
- England: Mary Queen of Scots defeated at Langside by Moray – takes refuge in England
First modern eisteddfod for Welsh music and literature held at Caerwys
York Conference into Queen Mary's conduct opens – reopens later at Westminster
Robert Smythson works on Longleat House in Wiltshire
Company of London Bricklayers and Tylers incorporated
- France: Treaty of Longjumeau ends second war of Religion in France
English College founded at Douai by William Allen to train Jesuit missionaries for work in England
- Holland: Dutch campaign for independence from Spanish rule begins
- Holy Roman Empire: Peace between Selim II Ottoman and Maximilian II HRE – sultan receives large payments from Emperor
- Italian States: Giacomoda Vignola begins building Gesu Church in Rome
- Scotland: Mary Queen of Scots defeated at Langside by Moray – takes refuge in England
- Spain: Death of Don Carlos the son of Philip II of Spain
First public theater presentation in Madrid
Juan Fernandez de Navarrete made court painter to Philip II of Spain
- Sweden: Swedes declare Eric XIV unfit to reign and proclaim John III king (Somewhat still under Danish control)
Middle East
- Ottoman Empire: Peace between Selim II Ottoman and Maximilian II HRE – sultan receives large payments from Emperor