1551

Year 1551 (MDLI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events of 1551

January - June

* January 11 - Ketumati, Burma is conquered by Bayinnaung.
* January - February - Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, and Tsar Ivan IV of Russia preside over the Stoglav (Hundred-Chapter) church council.

July - December

* July - Ottomans and Barbary pirates invade the Mediterranean Island of Gozo, enslaving all inhabitants (est. at 5,000 to 6,000), and transporting them to Tarhuna Wa Msalata.

Undated

* Russia - Reforming Synod of the Metropolitan Makary: A calendar of the saints and an ecclesiastical law code ("Stoglav") are introduced.
* The fifth outbreak of sweating sickness occurs in England. John Caius of Shrewsbury writes the first full contemporary account of the symptoms of the disease.
* The National University of Saint Mark is founded in Lima, Peru.
* The National Autonomous University of Mexico is founded in Mexico City.
* Persian forces raid and destroy the cave monastery of Vardzia in Georgia (country).
* The Ottomans capture Tripoli.
* In Slovakia, Guta (currently Kolárovo) receives town status.
* Juan de Betanzos begins to write "Narrative of the Incas".
* In Henan province, China, during the Ming Dynasty, a severe frost in the spring destroys the winter wheat crop. Torrential rains in mid summer cause massive flooding of farmland and villages (by some accounts submerged in a meter of water). In the fall a large tornado demolishes houses and flattens much of the buckwheat in the fields. Famine victims either flee, starve, or resort to cannibalism. This follows a series of natural disasters in Henan in the years 1528, 1531, 1539, and 1545.
* Portuguese founds a sugar colony at Bahia.

Births

* March 21 - Maria Anna of Bavaria (Archduchess of Austria) (d. 1608)
* May 2 - William Camden, English historian (d. 1623)
* May 17 - Martin Delrio, Flemish theologian and occultist (d. 1608)
* September 19 - King Henry III of France (d. 1589)
*"date unknown"
** Bhai Gurdas - Original scribe of Guru Granth Sahib
** George Tuchet, 1st Earl of Castlehaven (d. 1617)
** Faust Vrančić, Dalmatian/Croatian humanist (d. 1617)
** Job of Pochayiv, Ukrainian Christian Orthodox Saint (d. 1651)
*"probable"
** Boris Godunov, Tsar of Russia (d. 1605)
** Stanisław Stadnicki, Polish nobleman (d. 1610)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* February 28 - Martin Bucer, German Protestant reformer (b. 1491)
* April 6 - Joachim Vadian, Swiss humanist (b. 1484)
* April 21 - Oda Nobuhide, Japanese warlord (b. 1510)
* May 8 - Barbara Radziwill, queen of Sigismund II of Poland (b. 1523)
* May 18 - Domenico di Pace Beccafumi, Italian painter (b. 1486)
* July - Adriaen Isenbrant, Flemish painter (b. 1490)
* July 13 - John Wallop, English soldier and diplomat (b. 1490)
* August 26 - Margareta Leijonhufvud, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1516)
* September 30 - Ōuchi Yoshitaka, Japanese warlord (b. 1507)
*"date unknown"
**Fray Tomás de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama (b. 1487)
**Zofia Szydłowiecka, Polish noblewoman (b. 1513)
**Sagara Taketo, Japanese samurai (b. 1498)
**Katarzyna Tomicka, Polish noblewoman (b. c. 1517)

: "See also ."