Events of 1520

June: Aztec battles.

January–June

• January 18 – King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Asunde.

• June – Moctezuma II, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, is declared deposed due to his captivity by conquistador Hernán Cortés. His brother Cuitláhuac rises to the throne.

• June 7 – King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France meet at the famous Field of Cloth of Gold.

• June 15 – Pope Leo X issues the bull Exsurge Domine (Arise O Lord), threatening Martin Luther with excommunication if he does not recant his position on indulgences and other Catholic doctrines.

July–December

Sept. 22: Suleiman I.

• July 1 – La Noche Triste (Night of Sorrow): The forces of Cuitláhuac, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, gain a major victory against the forces of conquistador Hernán Cortés. This results in the death of about 400 conquistadors and some 2,000 of their Native American allies. However, Cortés and the most skilled of his men manage to escape and later regroup.

• July 20 – The Spaniards defeat the Aztecs at Otumba near Lake Texcaco.

• September 22 – Suleiman I succeeds his father Selim I as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

• October – Cuitláhuac, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, dies from smallpox. He is succeeded by his nephew Cuauhtémoc.

November 8: Stockholm Bloodbath.

• November 8 – Stockholm Bloodbath: A successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces under the command of Christian II of Denmark results in the execution of around 100 persons (mostly nobility and clergy involved in the previous Swedish war effort).

• November 28 – After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific (the strait was later named the Strait of Magellan).

• December 10 – Martin Luther burns a copy of The Book of Canon Law (see Canon Law) and his copy of the Papal bull Exsurge Domine.

Undated

• Martin Luther writes To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation.

• The Castilian War of the Communities begins.

• Duarte Barbosa returns to Cananor.

• Aleksandra Lisowska (Roxelana) is given as a gift to Suleiman I on the occasion of his accession to the throne.

Births

• March 3 – Matthias Flacius, Croatian Protestant reformer (d. 1575)

• August 1 – King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland (d. 1572)

• August 10 – Madeleine of Valois, queen of James V of Scotland (d. 1537)

• September 13 – William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English statesman (d. 1598)

• October 5 – Alessandro Cardinal Farnese, Italian cardinal (d. 1589)

• date unknown

• *Seosan, Korean monk

• *Jean Ribault, French navigator (d. 1565)

• *Vincenzo Galilei, Italian music theorist, lutenist, and composer (d. 1591)

• *Aben Humeya, last independent king of Granada (d. 1568)

• *Ijuin Tadaaki, Japanese nobleman (d. 1561)

• *Jacques Cujas, French legal expert (d. 1590)

• *Leonard Digges, mathematician and surveyor (d. 1559)

• *Johannes Acronius Frisius, German doctor and mathematician (d. 1564)

• probable

• *Hans Eworth, Flemish portrait painter (d. 1574)

• *Jorge de Montemayor, Spanish novelist and poet (d. 1561)

• *Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian mannerist painter (d. 1578)

Deaths

• February 5 – Sten Sture the younger, Viceroy of Sweden (b. 1493)

• April 6 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (b. 1483)

• June 24 – Hosokawa Sumimoto, Japanese samurai commander (b. 1489)

• September 22 – Selim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1465)

• October – Cuitláhuac, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan

• date unknown

• *Cacamatzin, king of Texcoco (b. 1483)

• *Jan Lubrański, Polish bishop (b. 1456)

• *Moctezuma II, Aztec ruler (b. c. 1466)

• *Sheikh Hamdullah, calligrapher (b. 1436)

• probable

• *Filippo de Lurano, Italian composer (b. 1475)