1540

Years:
1537 1538 1539 - 1540 - 1541 1542 1543
Decades:
1510s 1520s 1530s - 1540s - 1550s 1560s 1570s
Centuries:
15th century - 16th century - 17th century

Events

January 6 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort.
July 9 - King Henry VIII of England divorces Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort.
July 28 - One of the most important political figures of the reign of Henry VIII of England, Thomas Cromwell, is executed on order from the king on charges of Treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
Spain, Foundation of Society of Jesus, Catholicism
French translation of John Calvin's L'Institution chrétienne (originally in Latin)
Gelawdewos succeeds his father Lebna Dengel as Emperor of Ethiopia.

January 24 - Edmund Campion, English Jesuit and Roman Catholic martyr (died 1581)
January 28 - Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (died 1610)
June 3 - Archduke Charles II of Austria, regent of Inner Austria (died 1590)
June 11 - Barnabe Googe, English poet (died 1594)
August 26 - King Magnus of Livonia (died 1583)
October 1 - Johann Jakob Grynaeus, Swiss protestant clergyman (died 1617)
November 16 - Cecilia of Sweden (died 1627)
Jose de Acosta, Jesuit missionary and naturalist (died 1600)
Andrea Andreani, Italian engraver on wood (died 1623)
William Byrd, English composer (died 1623)
Christopher Hatton, English politician (died 1591)
George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon, English nobleman (died 1604)
Pierre Jeannin, French statesman (died 1622)
Lettice Knollys, lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I of England (died 1634)
Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish military commander (died 1604
Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton (died 1614)
Zofia Odrowaz, Polish noblewoman (died 1580)
Juan de Oñate, Spanish explorer (died 1626)
Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (died 1596)
Joseph Justus Scaliger, French protestant scholar (died 1609)
Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, Irish rebel (died 1616)
François Viète, French mathematician (died 1603)
Amago Yoshihisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (died 1610)
Gaspar de Zuniga y Azevedo, Spanish colonial administrator and viceroy of Mexico (died 1606)

March 30 - Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, German statesman and archbishop of Salzburg (born 1469)
May 6 - Juan Luís Vives, Spanish scholar
May 22 - Francesco Guicciardini, Italian statesman and historian (born 1483)
July 28 - Thomas Cromwell, English statesman (executed)
July 30 - Thomas Abel, English priest (martyred)
July 30 - Robert Barnes, English reformer (martyred) (born 1495)
August 23 - Guillaume Budé, French scholar
August 24 - Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Italian artist (b. 1503)
September 2 - Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (died in battle) (born 1501)
October 5 - Helius Eobanus Hessus, German Latin poet (born 1488)
Elizabeth Blount, mistress of Henry VIII of England (born 1502)
Tristão da Cunha, Portuguese explorer (born 1460)
Johann Georg Faust, German alchemist (born 1480)
Federico II of Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua (born 1500)
Angela Merici, Italian religious leader and saint born in Desenzano del Garda (born 1474)
Francisco de Ulloa, Spanish explorer