16th century facts for kids

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century · 16th century · 17th century
Decades:	1500s 1510s 1520s 1530s 1540s; 1550s 1560s 1570s 1580s 1590s
Categories:	Births – Deaths; Establishments – Disestablishments

The 16th century is the century from 1501 to 1600. In this century, many Europeans visited or moved to the newly-found Americas and some also searched for new routes to Asia. There was much change in Europe, such as the Protestant Reformation.

Decades and years

Note: years before or after the 16th century are in italics.

1490s	1490	1491	1492	1493	1494	1495	1496	1497	1498	1499
1500s	1500	1501	1502	1503	1504	1505	1506	1507	1508	1509
1510s	1510	1511	1512	1513	1514	1515	1516	1517	1518	1519
1520s	1520	1521	1522	1523	1524	1525	1526	1527	1528	1529
1530s	1530	1531	1532	1533	1534	1535	1536	1537	1538	1539
1540s	1540	1541	1542	1543	1544	1545	1546	1547	1548	1549
1550s	1550	1551	1552	1553	1554	1555	1556	1557	1558	1559
1560s	1560	1561	1562	1563	1564	1565	1566	1567	1568	1569
1570s	1570	1571	1572	1573	1574	1575	1576	1577	1578	1579
1580s	1580	1581	1582	1583	1584	1585	1586	1587	1588	1589
1590s	1590	1591	1592	1593	1594	1595	1596	1597	1598	1599
1600s	1600	1601	1602	1603	1604	1605	1606	1607	1608	1609

Images for kids

The world map by the Italian Amerigo Vespucci (from whose name the word America is derived) and Belgian Gerardus Mercator shows (besides the classical continents Europe, Africa, and Asia) the Americas as America sive India Nova, New Guinea, and other islands of Southeast Asia, as well as a hypothetical Arctic continent and a yet undetermined Terra Australis.
The Islamic gunpowder empires: Mughal Army artillerymen during the reign of Jalaluddin Akbar the Great
Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury, Galileo Galilei, father of modern science, and the Pope.
Dr Alberico Gentili, The Father of international law.
Afonso de Albuquerque
Spanish conquistadors with their Tlaxcallan allies fighting against the Otomies of Metztitlan in present-day Mexico, a 16th-century codex
Martin Luther initiated the Reformation with his Ninety-five Theses in 1517.
Hernán Cortés
Gun-wielding Ottoman Janissaries and defending Knights of Saint John at the Siege of Rhodes in 1522, from an Ottoman manuscript
Sack of Rome by Charles V forces.
Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1536 – 1537, Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland.
Scenes of everyday life in Ming China, by Qiu Ying
Akbar the Great
Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo
Oda Nobunaga.
Sir Francis Drake.
The Irish Gaelic chieftain's feast, from The Image of Ireland.
The fall of Spanish Armada
Charles V
Elizabeth I of England
Martin Luther
Vasco de Gama
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Albrecht Dürer
Titian
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Miguel de Cervantes
Michel de Montaigne
Niccolò Machiavelli
Sir Thomas More
Portuguese fusta in India from a book by Jan Huygen van Linschoten