1540 - Wikiwand

Quick Facts

1540 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1540 MDXL
Ab urbe condita	2293
Armenian calendar	989 ԹՎ ՋՁԹ
Assyrian calendar	6290
Balinese saka calendar	1461–1462
Bengali calendar	946–947
Berber calendar	2490
English Regnal year	31 Hen. 8 – 32 Hen. 8
Buddhist calendar	2084
Burmese calendar	902
Byzantine calendar	7048–7049
Chinese calendar	己亥年 (Earth Pig) 4237 or 4030 — to — 庚子年 (Metal Rat) 4238 or 4031
Coptic calendar	1256–1257
Discordian calendar	2706
Ethiopian calendar	1532–1533
Hebrew calendar	5300–5301
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1596–1597
- Shaka Samvat	1461–1462
- Kali Yuga	4640–4641
Holocene calendar	11540
Igbo calendar	540–541
Iranian calendar	918–919
Islamic calendar	946–947
Japanese calendar	Tenbun 9 (天文９年)
Javanese calendar	1458–1459
Julian calendar	1540 MDXL
Korean calendar	3873
Minguo calendar	372 before ROC 民前372年
Nanakshahi calendar	72
Thai solar calendar	2082–2083
Tibetan calendar	ས་མོ་ཕག་ལོ་ (female Earth-Boar) 1666 or 1285 or 513 — to — ལྕགས་ཕོ་བྱི་བ་ལོ་ (male Iron-Rat) 1667 or 1286 or 514

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Events

January 6 – King Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort; the marriage lasts six months.^[1]
February 14 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, enters Ghent without resistance, and executes rebels, ending the Revolt of Ghent (1539–1540).
March 23 – Waltham Abbey is the last to be closed as part of Henry VIII of England's dissolution of the monasteries.

April 3– Estêvão da Gama becomes the new Governor of Portuguese India.
April 7– The English cathedral priories of Canterbury and Rochester are transformed into secular cathedral chapters on Easter Sunday, concluding the Dissolution of the Monasteries.^[2]
April 12– Printing of the first translation of the New Testament into the Icelandic language is completed after King Christian III of Denmark finishes having Oddur Gottskálksson's text compared to the original Latin.^[3]
May 17 – Battle of Kannauj: Sher Shah Suri defeats and deposes Mughal Emperor Humayan, establishing the Sur Empire.
June 10 – Thomas Cromwell, Chief Minister for King Henry VIII, is arrested at meeting of the Privy Council of England at Westminster and charged with treason. Cromwell is removed from his positions as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Privy Seal, Lord Great Chamberlain and Governor of the Isle of Wight, and will be executed on July 28.

July 7 – Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado captures Hawikuh in modern-day New Mexico, at this time known as part of Cíbola, but fails to find the legendary gold.
July 9 – King Henry VIII of England's marriage to Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort, is annulled.^[4]
July 28 – Thomas Cromwell, is executed for treason on the orders of king Henry VIII of England. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.^[4]
August 15 – In Peru, Spanish captain Garcí Manuel de Carbajal founds the Villa Hermosa de Arequipa; one year later, Charles V of Germany and I of Spain will give the valley a status of 'city' by royal decree.
September 3 – Gelawdewos succeeds his father Lebna Dengel as Emperor of Ethiopia.
September 10 – Gibraltar is sacked by the fleet of Barbary pirate Ali Hamet, a Sardinian renegade in the service of the Ottoman Empire, and many of its leading citizens are taken as captives to Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera in Morocco.^[5]^[6] This leads to construction of the defensive Charles V Wall, at this time known as the Muralla de San Benito.
September 27 – The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is approved by Pope Paul III, in his bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae.

October 1 – Battle of Alborán: A Habsburg Spanish fleet, under the command of Bernardino de Mendoza, destroys an Ottoman fleet commanded by Ali Hamet off Alborán Island in the Mediterranean.
October 18 – An expedition led by Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto destroys the fortified village of Mabila in modern-day Alabama, killing paramount chief Tuskaloosa.
November 8 – William Whorwood becomes the new Attorney General for England and Wales, succeeding Sir John Baker
December 16 – Honoré I, Lord of Monaco reaches the age of 19 and after the future principality of Monaco had been administered by regents for more than 18 years.
December 20 – Stephen V, Prince of Moldavia, is assassinated by two of the Moldavian nobles (boyars), Mihul and Trotsanul, after word arrives that he will be replaced by Petru IV Rareş, who had paid a bribe to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman in order to be appointed the new Prince. Alexandru Cornea is crowned temporarily as Prince Alexandru III.^[7]
December 31 – Estêvão da Gama, Governor of Portuguese India, departs from Goa with a plan to sail into the Red Sea, and destroy the Ottoman Empire's access to the Indian Ocean by plundering Suez. The planned attack fails.