1531

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1500s 1510s 1520s – 1530s – 1540s 1550s 1560s
Years:	1528 1529 1530 – 1531 – 1532 1533 1534

1531 by topic
Arts and science
Architecture - Art - Literature - Music - Science
Lists of leaders
Colonial governors - State leaders
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments - Disestablishments
Works category
Works

Year 1531 (MDXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

January 26 – Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake in which thousands die.
February 11 – Henry VIII of England is recognised as supreme head of the Church of England.
February 27 – Lutheran princes in the Holy Roman Empire form an alliance known as the Schmalkaldic League.
February or March – Battle of Antukyah: Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi of the Adal Sultanate defeats the Ethiopian army.
April – Battle of Puná: Francisco Pizarro defeats the island's native inhabitants.
April 16 – The city of Puebla, Mexico is founded.
June 24 – The city of San Juan del Río, Mexico is founded.

July 25 – The city of Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico is founded.
September 22 – Battle of Obertyn: The Moldavians are defeated by Polish forces under Jan Amor Tarnowski, allowing the Poles to recapture Pokucie.
October 11 – Battle of Kappel: The forces of Zürich are defeated by the Catholic cantons. Huldrych Zwingli, the Swiss religious reformer, is killed.
October 28 – Battle of Amba Sel: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeats the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia. The southern part of Ethiopia thus falls under Imam Ahmad's control.
December 12 – The Virgin Mary, in the guise of Our Lady of Guadalupe, allegedly appears to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec convert to Catholicism.

Andrea Alciato publishes the first part of his Emblemata.
The Comet Halley appears (Perihelion: August 26).
Conquistador Francisco de Montejo claims Chichen Itza as capital of Spanish-ruled Yucatán.
The University of Sarajevo is founded by Gazi Husrev-beg.
Kõpu Lighthouse is completed.
An enormous drought in Henan province, China, coupled with a gigantic swarm of locusts in the summer, forces many in destitute agricultural communities to turn to cannibalism instead of dying by starvation.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor abolishes the worst abuses of the encomienda system by pressure of Bartolomé de las Casas.
Witch-hunt in the town of Schiltach, Germany

September – Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby (died 1594)
October 12 – Jacques de Savoie, 2nd Duc de Nemours (died 1585)
November 14 – Richard Topcliffe, English torturer and sadist (died 1604)
November 18 – Roberto di Ridolfi, Italian conspirator against Elizabeth I (died 1612)
date unknown
- Henry, Count of Bréderode (died 1568)
- Akiyama Nobutomo, Japanese nobleman (died 1575)
- John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England (died 1607)
- António, Prior of Crato, claimant to the throne of Portugal (died 1595)

January 21 – Andrea del Sarto, Italian painter (born 1487)
February 16 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician (born 1452)
March 6 – Pedrarias Dávila, Spanish colonial administrator (born c. 1440)
May 19 – Jan Łaski, Polish statesman and diplomat (born 1456)
July 7 – Tilman Riemenschneider, German sculptor (born 1460)
July 17 – Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese military commander (born 1484)
July 23 – Louis de Brézé, seigneur d'Anet, Marshal of Normandy and husband of Diane de Poitiers
October 10 – Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss reformer (in battle) (born 1484)
September 22 – Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I of France (born 1476)
November 24 – Johannes Oecolampadius, German religious reformer (born 1482)
date unknown – Vallabhacharya, founder of the Hindu Vallabha sect (born 1479)
probable – Fernan Perez de Oliva, Spanish man of letters (born 1492)