July 12: Saint Basil's Cathedral. October 18: Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima. News notice printed in Nuremberg, describing the 4th April 1561 Nuremberg mass sighting. Discs and spheres were said to emerge from large cylinders. From Wickiana collection in Zurich. Year 1561 (MDLXI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

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January–June

• January 31 – The Edict of Orleans suspends the persecution of the Huguenots.
• March 1 – Kingston Grammar School is founded.
• April 4 – The citizens of Nuremberg see what appears to be an aerial battle followed by the appearance of a large black triangular object and a large crash (with smoke) outside the city. A news notice (early form of newspaper) was printed 10 days later (April 14) describing the event.^[1]
• May 8 – Madrid is declared the capital of Spain by Philip II.
• June 4 – St. Paul's Cathedral in London is badly damaged by fire and the spire is destroyed after being struck by lightning. The spire is not rebuilt.
• June 6 – Sweden conquers Livonia (modern Estonia).
• June 29 – Erik XIV is crowned King of Sweden.

July–December

• July – Killing of the hated encomendero Pedro de Avenda o and two other Spaniards triggered the Second Great Rebellion of the Mapuche in the Arauco War.
• July 12 – Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow (started in 1534) is finished.
• August 19 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is denied passage through England after returning from France. She arrives at Leith, Scotland on August 19.
• September – The Protestant reformer John Knox has a three-day debate in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland with Quintin Kennedy, commendator of Crossraguel Abbey, on transubstantiation. The result was inconclusive but Kennedy was fighting a losing battle against the Reformation, which had been confirmed by the Scottish government in 1560.
• October 18 – Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima: Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.

Date unknown

• The first Calvinists settle in England after fleeing Flanders.
• Ruy L pez develops modern techniques of chess playing in Spain.
• Between 1561 and 1670 3,229 witches are executed in southwestern Germany, most by burning.

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Births

• January 6 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (d. 1656)
• January 22 – Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, scientist, and statesman (d. 1626)
• June – Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York (d. 1631)
• July 11 – Lu s de G ngora y Argote, Spanish poet (d. 1627)
• July 17 – Jacopo Corsi, Italian composer (d. 1602)
• August 4 – John Harington, courtier, inventor and writer (d. 1612)
• August 20 – Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (d. 1633)
• August 24 – Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk (d. 1626)
• August 25 – Philippe van Lansberge, Dutch astronomer (d. 1632)
• September 10 – Hernando Arias de Saavedra, Spanish colonial governor (d. 1634)
• September 29 – Adriaan van Roomen, Belgian mathematician (d. 1615)
• October 27 – Mary Sidney, English writer, patroness and translator (d. 1621)
• December 7 – Kikkawa Hiroie, Japanese politician (d. 1625)
• December 9 – Edwin Sandys, English founder of the colony of Virginia (d. 1629)
• date unknown – Stephen Bachiler, non-conformist minister and pioneer settler of New England (d. 1656)

Deaths

• January 31
  • Menno Simons, Anabaptist religious leader and Mennonite founder (b. 1496)
  • Bairam Khan, Turkoman noble and poet (assassinated)
• February 26 – Jorge de Montemayor, Spanish writer (b. 1520)
• March 25 – Conrad Lycosthenes, humanist and encyclopedist (b. 1518)
• May 16 – Jan Tarnowski, Polish nobleman (b. 1488)
• June 6 – Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, painter (b. 1483)
• July 19 – Henry Lauder, Lord St Germains, Lord Advocate of Scotland
• September 1 – Edward Waldegrave, English policitian and recusant
• October 27 – Lope de Aguirre, Basque rebel and conquistador (b. 1510)
• November 11 – Hans Tausen, Danish reformer (b. 1494)
• date unknown
  • Claude Garamond, French publisher (b. 1480)
  • Ijuin Tadaaki, Japanese nobleman (b. 1520)
• probable – Luis de Mil n, Spanish composer (b. 1500)

References

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