1555

Events

• Russia breaks 60 year old truce with Sweden by attacking Finland
• February 4 - John Rogers becomes first Protestant martyr in England
• May 23 - Paul IV becomes Pope.
• September 25 - Peace of Augsburg is signed.

Births

• March 18 - François, Duke of Anjou, youngest son of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici (died 1584)
• April 21 - Ludovico Carracci, Italian painter (died 1619)
• August 1 - Edward Kelley, spirit medium who worked with John Dee (died 1597)
• December 4 - Heinrich Meibom, German historian and poet (died 1625)
• Johann Arndt, German Lutheran theologian (died 1621)
• Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne, duc de Bouillon, Marshal of France (died 1623)
• Richard Carew, Cornish translator and antiquary (died 1620)
• Thomas Cavendish, English explorer (died 1592)
• Adam Sedziwoj Czarnkowski, Polish nobleman (died 1628)
• Samuel Edels, Jewish rabbi and Talmudist (died 1631)
• Joshua Falk, Jewish rabbi and commentator (died 1614)
• Henry Garnet, English Jesuit (died 1606)
• Lancelot Andrewes, English clergyman and scholar (died 1626)
• François de Malherbe, French poet (died 1628)
• Jan Zbigniew Ossolinski, Polish nobleman (died 1628)
• Okudaira Sadamasa, Japanese nobleman (died 1615)
• Konishi Yukinaga, Japanese Christian daimyo
• Lodovico Zacconi, Italian composer and music theorist (died 1627)

Deaths

• February 4 - John Rogers, English clergyman (burned at the stake)
• February 8 - Laurence Saunders, English clergyman (burned at the stake)
• February 9 - John Hooper, English churchman
• February 9 - Rowland Taylor, English protestant martyr (born 1510)
• March 14 - John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (born 1485)
• March 23 - Pope Julius III (born 1487)
• April 11 - Joanna of Castile, mother of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1479)
• May 6 - Pope Marcellus II (born 1501)
• May 25 - Henry II of Navarre (born 1503)
• May 25 - Gemma Frisius, mathematician (born 1508)
• October 9 - Justus Jonas, German Protestant reformer (born 1493)
• October 16 - Nicholas Ridley, English clergyman (burned at the stake)
• October 16 - Hugh Latimer, English clergyman (burned at the stake)
• November 12 - Stephen Gardiner, English bishop and Lord Chancellor (born 1493)
• November 21 - Georg Agricola, German scholar and man of science (born 1490)
• Jacques Dubois, French anatomist (born 1478)
• Stanislaw Kostka, Polish noble (born 1487)
• Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (born 1473)
• John Rogers, English Bible translator and martyr (born 1500)
• Saint Thomas of Villanueva, Spanish bishop (born 1488)
• Polydore Vergil, English historian (born 1470)