Decades: 1470s 1480s 1490s 1500s 1510s - 1520s - 1530s 1540s 1550s 1560s 1570s

Years: 1520 1521 1522 1523 1524 - 1525 - 1526 1527 1528 1529 1530

• February 24 - Battle of Pavia - Spanish forces under Charles de Lannoy and the Marquis of Pescara defeat the French army and capture King Francis
• Battle of Frankenhausen - Defeat of the rebellious peasants of Germany by the Lords. End of the Peasants' War.
• European brought diseases sweep through the Andes, killing thousands including the Inca.
• Reportedly, one of the first adult baptisms was publicly performed in Zurich, Switzerland, in January 1525. Felix Mantz, George Blaurock, and a few others were later persecuted because of these, then rebellious, actions.

• Catherine Howard, later fifth Queen consort of Henry VIII of England.

• Cuautemoc, last Aztec Emperor, tortured to death by his Spanish captors