1550

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1520s 1530s 1540s – 1550s – 1560s 1570s 1580s
Years:	1547 1548 1549 – 1550 – 1551 1552 1553

This article is about the year 1550.

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Year 1550 (MDL) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events [edit]

January 6 – Spanish Captain Hernando de Santana founds the city of Valledupar in what is now Colombian territory.
February 8 – Pope Julius III succeeds Pope Paul III as the 221st pope.

The first grammatical description of the French language is published by Louis Maigret.
The first book in Slovenian, Abecedarium, written by Protestant reformer Primoz Trubar, is printed in Tübingen, Germany.
Sherborne School is established.
Nostradamus' first almanac is written.
Helsinki, later the capital of Finland, is founded by Gustav Vasa.
Iceland becomes fully Protestant.
Altan Khan besieges Peking.
The discovery of silver at Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico, and Potosí in Bolivia, stimulates silver rushes (approximate date).
John Dee finishes his studies at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

January 31 – Henry I, Duke of Guise, French Catholic general (d. 1588)
April 12 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England (d. 1604)
May 25 – Camillus de Lellis, Italian soldier and nurse (d. 1614)
June – Pomponio Nenna, Italian composer (d. 1613)
June 27 – King Charles IX of France (d. 1574)
July 3 – Jacobus Gallus, Slovenian composer (d. 1591)
September 10 – Alonso de Guzmán El Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, commander of the Spanish Armada (d. 1615)
September 17 – Pope Paul V (d. 1621)
October 4 – King Charles IX of Sweden (d. 1611)
October 6 – Karin Månsdotter, queen of Eric XIV of Sweden (d. 1612)
December 6 – Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (d. 1605)
December 22 – Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher (d. 1631)
date unknown
- Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi, author (d. 1625)
- Sarsa Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1597)
- John Napier, Scottish mathematician (d. 1617)
- Ralph Sherwin, English Roman Catholic martyr and saint (d. 1581)
- Anselmus de Boodt, Belgian mineralogist and physician (d. 1632)
- Willem Barentsz, Dutch navigator and explorer (d. 1597)
probable
- Robert Balfour, Scottish philosopher (d. 1625)
- Henry Barrowe, English Puritan and Separatist (d. 1593)
- Emilio de' Cavalieri, Italian composer (d. 1602)
- Cornelis Corneliszoon, Dutch inventor of the sawmill (d. c. 1600)
- Philip Henslowe, English theatrical entrepreneur (d. 1616)

March 7 – William IV, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1493)
March 8 – John of God, Spanish friar and saint (b. 1495)
April 12 – Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (b. 1496)
May 18 – John, Cardinal of Lorraine, French churchman (b. 1498)
May 20 – Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Japanese shogun (b. 1511)
July – Jacopo Bonfadio, historian (b. c. 1508)
July 30 – Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, English politician (b. 1505)
October 23 – Tiedemann Giese, Polish Catholic bishop (b. 1480)
November 6 – Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1487)
November 7 – Jón Arason, the last Catholic bishop of Iceland (executed)
December 8 – Gian Giorgio Trissino, humanist writer (b. 1478)
date unknown
- Aq Kubek of Astrakhan, ruler of Astrakhan Khanate
- Jamsheed Quli Qutb Shah, second ruler of Golconda
- Tabinshwehti, King of Burma (b. 1512)

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