January 11-May 6 - First recorded lottery in England performed nonstop at the west door of the St. Paul's Cathedral. Each share costs 10 shillings and proceeds are used to repair the harbors and for other public works
March 13 - Battle of Jarnac - Royalist troops under Marshal Gaspard de Tavannes surprise and defeat the Huguenots under the Prince of Condé, who is captured and murdered. A substantial proportion of the Huguenot army manages to escape under Gaspard de Coligny.
June 10 - German Protestant troops reinforce Coligny near Limoges
July - September - Huguenot forces under Coligny and 15 year-old Prince Henry of Navarre besiege Poitiers
August 24 - Battle of Orthez - Huguenot forces under Gabriel de Montgomery defeat Royalist forces under General Terride in French Navarre. Catholics surrender under the condition that their lives would be spared. Huguenots agreed, but then massacred the Catholics anyway.
September - A Royalist army under the Duc d'Anjou and Marshal Tavannes forces Coligny to abandon the siege of Poitiers
October 3 - Battle of Moncountour - The Royalist forces of Tavannaes and Anjou defeat Coligny's Huguenots.
Gerardus Mercator devises the Mercator projection
Assemblies of 3 Lithuanian provinces, Volhynia, Ukraine and Podlasie vote to be incorporated into Poland.
