1562

January–June

• January 6 - Shane O'Neill of Tír Eoghain pleads his cause at the Palace of Whitehall in London, before Queen Elizabeth I of England, who recognises his status. He returns to Ireland on May 26, and resumes his rebellious activities by November.
• January 17 - Huguenots are recognized under the Edict of Saint-Germain.
• January 18
• * The Council of Trent reconvenes, after a gap of 10 years.
• * Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's play Gorboduc is performed for the first time, before Queen Elizabeth I of England. It is the first known English tragedy, and the first English language play to employ blank verse.
• March 1 - Over 80 Huguenots are massacred by the ultra-Catholic Francis, Duke of Guise in Wassy-sur-Blaise, marking the start of the First War of Religion in France. Protestant forces, led by Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and Gaspard de Coligny, quickly seize control of Orléans, Rouen, and other cities throughout France.
• March - English merchant Anthony Jenkinson has an audience with Ivan the Terrible in Moscow, before continuing his second expedition through the Grand Duchy of Moscow to Qazvin, capital of the Safavid Dynasty in Persia.
• May 1 - Jean Ribault, French navigator, lands in Florida, and later establishes a Huguenot colony at Charlesfort on Parris Island, South Carolina

  July–December

• July 12 - Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatan, burns the sacred books of the Maya.
• August - The Wiesensteig witch trial begins.
• September 20 - The Treaty of Hampton Court, between Queen Elizabeth I of England and Huguenot leader Louis, Prince of Condé, is signed.
• September 22 - Maximilian, son of the Emperor Ferdinand I, succeeds as king of the Kingdom of Bohemia.
• October - John Hawkins initiates the English trans-Atlantic slave trade, shipping slaves from Sierra Leone, on the Guinea Coast, to Hispaniola in the Caribbean. As a result, the Spanish prohibit English ships from trading at their new world ports.
• October 4 - English forces under Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, land at Le Havre to aid the Huguenots.
• October 19 - La Herradura naval disaster: Twenty-five ships sink in a storm, and some 5,000 people are killed.
• October 26 - Rouen is captured by Royalist forces under Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre, who is mortally wounded.
• November 5 - Battle of Corrichie in Scotland: The rebellion of George Gordon, Earl of Huntly is crushed by James Stewart, Earl of Moray.
• November 20 - Maximilian of Bohemia is elected King of the Romans.
• December 19 - Battle of Dreux: Huguenot and Catholic forces fight a bloody battle, narrowly won by the Catholic side. The official leaders of both armies are captured in the battle.

  Date unknown

• Mughal Emperor Akbar conquers Malwa, and its last Sultan, Baz Bahadur, flees.
• The Church of England approves the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, defining its doctrinal stance.
• Dudley Grammar School is established, and Gresham's School is granted a royal charter, in England.
• Fausto Sozzini publishes Brevis explicatio in primum Johannis caput, originating Socinianism.
• Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola publishes Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura ; it will become in succeeding centuries the most published book in architectural history.