Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, deep into its circumnavigation of the globe, sails through the Pacific toward landfall in the Philippine archipelago.

A cannonball shattered the leg of Spanish soldier Íñigo López de Loyola during the siege of Pamplona, a wound that ended his military career and set him on the path to founding the Jesuits.

Martin Luther left Wittenberg for the Diet of Worms, summoned to answer for his writings before Emperor Charles V amid threats to his life.

Hernán Cortés and his Tlaxcalan allies pressed the siege that would culminate in Tenochtitlan's fall months later, reshaping the Americas forever.

Martin Luther stood before the Diet of Worms and declared he would not recant his writings unless proven wrong by Scripture.

Martin Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms and refused to renounce his writings, declaring his conscience was captive to Scripture, not popes or councils.

Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed in a shallow-water battle against the forces of Lapu-Lapu on the island of Mactan in the Philippines.

The Jiajing Emperor was enthroned in Beijing after his cousin's sudden death without an heir, beginning a 45-year reign marked by Daoist obsession and political purges.

Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés and their Indigenous allies tightened their brutal siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in its final days.

After a brutal 93-day siege, Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés and thousands of Indigenous allies captured Tenochtitlan, ending the Aztec Empire.

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Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent captured the fortress city of Belgrade, opening the Balkans to nearly two centuries of Ottoman expansion into Europe.