1543

Year 1543 (MDXLIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. It is one of the years sometimes referred to as an "Annus mirabilis" because of its significant publications in science, considered the start of the Scientific Revolution.

May: De revolutionibus orbi published by Copernicus

June: Humani corporis fabrica published by Vesalius

Quick facts

1543 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1543 MDXLIII
Ab urbe condita	2296
Armenian calendar	992 ԹՎ ՋՂԲ
Assyrian calendar	6293
Balinese saka calendar	1464–1465
Bengali calendar	949–950
Berber calendar	2493
English Regnal year	34 Hen. 8 – 35 Hen. 8
Buddhist calendar	2087
Burmese calendar	905
Byzantine calendar	7051–7052
Chinese calendar	壬寅年 (Water Tiger) 4240 or 4033 — to — 癸卯年 (Water Rabbit) 4241 or 4034
Coptic calendar	1259–1260
Discordian calendar	2709
Ethiopian calendar	1535–1536
Hebrew calendar	5303–5304
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1599–1600
- Shaka Samvat	1464–1465
- Kali Yuga	4643–4644
Holocene calendar	11543
Igbo calendar	543–544
Iranian calendar	921–922
Islamic calendar	949–950
Japanese calendar	Tenbun 12 (天文１２年)
Javanese calendar	1461–1462
Julian calendar	1543 MDXLIII
Korean calendar	3876
Minguo calendar	369 before ROC 民前369年
Nanakshahi calendar	75
Thai solar calendar	2085–2086
Tibetan calendar	ཆུ་ཕོ་སྟག་ལོ་ (male Water-Tiger) 1669 or 1288 or 516 — to — ཆུ་མོ་ཡོས་ལོ་ (female Water-Hare) 1670 or 1289 or 517

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Events

January–March

January 4 – Andrea Centurione Pietrasanta begins a two-year term as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa, replacing Leonardo Cattaneo della Volta.
January 8 – The burial of King James V of Scotland is carried out at Holyrood Abbey.^[1]
February 11 – King Henry VIII of England allies with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, against France.^[2]
February 21 – Battle of Wayna Daga: A joint Ethiopian-Portuguese force of 8,500, under Emperor Gelawdewos of Ethiopia, defeats Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi's army of over 14,000, ending the Ethiopian–Adal War.
March 7 –
- Abu Abdallah Muhammad VI is installed as the new ruler of the Kingdom of Tlemcen in what is now Algeria, succeeding his brother Abu Zayyan III.^[3]^[4]
- Massive flooding of the Mississippi River and the Arkansas River begins in southeastern North America over a 40 day period while Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto and his team are passing through.^[5] The event is noted by the chronicler of the DeSoto Expedition, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.
March 15 – James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, is elected by the Scottish Parliament as the Regent for the infant Mary Queen of Scots.
March 18 – As flooding of the Mississippi continues De la Vega notes that "on the eighteenth of March, 1543, while the Spaniards.. were making a procession in honor of Our Redeemer's entrance into Jerusalem, the river entered the gates of the little village of Aminoya in the wildness and fury of its flood, and two days later on ecould not pass through the streets except in canoes."^[6]
March 20 – King Gustav of Sweden leads troops in troops crushing Dacke's Rebellion, led by Swedish peasant Nils Dacke, with defeat coming at the Battle of Hjortensjon.^[7]
March 21 – In Nuremberg, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) is printed ^[8] during the illness of Nicholas Copernicus, offering mathematical arguments for the existence of the heliocentric universe, denying the geocentric model. According to legend, Copernicus, who had a stroke in December, is presented a copy of the book on his deathbed shortly before dying on May 24 in Frombork at the age of 70.

April–June

April 23 – Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, follows up on his 1541 annexation of Hungary by invading a second time to capture areas that had been taken by Archduke Ferdinand, including Esztergom.^[9]
May 5 – Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Archduke Ferdinand I, marries Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland. Her coronation as Queen consort of Poland takes place three days later at Kraków Cathedral as the Archbishop of Gniezno, Piotr Gamrat, places the crown of Hedwig of Kalisz upon her head.
May 12 –
- King Henry VIII of England gives royal assent to numerous laws passed by parliament, including the Act for the Advancement of True Religion, restricting the reading of the Bible to clerics, noblemen, and upper class society. The Act will be repealed in 1547 during the reign of King Edward VI.
- Laws in Wales Act 1542, second phase of the Consolidating Act of Welsh Union, is given royal assent, establishing counties and regularizing parliamentary representation in Wales.^[2]
May 24 – On his deathbed, Nicolaus Copernicus is presented a copy of his groundbreaking book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.
June 4 – Fabiano di Monte San Savinov leads 500 infantry men and some cavalry in an attempt to conquer the Republic of San Marino, but the group fails after getting lost in a dense fog on Saint Quirinus' Day.^[10]
June 22 – King Henry VIII of England declares war on King Francis I of France, one month after sending an ultimatum.^[11]
June – Andreas Vesalius publishes De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body), revolutionising the science of human anatomy.^[12]

July–September

July 1 – The Treaty of Greenwich is signed between representatives of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland as part of a plan to eventually unify the two nations under one monarch. As part of the treaty, the two nations agree to avoid war during the reign of King Henry VIII in England or Mary, Queen of Scots in Scotland and for another year after both are gone. The second part of the Treaty provides that Mary, Queen of Scots (six months old at the time) will eventually become the wife of Crown Prince Edward (then 5 years old), son of King Henry VIII. The Scottish Parliament repudiates the treaty five months later.^[2]
July 12 – King Henry VIII of England marries Catherine Parr. It is Henry's sixth and last marriage and Catherine's third.^[13] Princess Elizabeth attends the wedding. This month, the Parliament of England passes the Third Succession Act, restoring the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth I of England, Henry's daughters, to the line of succession to the English throne.
July 25–
- The first large naval battle in the Atlantic Ocean, the Battle of Muros Bay, takes place off of the coast of Galicia in Spain between the French fleet and the Spanish fleet. Although France has the larger force, the Spanish Admiral Álvaro de Bazán identifies the flagship of French Admiral Jean de Clamorgan and sinks the vessel. Spain then captures the remaining 23 other ships and takes 3,000 prisoners, while France loses 3,000 dead and injured.
- Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan, begins the siege of the city of Esztergom in Hungary.^[14]
August 6– The Siege of Nice by the Ottoman Empire and French forces (under the Franco-Ottoman alliance), led by Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, begins. At the time, the city is under the control of the Duchy of Savoy and is defended by the Savoyards, assisted by the Habsburg armies of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. The siege lasts for 16 days.
August 10 – Esztergom surrenders to the Ottomans led by Suleiman the Magnificent.^[14]
August 22 – The city of Nice is captured by the Ottomans and Barbarossa after a long bombardment. The Ottomans pillage the city and take away 2,500 captives to be sold into slavery.
August 25 – (24th day of 7th month of Tenbun 12) The first Europeans arrive in Japan and introduce firearms to the Asian monarchy, as the Chinese pirate Wang Zhi escorts Portuguese traders to in Tanegashima island in southern Kyushu. The first European visitors include António Mota, António Peixoto, Francisco Zeimoto, and Fernão Mendes Pinto.^[15]
September 4 – Campaign of Suleiman: Suleiman the Magnificent captures the Hungarian coronation city of Székesfehérvár after a siege that had started on August 20.^[14] The city will be occupied by the Ottoman Empire for 145 years.
September 9 – Mary Stuart is crowned the Queen of Scots in Stirling at the age of nine months old.^[16]
September–October – Landrecies in Picardy is besieged by forces under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, but the siege is withdrawn on the approach of the French army.

October–December

October 6 – In order to aid James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland, in his defense against challenger Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, King Francois of France arranges for two envoys, Jacques de La Brosse and Jacques Ménage to deliver money and munitions to Dumbarton Castle. The envoys unwittingly deliver Arran's materials to Lennox.^[17]
November 16 – Suleiman, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, completes his campaign to bring Hungary under Ottoman rule, having captured Esztergom, Székesfehérvár, Siklós and Szeged
December 7 – (11 waxing of Natdaw 905 ME) The land and naval forces of the Confederation of Shan States (consisting of the principalities of Mohnyin, Mogaung, Bhamo, Momeik, and Kale), led by Prince Sawlon of Mohnyin and King Hkonmaing, depart from the Shan capital, Awa, to start an invasion of the Toungoo Empire in upper Myanmar. The invaders easily overrun Toungoo and its capital at Prome a week later. Royal Historical Commission of Burma (1832). Hmannan Yazawin (in Burmese). Vol. 1 (2003 ed.). Yangon: Ministry of Information, Myanmar.
December 11 – The Parliament of Scotland votes against ratifying the Treaty of Greenwich that had been signed with England on July 1.^[2]
December 20 – The Eight Years War, also called the "War of Rough Wooing", begins as Scotland's Parliament votes to declare war on the Kingdom of England. "Arran, Earls of", in Encyclopædia Britannica, ed. by Hugh Chisholm (11th ed., Volume 2) (Cambridge University Press, 1911) pp. 642–644.
December 31 – King Henry VIII of England signs an agreement with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor to invade France by June 20, 1544 with at least 35,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry.