1517 - Definition and Overview

Events

• January 22 - Battle of Ridanieh. The Turkish forces of Selim I defeat the main Mamluk army in Egypt under Touman Bey.
• February 3 - Capture of Cairo by the Turks.
• First contact of organized western merchants with China.
• August 15 - Portuguese merchant Fernao Pires de Andrade met Chinese officials through an interpreter at Pearl River estuary and landed at Hong Kong.
• October 31 - Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther posts his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church.
• Conquest of Riazan by Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy.
• Selim I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire conquers Palestine and Egypt, and declaries himself Caliph.
• Major outbreak of the sweating sickness in England.

Births

• June 18 - Emperor Ogimachi of Japan.
• Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English nobleman of the Tudor period.
• January 31 or March 22 - Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian music theorist, composer, and member of the Venetian school.

Deaths

• March 26 - Heinrich Isaac, composer.
• Fra Bartolommeo, Florentine artist.