Manco Inca begins a siege of the Spaniards in Cuzco that lasts for a year

With the end of the siege of Cuzco, and the flight of Manco Inca, the Spanish have full control of Peru

Suleiman I takes Buda (now Budapest), and by 1547 the Turks occupy almost the whole of Hungary

New Laws are passed in Spain, in an attempt to protect the Indians on the encomiendas of Spanish America

Rich seams of silver are discovered at Potosi, in modern Bolivia

La Paz is founded on the trade route between Lima and the newly discovered silver mines at Potosi

The first Portuguese governor general of Brazil selects Bahia (now Salvador) as his capital

The Portuguese establish a trading post on Macao, a small peninsula off the south coast of China

The Spanish governor general, Legazpi, makes his capital at Manila,and names the surrounding islands the Philippines after Philip II

Venice cedes the island of Cyprus to the Turks, in spite of the Christian victory at Lepanto two years earlier

Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland on behalf of England's queen Elizabeth

Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, is settled by the first English colonists in America – with disastrous results

The English artist John White paints the everyday life of the Secotan Indians of America

A new group of English settlers arrives at Roanoke Island and makes a second attempt at a settlement

Virginia Dare becomes the first English child to be born in America, on Roanoke Island

The earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel sail from Ireland with their families, in the event known as the Flight of the Earls

Colonists establish the first lasting British settlement in the new world, at Jamestown

John Smith claims (many years later) that when captured by Indians he was saved from execution by Pocahontas, daughter of the chief

Castaways from an English vessel reach Bermuda, which becomes the first British island in the new world

The American Indian princess Pocahontas is taken hostage by Jamestown colonists in the first Anglo-Powhatan war

Pocahontas is baptized a Christian and marries John Rolfe, one of the Jamestown colonists

John Smith publishes A Description of New England, an account of his exploration of the region in 1614

Jan Pieterszoon Coen destroys the town of Jakarta, on the coast of Java, and rebuilds it as a Dutch trading centre under the name Batavia

The Pilgrims (or Pilgrim Fathers), a group of 102 English settlers, sail in the Mayflower to the new world

Ten days after their first landfall, at Cape Cod, the adult males on the Mayflower agree a form of government for their new colony