1517
Luther's Ninety-Five Theses
An obscure German friar nailed, or perhaps mailed, ninety-five Latin propositions to the church door at Wittenberg, attacking the sale of indulgences. Within a decade his protest cracked Western Christianity in two and unleashed wars of religion that would scar Europe for over a century. The theses, written in Latin for scholarly debate, were translated and distributed by printers without permission, demonstrating print's revolutionary power.
Ottomans Conquer Cairo
Selim I's troops stormed Cairo after a brutal street battle, hanged the last Mamluk sultan Tuman Bay from the Zuweila Gate, and absorbed Egypt into the Ottoman Empire. The caliphal mantle, according to later legend, was transferred to Selim. Istanbul was now the capital of Sunni Islam. The conquest gave the Ottomans guardianship of Mecca and Medina, adding Islam's most sacred sites to the sultan's titles.
Hernandez de Cordoba Sights Yucatan
A Spanish slaving expedition, blown off course from Cuba, stumbled onto a coastline of stone pyramids and brightly painted cities. Maya warriors cut most of the crew to pieces. The survivors crawled back with tales of riches, inflaming the young Hernan Cortes with ideas about mainland conquest. The encounter with Maya stone architecture overturned assumptions that mainland America held only simple village societies like the Caribbean's.
Portuguese Arrive in China
A Portuguese trading fleet under Fernao Pires de Andrade reached Canton and spent months negotiating with Ming officials for permission to trade. The embassy ended badly when the Chinese discovered Portuguese raids elsewhere on the coast, but a tentative European foothold in Chinese waters had been established. Cultural misunderstandings between Portuguese gunboat traders and Ming tributary diplomats complicated Sino-European relations for decades.
Sweating Sickness Strikes England
A mysterious disease swept London in summer, killing healthy men within hours of the first shivering fit. Victims sweated themselves to death while attendants watched helplessly. The epidemic recurred several times across the century, baffling physicians and emptying whole streets in a single afternoon. The disease's peculiar selectivity, striking vigorous young men more than the elderly, has continued to puzzle modern epidemiologists.
Coffee Reaches Istanbul
Traders from Yemen brought the first bags of coffee beans to Istanbul, where they were roasted, ground, and brewed in water before the eyes of astonished janissaries. Within a generation the Ottoman capital would have coffeehouses on every busy street. Religious authorities periodically tried, and failed, to ban the drink.