1521
Luther at the Diet of Worms
Summoned before Emperor Charles V, Luther refused to retract his writings. Here I stand, he reportedly said, I can do no other. Declared an outlaw, he was spirited away by Frederick the Wise to the Wartburg castle, where he began translating the New Testament into muscular German. His defiant stand became Protestant identity's founding myth, and Here I stand entered the Western lexicon as the expression of individual conscience.
Tenochtitlan Falls
After a ninety-three-day siege, Spanish brigantines and Tlaxcalan canoes reduced Tenochtitlan to rubble block by block. Smallpox raced through the defenders. The last Mexica emperor, Cuauhtemoc, surrendered in a canoe. Cortes walked through a city of unburied dead and founded Mexico City on the ruins. The destruction was so complete that the capital was buried beneath colonial Mexico City, its ruins discovered only during modern construction.
Magellan Killed on Mactan
On the Philippine island of Mactan, Ferdinand Magellan waded ashore to chastise a chieftain named Lapu-Lapu who had refused Spanish authority. Waist-deep in surf, he was struck down with bamboo spears. Command passed to Sebastian Elcano, who would limp home with one ship and eighteen survivors. Lapu-Lapu is celebrated as a national hero in the Philippines, with monuments and a city named after him on Mactan Island.
Portuguese Introduce Maize to China
Portuguese traders operating in Guangdong introduced maize and sweet potatoes from the Americas to southern Chinese farmers, who began planting them in hilly fields unsuitable for rice. New World crops would eventually transform Chinese demographics, enabling populations to double over the coming centuries. New World crops enabled Chinese populations to expand into uncultivable upland areas, contributing to a demographic explosion over following centuries.
Belgrade Falls to Suleiman
The young sultan Suleiman marched his army up the Danube and took Belgrade, a fortress that had repelled Mehmed II half a century before. The fall of the Hungarian bastion opened the road into Central Europe. Within five years Ottoman hooves would be splashing through the Danube meadows at Mohacs.
Cortes Recruits Tlaxcalan Allies
During the siege of Tenochtitlan, Hernan Cortes relied on tens of thousands of Tlaxcalan warriors who had their own scores to settle with the Mexica. Without them the Spanish conquest would have been impossible. Tlaxcala would be granted special privileges under Spanish rule as reward for their pivotal collaboration. Tlaxcala's decision was driven by generations of bitter warfare with the Aztecs, making their alliance a strategic calculation rather than betrayal.