1558
Elizabeth I Crowned
After her half-sister Mary died in November, the twenty-five-year-old Protestant Elizabeth Tudor became queen of a divided, insolvent England. She entered London to cheers. Her long balancing act between Protestant hardliners, Catholic neighbors, and her own unmarried ambition was about to begin. Her coronation procession was choreographed to present her as Protestant champion and virgin queen, establishing the persona she maintained for forty-five years.
Portuguese Found Sao Paulo Jesuit School
The Jesuits Manuel da Nobrega and Jose de Anchieta established a mission school at Sao Paulo on the Piratininga plateau of inland Brazil. Surrounding Tupi villages sent children to learn Portuguese and catechism. The school was the nucleus of what would grow into South America's largest metropolis. The plateau location later proved strategic as bandeirantes used Sao Paulo as a base for slave-raiding deep into the interior.
France Recaptures Calais
Under cover of winter fog, the Duke of Guise led a French force in a surprise attack on the English garrison at Calais and retook the last English possession on the Continent. Mary I, brokenhearted, is said to have declared that after her death Calais would be found engraved on her heart.
Moscow Begins the Livonian War
Ivan the Terrible invaded Livonia on the Baltic to grab a warm-water port for Muscovy's growing trade. The war would drag on for twenty-five years, drawing in Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, and Denmark, and ending with Russia worse off than it had started. Ivan grew steadily more paranoid. The war drew in Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, and Denmark, transforming a local Baltic conflict into a major European war that ended badly for Russia.