1517

Year 1517 (MDXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. January 22 – Battle of Ridaniya: The Holy Ottoman army of the sultan Selim I defeat the Mamluk army in Egypt, under Tuman bay II. January 30 – Cairo is captured by the Ottoman Empire after a three day battle, and the Mamluk Sultanate falls. February 8 – Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a chronicler who documents the conquest of Mexico, sets out with Captain Francisco Hernández de Córdoba's crew from Jaruco. They arrive at Cape Catoche twenty-one days later, and are met with hostility by the natives. March 16 – The Fifth Council of the Lateran ends. May 1 – Evil May Day: Xenophobic riots break out in London. August 15 – Portuguese merchant Fernão Pires de Andrade meets Ming Dynasty Chinese officials through an interpreter, at the Pearl River estuary and lands, at what is now in the jurisdiction of Hong Kong. Although the first European trade expeditions to China took place in 1513 and 1516 by Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello, respectively, Andrade's mission is the first official diplomatic mission of a European power to China, commissioned by a ruler of Europe (Manuel I of Portugal). October 31 – Reformation: Martin Luther publishes his 95 Theses (posting them on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church). This story is possibly apocryphal. Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy conquers Ryazan. A third outbreak of the sweating sickness in England hits Oxford and Cambridge. It is said that in Oxford that upwards of 400 students died in less than a week. The Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo, reestablished in 1261, falls to the Ottomans. January 17 Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English duke (d. 1554) Antonio Scandello, Italian composer (d. 1580) January 30 – Joannes Aurifaber Vratislaviensis, German theologian (d. 1568) January 31 – Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian composer (d. 1590) February 2 – Gotthard Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia (d. 1587) February 12 – Luigi Cornaro, Italian Catholic cardinal (d.