1572

January–March

• January 16 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is tried for treason, for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. He is executed on June 2.
• February 13 - Elizabeth I of England issues a proclamation which revokes all commissions, on account of the frauds which they had fostered.
• February 19 - Harrow School is founded, with a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I of England.
• February 28 - In what is now the Rajasthan state in India, Maharana Pratap is crowned as the new Rana of Mewar at the Kingdom's capital at Udaipur after the death of his father, Udai Singh II.
• March 2 - Mem de Sá, the Portuguese Governor-General of Brazil, dies after 14 years in office. He is succeeded by Lourenço da Veiga.
• March 11 - Pope Pius V issues the papal bull Supremi omnipotentis Dei, granting an indulgence reducing 50 days of punishment in the afterlife for Roman Catholics who recited the penitential psalms.
• March 28 - Queen Elizabeth I of England summons a new Parliament, which assembles on May 4.

April–June

• April 1 - Capture of Brielle: The Sea Beggars, Netherlandish Calvinist rebels, capture the port city of Brielle. This leads to a wave of uprisings in Holland and Zeeland against Spanish Habsburg rule, leaving most of those provinces under rebel control.
• May 13 - Pope Gregory XIII succeeds Pope Pius V, as the 226th pope.
• June 14 - At the Battle of Kizaki, Shimazu Yoshihiro leads an army of just 300 men to defeat the 3,000 strong Ito clan of Itō Yoshisuke.
• June 25 - The Sea Beggars capture the city of Gorkum; several Roman Catholic priests are imprisoned.

July–September

• July 4 - The city council of Haarlem, one of the largest cities of the Netherlands, votes to join the Dutch Revolt against King Philip II of Spain. King Philip orders sent an army north under command of Don Fadrique, son of the Duke of Alva, to lead an army to conquer the rebelling cities.
• July 9 - The Sea Beggars hang 19 previously imprisoned Roman Catholic priests at Brielle.
• July 11 - Humphrey Gilbert leads 1,500 volunteers from England, on an expedition to assist the Sea Beggars.
• July 19 - Wanli Emperor of China ascends the throne at the age of nine; he will rule for 48 years.
• July 29-August 2 - Battle of Molodi: A large Crimean Tatar–Ottoman army which invaded Russia is routed.
• August 18 - Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre marries Margaret of Valois, sister of King Charles and daughter of Catherine de' Medici, in a supposed attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics in France.
• August 24 - St. Bartholomew's Day massacre: Catholics in Paris murder thousands of Protestants, including Gaspard de Coligny and Petrus Ramus, at the order of King Charles IX, with Catherine de Medici's connivance. Henry of Navarre and the Prince of Condé barely escape the same fate. This brings about the Fourth War of Religion in France.
• September 19 - The Siege of Mons, which started on June 23, ends with the recapture of Valenciennes by the Spanish Army from the Dutch Huguenots in what is now Belgium. Louis of Nassau, the Dutch rebel commander, surrenders to the Duke of Alba.
• September 24 -
• *Tupac Amaru and other Inca Empire nobles are executed in Peru at Cuzco on orders of the Spanish colonial Viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, who then carries out the destruction of the relics of the Incan civilization.
• *The Ottoman Empire begins the deportation of 10 percent of families of the provinces of Anatolia, Rum, Karaman and Zülkadriye, mostly craftsmen or peasants, to the newly-conquered island of Cyprus. In exchange for relocating, the transferees are made exempt from taxes for two years.
• September 25 - The coronation of Rudolf as King of Hungary takes place at St. Martin's Cathedral in Pozsony.

October–December

• October 2 - Spanish Fury at Mechelen: The mostly Catholic population of the Netherlands city of Mechelen surrenders to the Spanish Army and signifies its intention to offer no resistance, singing Catholic psalms of penitence to welcome the Catholic Spaniards. Nevertheless, the Duke of Alba authorizes his troops to conduct three days of slaughter, rape and pillaging.
• October 20 - Eighty Years' War - Relief of Goes: Soldiers of the Spanish Tercios wade across the estuary of the Scheldt, to relieve the siege of Goes in the Spanish Netherlands.
• November 9
• *Siege of Sancerre: Catholic forces of the king lay siege to Sancerre, a Huguenot stronghold in central France. The fortified city holds out for nearly eight months, without bombard artillery. This is one of the last times that slings are used in European warfare.
• *Supernova SN 1572 is first observed in the constellation Cassiopeia, by Cornelius Gemma.
• November 11 - Tycho Brahe also notices Supernova SN 1572. He will use it to challenge the prevailing view that stars do not change. The supernova remnant remains visible through 1574.
• November 14 - Residents of the Belgian city of Zutphen are massacred by the Spanish Army.
• November 22 - All but 60 of the 3,000 residents are massacred by the Spanish Army in the Belgian city of Naarden.
• December 10 - For administrative purposes, the Kingdom of Portugal divides its colony in Brazil into two colonies, with one Governor-General at Rio de Janeiro and another at Bahia. The two colonies will be reunified on April 12, 1578.
• December 11 - The Siege of [Haarlem (1572–73)|Siege of Haarlem] is begun by the Duke of Alva, Spanish Army commander in the Netherlands, and lasts until July 13, 1573.

Date unknown

• The Neo-Inca State in Vilcabamba, Peru, the last independent remnant of the Inca Empire, is conquered by Spain.
• Girolamo Mercuriale from Forlì writes the work De morbis cutaneis, the first scientific tract on dermatology.
• Imaginary numbers are defined by Rafael Bombelli.
• Portugal's national epic Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões is first published.
• Georg Braun begins publication of his urban atlas, Civitates orbis terrarum, in Cologne.