* 1534 – Saint Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates take initial vows, leading to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September 1540.

* 1540 – Arequipa, Peru, is founded.

Andrea Andreani ( 1540 – 1623 ) was an Italian engraver on wood, who was among the first printmakers in Italy to use chiaroscuro, which required multiple colours.

* 1581 – Edmund Campion, English Jesuit ( b. 1540 )

* 1603 – Franciscus Vieta, French mathematician ( b. 1540 )

* 1592 – Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer ( b. 1540 )

Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral ( 1540 – 27 January 1596 ) was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era.

* 1540 8 September – Corsairs from the Barbary Coast ( ruled by Barbarossa ) landed at Gibraltar in sixteen galleys, looting the town and taking away many captives.

First ( 1559 ) he married Elisabeth of Brandenburg-Küstrin ( 29 August 1540 – 8 March 1578 ).

Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun (; full title: Al-Sultan al -' Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Jam-i-Sultanat-i-haqiqi wa Majazi, Sayyid al-Salatin, Abu ' l Muzaffar Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun Padshah Ghazi, Zillu ' llah ; OS 7 March 1508 – OS 17 January 1556 ) was the second Mughal Emperor who ruled present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of northern India from 1530 – 1540 and again from 1555 – 1556.

1540 – 1623 ).

* Federico II, Duke of Mantua ( 17 May 1500 – 28 August 1540 ), married Margaret Paleologa, by whom he had issue.

* 1503 – Parmigianino, Italian artist ( d. 1540 )

* 1623 – William Byrd, English composer ( b. 1540 )

* 1540 – Charles II, Archduke of Austria ( d. 1590 )

* 1540 – King Henry VIII of England annuls his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

* 1540 – Edmund Campion, English Jesuit ( d. 1581 )

* 1540 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.

* 1488 – Helius Eobanus Hessus, German poet ( d. 1540 )

* 1540 – Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason.

In 1540 – 42 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado traveled from Arizona to eastern Kansas.

English written lute music only began around 1540, however, the country produced numerous lutenists, of which John Dowland ( 1563 – 1626 ) is perhaps the most famous.

* 1540 – Maharana Pratap, Hindu ruler of Mewar ( d. 1597 )

The Shugborough estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the Dissolution of the Monasteries around 1540 and therefter passed through several hands until it was purchased in 1624 by William Anson, a lawyer, of Dunston, Staffordshire

* Sir Thomas Pelham, 1st Baronet ( 1540 – 1624 )

The Earl held the subsidiary titles of Baron Cromwell ( Peerage of England, 18 December 1540 ) and Viscount Lecale ( Peerage of Ireland, 22 November 1624 ).

* Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1st Baronet, of Redgrave ( c. 1540 – 1624 ), his son, the first man created a baronet

* the marble statue Victory ( 1540 ), Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

The first account by a western European to mention the ancient language Sanskrit came from Filippo Sassetti ( born in Florence in 1540 ), a merchant who traveled to the Indian subcontinent.

* Magnus of Livonia ( 1540 – 1583 ), also Duke of Holstein

* Franciscus Vieta ( 1540 – 1603 ) published In Artem Analycitem Isagoge ( 1591 ), which gave the first symbolic notation of parameters in literal algebra.

* January 11 – Parmigianino ( Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola ), Italian artist ( d. 1540 )

A number of editions of the Vulgate also appeared from his presses, of which the principal are those of 1528, 1532, 1540 ( one of the ornaments of his press ), and 1546.

It was not foreseen at Rome in 1540, when the Church officially recognized the young society forming about Ignatius of Loyola, ( founder of the Society of Jesus ), what large results this new organization was destined to achieve ; yet a deliberate and gradual course of action against Protestantism dates from this period.

Drawing accompanying text in Book XII of the 16th-century Florentine Codex ( compiled 1540 – 1585 ), showing Nahua people | Nahua of conquest-era central Mexico suffering from smallpox.

Firstly, on 31 May 1592, to Anna of Austria ( 1573 – 1598 ), daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria ( 1540 – 1590 ) and his wife Maria Anna of Bavaria ( 1551-1608 ).

* Ludolph van Ceulen, ( 1540 – 1610 ), mathematician

Federico Zuccari, also known as Federigo Zuccaro ( c. 1540 / 1541 – July 20, 1609 ), was an Italian Mannerist painter and architect, active both in Italy and abroad.

The founder of this so-called Neo-Inca state was Manco Inca Yupanqui ( also known as Manco Cápac II ), who had initially allied himself with the Spanish, then led an unsuccessful war against them before establishing himself in Vilcabamba in 1540.

In the same year or 1540 ( the above history references both dates ), Henry awarded the manor to Miles Forrest, the documented bailiff of the Abbot of Peterborough.

There is also a record of an Elizabeth Aguirre of Petersfield, Hampshire ( died 1665 ), who was the second wife of Josias White ( 1573 – 1622 ) of Hornchurch, Essex, brother of John White the ' Patriarch of Dorchester ', and son of a John White of Stanton St John, Oxfordshire ( 1540 – before September 30, 1618 ), who afterwards married a Francis Drake ( 1573 – 1634 ) of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey – a first cousin once removed of Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 1596 ) the famous explorer.

Elizabeth bore Sir Thomas three sons, Henry ( who died in early infancy ), Francis ( born in 1540 and took the surname of Darrell ), and Edward, who was later executed for his part in the Wyatt's Rebellion of 1554, led by his legitimate half-brother, Sir Thomas Wyatt, the younger. Sir Thomas left Elizabeth properties in Dorset.

* János Szapolyai ( 1487 – 1540 ), King of Hungary and Slavonia

1540 ), relates:

The origin of Faust's name and persona remains unclear ; though it is widely assumed to be based on the figure of Dr. Johann Georg Faust ( c. 1480 – 1540 ), a magician and alchemist probably from Knittlingen, Württemberg, who obtained a degree in divinity from Heidelberg University in 1509.

* Sigmund Holbein ( died 1540 ), German painter, brother of Hans Holbein the Elder