1548

January–June

• February 14 - Battle of Uedahara: Firearms are used for the first time on the battlefield in Japan, and Takeda Shingen is defeated by Murakami Yoshikiyo.
• April 1 - Sigismund II Augustus succeeds his father, Sigismund I the Old, as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
• May 11 - The great fire in Brielle begins.
• June
• * Ming Chinese naval forces commanded by Zhu Wan destroy the pirate haven of Shuangyu, frequented by Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese smugglers.
• * John Dee starts to study at the Old University of Leuven.

  July–December

• July 7 - A marriage treaty is signed between Scotland and France, whereby five-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, is betrothed to the future King Francis II of France.
• August 7 - Mary, Queen of Scots, leaves for France.
• October 20 - The city of La Paz, Bolivia, is founded.
• October 31 - At the first sejm of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, deputies demand that the king renounce his wife Barbara Radziwiłł.
• December - Siam attacks Tavoy, beginning the Burmese–Siamese War of 1548.

  Births

• January 5 - Francisco Suárez, Spanish priest, philosopher, theologian and saint
• February 6 - Francesco Panigarola, Italian bishop
• March 13 - Sasbout Vosmeer, Dutch Apostolic Vicar
• March 17 - Honda Tadakatsu, Japanese general
• March 18 - Cornelis Ketel, Dutch painter
• April 15 - Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician
• May - Carel van Mander, Dutch painter and poet
• May 8 - Giacomo Boncompagni, illegitimate son of a Pope
• May 10 - Antonio Priuli, Doge of Venice
• July 8 - Kim Jang-saeng, Korean scholar and writer
• July 15 - George III, Count of Erbach-Breuberg
• August 26 - Bernardino Poccetti, Italian painter
• September 2 - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect
• September 7 - Filippo Boncompagni, Italian Catholic cardinal
• September 29 - William V, Duke of Bavaria
• October 4 - Matsumae Yoshihiro, Japanese daimyō of Ezochi
• November 27 - Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher
• December 14 - Fernando Ruiz de Castro Andrade y Portugal, Grandee of Spain
• December 30 - David Pareus, German theologian
• approx. date - Ma Shouzhen, Chinese courtesan, painter, composer, and poet
• date unknown
• *Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher, astronomer, and occultist
• *Oda Nagamasu, Japanese nobleman
• *Luis Barahona de Soto, Spanish poet
• *William Stanley, English soldier
• *Saitō Tatsuoki, Japanese daimyō
• *Sidonia von Borcke, German noble and alleged witch
• *Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spanish composer
• probable
• *Francesco Andreini, Italian actor
• * Francesco Soriano, Italian composer
• * Mariangiola Criscuolo, Italian painter
• *Simon Stevin, Flemish mathematician and engineer

  Deaths

• January 9 - Matthäus Zell, German Lutheran pastor
• January 23 - Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer
• February 26 - Lorenzino de' Medici, Italian writer and assassin
• March 23 - Itagaki Nobukata, Japanese retainer
• March 24 - Gissur Einarsson, first Lutheran bishop in Iceland
• April 1 - King Sigismund I the Old of Poland
• June 3 - Juan de Zumárraga, Spanish Catholic bishop of Mexico
• June 6 - João de Castro, Portuguese explorer
• June 14 - Carpentras, French composer
• July 4 - Philip, Duke of Palatinate-Neuburg, German duke
• July 29 - Gian Gabriele I of Saluzzo, Italian abbot, Marquess of Saluzzo
• August 2 - Henry II, Duke of Münsterberg-Oels and Count of Glatz
• September 5 - Catherine Parr, sixth and last Queen of Henry VIII of England
• September 8 - John III of Pernstein, Bohemian land-owner, Governor of Moravia and Count of Kladsko
• October 27 - Johannes Dantiscus, Polish poet and Bishop of Warmia
• November 16 - Caspar Creuziger, German humanist
• December 27 - Francesco Spiera, Italian Protestant jurist
• date unknown
• * Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, Mexican Catholic saint
• * Chief Queen Sri Suriyothai, consort of King Maha Chakkrapat of Ayutthaya
• * Strongilah, Jewish Ottoman businesswoman.