- Jan 25 Edmund Campion, English Catholic Jesuit priest & martyr, born in London, England (d. 1581)
- Jan 28 Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (d. 1610)
- May 9 Maharana Pratap, Rajput king of Mewar (1572-1597), born in Kumbhargal Fort, Mewar (d. 1597)
- Jun 3 Charles II Archduke of Austria, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1590)
- Jun 11 Barnabe Googe, English poet, born in Alvingham, Lincolnshire (d. 1594)
- Jun 23 Johann Baptista Serranus, composer
- Jul 7 John Sigismund Zápolya, King of Hungary as John II (1540-51, 1556-70) who ruled parts of the Kingdom of Hungary with support from the Ottomans, born in Buda, Kingdom of Hungary (d. 1571)
- Jul 11 Adolf van Nassau, German son of William I and Juliana of Stolberg, born in Dillenburg, Germany (d. 1568)
- Aug 5 Joseph Justus Scaliger, French-Dutch scholar (revolutionised ideas about ancient chronology), born in Agen, France (d. 1609)
- Aug 26 King Magnus of Livonia (d. 1583)
- Oct 1 Johann Jakob Grynaeus, Swiss Protestant clergyman, born in Bern, Switzerland (d. 1617)
- Dec 31 Silvio Antoniano, Italian cardinal and theologist (Tre libri), born in Rome (d. 1603)