| 1533–1545 | Dai Viet [political events] | Nguyen Kim restores the south of Dai Viet to the Le dynasty, governing from Hue. The usurping Mac family remains in control of the north from Hanoi. |
| 1534 | Rome [political events] | The Italian churchman Alessandro Farnese is elected Pope Paul III. He is pope until 1549. |
| 1534 | Japan [births and deaths] | Oda Nobunaga, Japanese noble who overthrew the Ashikaga shogunate, ended feudal wars, and unified more than half of Japan, born in Owari Province, Japan (–1582). |
| 1534 | Germany [Christianity] | The German religious reformer Martin Luther publishes his German translation of the Bible. It has a profound influence on the development of the German language and German literature. |
| 1534 | Italy [civic and commercial buildings] | The Laurentian Library in San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy, designed by the Italian artist Michelangelo (Buonarroti), is completed. Work began in 1524, and the staircase, the major feature of the design, is not completed until 1559. The library is built to house the books and manuscripts of the Medici family. The Medici Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy, is also completed to Michelangelo's design. The work includes two tombs. On the first, the figure of Giuliano de' Medici is flanked by figures representing Day and Night. On the second, Lorenzo de' Medici is flanked by Dawn and Evening. |
| 1534 | Italy [palaces] | The Palazzo del Tè in Mantua, Italy, is completed to a design by the Italian artist Giulio Romano (Pippi). The design is a landmark in the development of mannerism (a 16th-century style based on the deliberate exaggeration of classical principles). Romano also painted the palace's frescoes. |
| 2 February 1534 | England [political events] | The Act of Supremacy, which establishes King Henry VIII of England as the supreme head of the Church of England, completes the breach with Rome and marks the beginning of the English Reformation. |
| 8 February - 3 March 1534 | Holy Roman Empire [revolution] | Jan Matthijszoon and Jan Boekelszoon (John of Leiden) from Holland lead a tempestuous Anabaptist revolution in the German city of Münster, winning council elections on 23 February, despoiling churches, and, from 27 February, expelling Lutherans and Catholics to incorporate Dutch Anabaptist refugees. |
| 3 May 1534 | Spain, Inca Empire [wars] | The Inca general of the Quitan forces, Quisquis, narrowly loses the battle of Teocajas to the Spanish force under Sebastián de Belalcázar, which goes on to occupy the city before the end of June, though Inca resistance continues in the area now known as Ecuador until December. |
| 12 May 1534 | Germany, Austria, Habsburg Monarchy, Holy Roman Empire, Württemberg [political events] | Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, leads the German Protestant Schmalkaldic League, aided by Bavaria, in defeating the army of Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria, at Lauffen to restore the Protestant convert Ulrich as Duke of Württemberg. |
| 3 November - 18 December 1534 | England [legislation] | The seventh session of the English ‘Reformation Parliament’ passes the Act of Supremacy which confirms King Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England, making England a sovereign state in which the king is superior to all ecclesiastical and secular authorities. A second Act of Succession makes the oath of loyalty statutory, given to all successive rulers of England. Other acts grant the crown a tenth of church income and extend treason to cover defamation of the king; the former Lord Chancellor Thomas More, Bishop John Fisher of Rochester, and the Earl of Kildare are attainted. |
