1516 in science

Astronomy and space science

• The fall of the Nantan meteorite is possibly observed near the city of Nantan, Nandan County, Guangxi.

  Exploration

• January – The Río de la Plata is first explored by Europeans when Spanish navigator Juan Díaz de Solís traverses it during his search for a passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

  Births

• March 26 – Conrad Gessner, Swiss naturalist
• November 5 – Martin Helwig, Silesian cartographer
• Realdo Colombo, Italian anatomist

  Deaths

• December 13 – Johannes Trithemius, German scholar and cryptographer