Year 1548 (MDXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
February 14 – Firearms are used for the first time on the battlefield in Japan, and Takeda Shingen is defeated by Murakami Yoshikiyo during the Battle of Uedahara.
April 1 – Sigismund II Augustus succeeds his father, Sigismund I the Old, as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
June – Ming Chinese naval forces commanded by Zhu Wan destroy the pirate haven of Shuangyu frequented by Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese smugglers.
July 7 – A marriage treaty is signed between Scotland and France, whereby 5-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 1548.
John Dee starts to study at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
January 1 – Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher, astronomer, and occultist (d. 1600)
January 5 – Francisco Suárez, Spanish priest, philosopher, theologian and saint (d. 1617)
February 6 – Francesco Panigarola, Italian bishop (d. 1594)
March 13 – Sasbout Vosmeer, Dutch Apostolic Vicar (d. 1614)
March 17 – Honda Tadakatsu, Japanese general (d. 1610)
March 18 – Cornelis Ketel, Dutch painter (d. 1616)
April 15 – Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (d. 1626)
May – Carel van Mander, Dutch painter and poet (d. 1606)
May 8 – Giacomo Boncompagni, Illegitimate son of a Pope (d. 1612)
May 10 – Antonio Priuli, Doge of Venice (d. 1623)
July 8 – Kim Jang-saeng, Korean scholar and writer (d. 1631)
July 15 – George III, Count of Erbach-Breuberg (1564–1605) (d. 1605)
August 26 – Bernardino Poccetti, Italian painter (d. 1612)
September 2 – Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (d. 1616)
September 7 – Filippo Boncompagni, Catholic cardinal (d. 1586)
September 29 – William V, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1626)
October 4 – Matsumae Yoshihiro, daimyo of Ezochi (Hokkaidō) (d. 1616)
November 27 – Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher (d. 1598)
December 14 – Fernando Ruiz de Castro Andrade y Portugal, Grandee of Spain (d. 1601)
December 30 – David Pareus, German theologian (d. 1622)
date unknown
Oda Nagamasu, Japanese nobleman (d. 1622)
Luis Barahona de Soto, Spanish poet (d. 1595)
William Stanley, English soldier (d. 1630)
Saitō Tatsuoki, Japanese daimyo (d. 1573)
Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spanish composer (d. 1611)
probable
Francesco Andreini, Italian actor (d. 1624)
Francesco Soriano, Italian composer (d. 1621)
Simon Stevin, Flemish mathematician and engineer (d. 1620)
January 23 – Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (b. 1490)
February 26 – Lorenzino de' Medici, Italian writer and assassin (b. 1514)
March 23 – Itagaki Nobukata, Japanese retainer
March 24 – Gissur Einarsson, first Lutheran bishop in Iceland
April 1 – King Sigismund I the Old of Poland (b. 1467)
June 3 – Juan de Zumárraga, Spanish Catholic bishop of Mexico (b. 1468)
June 6 – João de Castro, Portuguese explorer (b. 1500)
June 14 – Carpentras, French composer (b. c. 1470)
September 8 – Catherine Parr, Sixth and last Queen of Henry VIII of England (b. c. 1512)
October 27 – Johannes Dantiscus, Polish poet and Bishop of Warmia (b. 1485)
December 27 – Francesco Spiera, Italian Protestant jurist (b. 1502)
Date Unknown
Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, Mexican Catholic saint (b. 1474)
1548 Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA