Columbus Sights Manatees
Jan 9 Christopher Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids, describing them as "not half as beautiful as they are painted"
- Jan 12 Last day for all Jews to leave Sicily
- Jan 16 Christopher Columbus leaves the New World and sets sail for Spain
- Jan 19 France cedes Roussillon & Cerdagne to Spain by treaty of Barcelona
- Feb 15 Christopher Columbus writes the first account of his first voyage to the Americas in a letter to his patron Luis de Santángel, Treasurer of Aragon, who then publishes it [1]
- Mar 15 Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first voyage to the New World
- Apr 15 -20/4] Columbus meets with the Spanish monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II in Barcelona
- May 4 Spanish Pope Alexander VI divides America between Spain and Portugal
Treaty of Senlis
May 23 King of France Charles VIII, King of the Romans Maximilian I and Archduke of Austria Philip I sign the Treaty of Senlis, ending hostilities between France and the Seventeen Provinces
- Jun 8 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III's left leg is amputated at his court in Linz, the most famous record of surgery in the Middle Ages - he survives until August 19
Maximilian I
Aug 19 Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I becomes Archduke of Austria on the death of his father and co-ruler Frederick III
- Sep 9 Battle of Krbava field, a decisive defeat of Croats in Croatian struggle against the Ottoman Empire invasion.
- Sep 24 Christopher Columbus embarks on his second expedition to the New World, setting sail with a fleet of 17 ships
- Nov 3 Christopher Columbus first sights land on his second voyage - the island of Dominica in the Windward Islands
- Nov 11 Explorer Christopher Columbus sights the island of Saba in the Leeward islands, but does not land
- Nov 19 Christopher Columbus first reaches Puerto Rico, inhabited by the Taíno on his 2nd voyage to the Caribbean
- Nov 27 Christopher Columbus returns to La Navidad colony, finding it destroyed by the 1st native American uprising against Spanish rule. Taíno cacique Caonabo led his people to attack the settlement after the brutal treatment they received from the garrison who disobeyed Columbus's orders.
- Dec 23 Georg Alt's German translation of Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle is published
Gregory I
Gregory XIII
Julius II
Julius III
Leo X
Pius V