- Jan 6 Jews are expelled from Graz in Styria, Austria
1st Observation by Copernicus
Mar 9 Nicolaus Copernicus' 1st recorded astronomical observation
Cabot Departs Bristol
May 2 John Cabot's expedition departs Bristol searching for new lands across the Atlantic
Amerigo Vespucci Departs
May 10 Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci leaves for his first voyage to the New World (disputed)
- May 13 Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Italian Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola for leading the expulsion of the Medici's from Florence
- Jun 22 Antitax insurrection in Cornwall suppressed at Blackheath
- Jun 24 Cornish traitors Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London
- Jun 24 John Cabot claims parts of North America (what is now Eastern Canada) for England believing he has found Asia in Newfoundland
First Voyage of Vasco da Gama
Jul 8 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama departs on his first voyage, will become the 1st European to reach India by sea
- Aug 6 Italian explorer John Cabot returns to Bristol from North America (Newfoundland) - first European to do so since the Vikings
- Aug 10 John Cabot tells King Henry VII of his trip to "Asia"
- Sep 7 Flemish pretender Perkin Warbeck acclaimed as English King Richard IV on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall
- Nov 18 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama reaches the Cape of Good Hope
- Nov 22 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope on way to first voyage from Europe to reach India
- Dec 16 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama is 1st European to sail along Africa's East Coast, names it Natal
Gregory I
Gregory XIII
Julius II
Julius III
Leo X
Pius V