Portuguese Name Rio de Janeiro
Jan 1 Portuguese expedition under Pedro Álvares Cabral are first Europeans to discover Bay of Guanabara naming it Rio de Janeiro after mistaking it for a river entrance
Vasco Da Gama's Second Voyage
Feb 12 Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India
- Feb 13 Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres, new Governor of the Indies sets sail for the Indies with fleet of 30 ships, largest-ever fleet to the New World
Event of Interest
Feb 25 Austrian emperor Maximilian I reformats government machine
- Mar 11 Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524)
- May 9 Christopher Columbus leaves Cádiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the New World
- May 21 Portuguese explorer João Da Nova discovers the uninhabited Saint Helena island in the South Atlantic Ocean
- Jun 10 Crimean Khan defeats the Great Horde in battle near Worskla, leading to disintegration of the Great Horde
- Jun 19 Emperor Maximilian I and England sign the Treaty of Antwerp
- Sep 18 Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his 4th & last voyage
- Oct 16 Storm ravages Friese coast
- Oct 30 Vasco da Gama returns to Calicut, India for the second time
- Dec 31 Cesare Borgia (son of pope Alexander VI) occupies Urbino
Gregory I
Gregory XIII
Julius II
Julius III
Leo X
Pius V