Directory

1500 CE

It was the last year of the 15th century. The year 1500 was not a leap year in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • March 11 – The Parliament of Bohemia adopts a new constitution that limits the power of King Vladislav II and subsequent Bohemian monarchs.source
  • June 30 – Sultan Abu Sa'id Qansuh of Egypt is overthrown and sent into exile. Al-Ashraf Abu al-Nasir Janbalat is crowned as the new Mamluk sultan, but reigns for less than six months.source
  • August 23 – Francisco de Bobadilla, appointed to replace Admiral Christopher Columbus as Spanish Governor-General of the New World, arrives at Santo Domingo on the island of Hispanola. Bobadilla issues an order directing Christopher and Bartolomeo Columbus to appear before him at Santo Domingo.source
  • October 1 – Christopher Columbus and his brothers, arrested and in chains, are deported from Santo Domingo to Spain.source
  • November 11 – Treaty of Granada: Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.source
  • November 16 – Emperor Go-Kashiwabara accedes to the throne of Meiō era Japan.source
  • December 17 – All charges against the Columbus brothers for malfeasance in governing Hispanola are dismissed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 5 – Duke Ludovico Sforza recaptures Milan, but is soon driven out again by the French.source
  • February 5 – Ludovico Sforza's Swiss mercenary army retakes the city of Milan from the French during the Second Italian War.source
  • February 17 – Battle of Hemmingstedt: The Danish army fails to conquer the peasants' republic of Dithmarschen.source
  • June 29 – A combined force of troops from the Kingdom of France and from the Republic of Florence lay siege to the city of Pisa.source
  • July 14 – The Muscovites defeat the Lithuanians and the Poles in the Battle of Vedrosha.source
  • July 24 – Ottoman–Venetian War: The Turkish fleet of Kemal Reis defeats the Venetians in the Second Battle of Lepanto.source
  • August 9 – The Ottoman Empire defeats the Venetians and capture Modon and Coron, the "two eyes of the Republic".source
  • October 22 – Nasir-ud-Din Shah overthrows the government of his father, Ghiyath Shah, ruler of the Malwa Sultanate (located in much of what is now the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh) for the last 31 years. Upon becoming the new Sultan, Nasir has his brother Ala-ud-Din executed, along with Ala-ud-din's children. Ghiyasuddin is poisoned the following February.source
  • December 24 – The Siege of the Castle of St. George ends, and the island of Cephalonia is captured by a joint Venetian–Spanish fleet.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 26 – Spanish navigator Vicente Yáñez Pinzón reaches the northern coast of Brazil.source
  • March 9 – Pedro Álvares Cabral, with a fleet of 13 ships, departs Portugal on a voyage to the New World.source
  • April 22 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral and his crew on 13 vessels arrive in Brazil, anchoring at Monte Pascoal and naming the country Vera Cruz. Cabral claims the land for the Kingdom of Portugal.source
  • May 1 – Pero Vaz de Caminha finishes writing his chronicle of the Portuguese discovery of Brazil while accompanying Cabral.source
  • May 3 – Cabral and his fleet depart from Brazil and sail eastward toward Africa, resuming their journey to India.source
  • May 29 – Traveling eastward from Brazil, Cabral and his fleet run into a storm off of the coast of Africa near the Cape of Good Hope and lose four of their 13 ships. Navigator Bartolomeu Dias is among the persons killed.source
  • August 10 – Diogo Dias discovers an island which he names São Lourenço, since August 10 is the feast day of Saint Lawrence, a Roman Catholic martyr of the 3rd century. The massive island is later known as Madagascar.source
  • September 13 – Pedro Cabral's fleet of nine ships arrives in India, more than six months after departing from Portugal, and lands at the port of Calicut, which had been visited two years earlier by Vasco da Gama.source
  • November 25 – Christopher Columbus and his brothers arrive in Spain at Seville "after one of the longest Atlantic crossings in the Columbian years" (six weeks) and released on their own recognizance.source
  • A group of Māori migrate east from the New Zealand mainland to the Chatham Islands, developing a distinct pacificist culture known as the Moriori (approx. date).source

Religion & Belief

  • June 1 – Pope Alexander VI issues the papal bull Quamvis ad amplianda, calling on a Roman Catholic crusade against the Ottoman Empire.source
  • December 31 – The last incunable is printed in Venice.source

Health & Medicine

  • Europe's population is estimated at 56.7 million people. The world's population is estimated to be between 425 million and 540 million.source

Crime & Justice

  • September 23 – Bobadilla hears testimony from 22 witnesses and concludes that the Columbus brothers intended to overthrow him; he has them placed in manacles and chains for deportation to Spain. ("La pesquisa de Bobadilla contra Colon habia comenzado el 23-IX-1500."— "Bobadilla's investigation against Colon had begun on 23 September 1500.")source
  • Saxony's mint at Annaberg begins producing guldengroschens, also known as guldiners.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 24 – The day after departing the Cape Verde Islands with the rest of Cabral's fleet, Vasco de Ataíde and his 150 crewmates die when their ship goes down in a storm.source

Climate & Environment

  • Although other reports exist, it is thought that the last wolf in England is killed this year, making the species extinct in that country. The wolf is thought to have been killed in Allithwaite, in Cumbria. However, reports of wolf sightings and laws concerning wolf bounties exist in rural areas of the north until the 18th century.source

Culture & Society

  • May 8 – The first guide to distilling of liquor is published, Liber de arte distillandi de simplicibus by Hieronymus Brunschwig.source

Births

  • January 6 – John of Ávila, Spanish mystic and saint (d. 1569)source
  • February 22 – Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian humanist (d. 1564)source
  • February 27 – João de Castro, Portuguese nobleman and fourth viceroy of Portuguese India (d. 1548)source
  • March 3 – Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1558)source
  • April 12 – Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (d. 1574)source
  • April 23 – Alexander Ales, Scottish theologian (d. 1565)source
  • May 17 – Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (d. 1540)source
  • June 13 – Ernest of Bavaria, pledge lord of the County of Glatz (d. 1560)source
  • July 1 – Federico Cesi (cardinal), Italian cardinal (d. 1565)source
  • August 16 – Louis Gonzaga (Rodomonte), Italian-French dignitary and diplomat (d. 1532)source
  • September 5 – Maria of Jever, last ruler of the Lordship of Jever (d. 1575)source
  • September 7 – Sebastian Newdigate, Carthusian monk and martyr (d. 1535)source
  • October 17 – Alonso de Orozco Mena, Spanish Roman Catholic priest (d. 1591)source
  • November 3 – Benvenuto Cellini, Italian goldsmith and sculptor (d. 1571)source

Deaths

  • April 10 – Michael Tarchaniota Marullus, Greek scholar, poet and soldier (b. c. 1453)source
  • April 12 – Leonhard of Gorizia, Count of Gorz (b. 1440)source
  • May 29 – Thomas Rotherham, English cleric and minister (b. 1423)source
  • June 19 – Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset, English nobleman (b. 1499)source
  • June 23 – Lodovico Lazzarelli, Italian poet (b. 1447)source
  • July 19 – Miguel da Paz, Prince of Portugal (b. 1498)source
  • August 18 – Alfonso of Aragon, prince (b. 1481)source
  • August 26 – Philipp I, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg, German noble (b. 1449)source
  • August 30 – Victor, Duke of Münsterberg and Opava, Count of Glatz (b. 1443)source
  • September 12 – George the Bearded begins a reign of more than 38 years as Duke of Saxony at the Saxon capital of Emden, after the death of his father, Albert III, who had ruled 36 years. George also becomes George II, Margrave of Meissen.source
  • September 15 – John Morton, English Archbishop of Canterbury (b. c. 1420)source
  • October 1 – John Alcock, English Bishop of Ely (b. c. 1430)source
  • October 21 – Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (b. 1442)source
  • November 13 – Philip, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, German prince (b. 1468)source