January–March •
January 17 –
Cesar Borgia returns triumphantly to
Rome, from
Romagna. •
February 1 – The Duchy of Bavaria-Dachau, created in Germany in 1467 after
Sigismund, Duke of Bavaria was granted his own state following his resignation from the throne of the Duchy of
Bavaria-Munich, reverts to Bavaria-Munich's control upon Sigismund's death. •
March 4 –
Minkhaung II becomes the sole
King of Burma upon the death of his son
Thihathura II, with whom he was co-ruler for 15 years. Minkhaung's reign ends five weeks later when he dies on April 7. •
March 25 –
Portuguese navigator
João da Nova discovers
Ascension Island. It is definitely sighted and named on
May 20,
1503 (
Feast of the Ascension) by
Afonso de Albuquerque.
April–June •
April 7 –
Shwenankyawshin Narapati begins an almost 26-year reign as
King of Burma upon the death of his father, King Minkhaung II. •
April 11 – The
Rebellion in the Alpujarras ends in southern
Spain with a treaty of surrender of the last Muslim insurgents in the
Alpujarra Mountains in
Andalusia on the Mediterranean Sea. The Muslims are given the choice of expulsion or conversion to
Christianity. •
May 10 – The formal coronation of
King Shwenankyawshin of Burma takes place at his capital in
Inwa in the
Mandalay Region on the 9th waning of
Kason, 863
ME. •
May 13 – The
Venetian Republic signs a treaty with the
Kingdom of Hungary and
Pope Alexander VI for troops to protect Venetian Dalmatia during the
Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503). •
May 15 –
Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, the first printed collection of
polyphonic music, is published by
Ottaviano Petrucci in
Venice. •
June 9 – The semi-independent city of
Basel joins the
Swiss Confederation as the
eleventh canton of Switzerland. •
June 17 –
Alexander Jagiellon,
Grand Duke of Lithuania since 1492, becomes the new
King of Poland upon the sudden death of his older brother,
Jan I Olbracht. •
June 23 –
Nicolau Coelho, part of Pedro Cabral's Portuguese expedition to India, returns home with one ship, having left ahead of Cabral. •
June 24 –
Cesare Borgia's French troops storm and overtake the fortress at
Capua in the
Kingdom of Naples, overcoming the defense of
Fabrizio Colonna in the occupation of the Spanish
Kingdom of Aragon in southern Italy.
July–September •
July 21 – Portuguese explorer
Pedro Álvares Cabral and his surviving crew return to
Lisbon at the end of a 15-month expedition to India, with only seven of their original fleet of 13 ships. The cargo from India, however, returns a profit to the Portuguese crown of nine times its investment. •
July 25 – The
Kingdom of Naples, led by
King Federico I, surrenders to Cesare Borgia's French and Aragonese troops. •
July 27 –
Copernicus is formally installed as canon of Frauenberg Cathedral. •
August 1 –
Hans, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden is deposed from the Swedish throne after fleeing the country following the victory of Swedish rebels at
Örebro during the
War of Deposition against King Hans. His wife,
Christina of Saxony, is left behind at
Stockholm as his regent of Sweden, to command a royal garrison at
Tre Kronor ("Three Crowns"), the royal castle. Returning to Denmark, King Hans then organizes Danish troops to attempt to retake Sweden in the
Dano-Swedish War (1501–1512). •
August 2 – King Federico of Naples abdicates upon the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples by France, and France's King
Louis XII becomes the nominal monarch as
Luigi II, re di Napoli. King Louis appoints
Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours as France's
Viceroy of Naples. •
August 27 –
Battle of the Siritsa River: The
Livonian Order, supporting the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the
Second Muscovite–Lithuanian War, and commanded by
Wolter von Plettenberg, defeats an army of the
Grand Duchy of Moscow and
Pskov Republic. •
September 3 – On complaints from
Christopher Columbus, who had been replaced as
Viceroy of the New World and arrested in 1500 by
Francisco de Bobadilla,
Queen Isabella of Spain orders that Bobadilla be recalled from
Santo Domingo. Declining to allow Columbus to resume his brutal rule of the New World, the Queen appoints a friend,
Nicolás de Ovando, as the new Viceroy. Although Bobadilla receives news of his firing several weeks later, he declines to step aside. Ovando will assemble a fleet of 30 ships and depart Spain on February 13 for Santo Domingo. •
September 12 –
Maximilian I, Archduke of Austria, issues a decree making firearms safety tests mandatory. •
September 18 –
Aleksandras Jogailaitis,
Grand Duke of Lithuania, issues a decree requiring all Roman Catholic priests in the Duchy to become fluent in the
Lithuanian language. •
September 27 – Queen Isabella orders New World Governor Bobadilla to return the assets confiscated from Christopher Columbus and the two other Columbus brothers.
October–December •
October 2 •
Leonardo Loredan is elected 75th
doge of the
Venetian Republic, taking office on October 13, and serves for almost 20 years. • Spanish princess
Catherine of Aragon arrives in
England and arrives at
Plymouth. Although she will later become the wife of King Henry VIII in 1509, she initially arrives to marry Henry's older brother, Prince Arthur. •
October 13 –
Maximilian of Austria and
Louis XII of France sign the
Treaty of Trente with
Austria recognizing all
French conquests in the northern territories of
Italy. •
October 30 – The
Banquet of Chestnuts is purportedly held by
Cesare Borgia, in the
Papal Palace of Rome (this account is not historical fact, and could be attributed to enemies of Alexander VI). •
November 1 (
All Saints) –
Amerigo Vespucci discovers and names
Baía de Todos os Santos, in
Brazil. •
November 4 •
Second Muscovite–Lithuanian War: At the
Battle of Mstislavl,
Grand Prince Ivan's Southern Muscovite army defeats the forces of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. •
Philip and
Joanna of Castile leave for
Spain. •
November 12 –
Sten Sture the Elder is elected Regent of Sweden for the second time, becoming the Scandinavian nation's chief executive after King Hans of Denmark is deposed. No replacement of the monarchy is planned by the rebel Swedish nobles. •
November 14 –
Arthur, Prince of Wales, marries the Spanish princess
Catherine of Aragon. •
November 24 – A large army of the
Grand Duchy of Moscow overruns
Livonia during the
Second Muscovite–Lithuanian War. •
December 12 – Grand Duke
Aleksandras Jogailaitis,
Grand Duke of Lithuania becomes the
King of Poland as Aleksander I Jagiellończyk. •
December 22 – (1 Jumada al-Thani 907 AH)
Ismail I is enthroned as the first
Shah of Iran, choosing
Tabriz as his capital, founding the
Safavid dynasty in northern
Iran. He declares
Shi'ism the official and compulsory religion, under penalty of death. •
December 31 –
First Battle of Cannanore:
João da Nova fleet engaged the fleet of the
Zamorin in a battle outside of the Cannanore harbor, the first Portuguese
naval battle in the
Indian Ocean.
Date unknown • The
Swiss cantons of
Basel and
Schaffhausen join the
Old Swiss Confederacy. •
Gaspar Corte-Real, Portuguese navigator, makes the first documented European landing in
North America since c.
1000 A.D. •
Rodrigo de Bastidas, sailing westward from
Venezuela in search of gold, becomes the first European to explore the
Isthmus of Panama. •
Amerigo Vespucci maps the two
stars
Alpha Centauri and
Beta Centauri, as well as the stars of the
constellation Crux, which are below the horizon in
Europe. •
Dhaulpur is taken by
Sikandar Lodi. •
Michelangelo returns to his native
Florence, to begin work on the statue
David. •
Italic type (cut by
Francesco Griffo) is first used by
Aldus Manutius at the
Aldine Press in
Venice, in an edition of
Virgil. •
Martin Luther enters the
University of Erfurt. == Births ==