istoryworld
Events relating to europe
Philip, heir to Austria, marries Joanna, a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in the second of the great Habsburg marital alliances
Savonarola, in the carnival before Lent, urges the people of Florence to throw playing cards and lewd images on a great bonfire of vanities
Henry VII commissions the Italian navigator John Cabot to cross the Atlantic in search of new territories for England
John Cabot, searching for a trade route to China, probably reaches Newfoundland
The Florentine mob, weary of puritanism, attacks the convent of San Marco and drags Savonarola away to be hanged and burnt
24-year-old Michelangelo provides for St Peter's in Rome an exquisite Pietà – the Virgin holding on her lap the dead Christ
The first modern lock gates are installed on a canal in Milan, probably designed by Leonardo da Vinci
Faenza becomes the main centre for the production of the Italian tin-glazed earthenware known as majolica
Leonardo argues that fossils in rocks far above the sea imply not the effects of the Flood but a change in the level of an ancient sea bed
The Portuguese establish trading posts in east Africa, on the coast of Mozambique
European diseases bring death on a massive scale to an American population that has no immunity
The Salic law, preventing inheritance of the throne by or through a woman, is by now accepted as a fundamental law of France
Ceramic artists in Italy decorate large majolica dishes with scenes of narrative history, giving this style the name istoriato
Michelangelo begins work in Florence on a tall thin slab of marble, which he transforms into David
Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci sets sail from Lisbon to explore to the south of the New World
Vasco da Gama wins a trading treaty for Portuguese merchants after bombarding the Indian port of Calicut into submission
The marriage of James IV, king of Scotland, to Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, leads a century later to the Union of the Crowns
Hieronymus Bosch paints the most detailed of his exotically surreal canvases, The Garden of Earthly Delights
The Portuguese set up a trading post on the east African island of Zanzibar
The Portuguese establish a presence in Sri Lanka, trading in the island's crop of cinammon
Leonardo captures the enigmatic smile of Lisa Gherardini, known now as the Mona Lisa
Pope Julius II summons Michelangelo to Rome to create the pope's own elaborately sculpted tomb
Julius II, together with the architect Bramante, lays the foundation stone for the new St Peter's
Michelangelo begins work in Rome on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel
Raphael is summoned to Rome by Julius II and is given a major commission for frescoes
