1502

Year 1502 (Roman numerals, MDII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

January–June

* January 1 – Kingdom of Portugal, Portuguese explorers, led by Gonçalo Coelho, sail into Guanabara Bay, Brazil, mistaking it for the mouth of a river, which they name Rio de Janeiro.
* February 12 – Isabella I of Castile, Isabella I issues an edict outlawing Islam in the Crown of Castile, forcing virtually all her Muslim subjects to Forced conversions of Muslims in Spain, convert to Christianity.
* May 3 – Kingdom of Portugal, Portuguese navigator João da Nova discovers the uninhabited island of Saint Helena.
* May 11 – Christopher Columbus leaves Cadiz, Spain for his Christopher Columbus#Fourth voyage (1502–1504), fourth and final trip to the New World. He explores Central America, and discovers St. Lucia (possibly), the Isthmus of Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica.

July–December

*July – Ismail I becomes Shah of Persia.
* August 14 – Christopher Columbus lands at Trujillo, Honduras, Trujillo, and names the country 'Honduras'.
* September – A Greek language, Greek and Italian language, Italian parallel text edition of Herodotus' ''Histories (Herodotus), Histories'', done for Count Matteo Maria Boiardo, is published in Venice by Aldus Manutius.
* September 18 – Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica.
* September 29; The Wedding of Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and Anne of Foix-Candale
* October 1 – An annular solar eclipse occurs.
* November 7 – Columbus reaches the coast of Honduras, and passes south to Panama.
* December 26 – Cesare Borgia kills Ramiro d'Orco; this incident is referenced in Machiavelli's ''The Prince''
* December 31 – Cesare Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI) occupies Urbino, where he imprisons two potentially treacherous allies, Vitellozzo and Oliveretto; he executes them the next morning.

Date unknown

* The first African slaves brought to the New World arrive at the island of Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and Dominican Republic).
* Bristol merchants return from Newfoundland (first so named this year from a letter) to England, carrying three native people and cod from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Grand Banks.
* Moctezuma II is elected emperor of the Aztecs, following the death of Ahuitzotl.
* Meñli I Giray defeats the Golden Horde and sacks their capital, Sarai.
* Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Wittenberg University is founded.
* In Holy Roman Empire, Germany, Peter Henlein of Nuremberg uses iron parts and coiled springs to build a portable timepiece.
* In Italy, Asher Lämmlein declares that the Jewish Messiah will arrive in the next 6 months, resulting in the ''year of penance''.
* The King's School, Macclesfield, England, is founded by Sir John Percyvale.
* Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa receives the degree of ''magister artium'' from the University of Cologne.
* Wilhelm Bombast moves to Villach with his son, Paracelsus.

Births

*January 3 – Yi Hwang, Korean Neo-Confucian scholar (d.1571)
* January 7 – Pope Gregory XIII, born Ugo Boncompagni, Bolognese-born pontiff (d. 1585)
* January 20 – Sebastian de Aparicio, Spanish colonial industrialist and saint in Mexico (d. 1600)
* February 2 – Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher (d. 1574)
* March 4 – Elisabeth of Hesse, Hereditary Princess of Saxony (d. 1557)
* March 18 – Philibert of Chalon, French nobleman (d. 1530)
* March 20 – Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (d. 1575)
* April 2 – Susanna of Bavaria, German noble of the House of Wittelsbach (d. 1543)
* April 10 – Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, Otto Henry, Count Palatine of Neuburg (1505–1559) and Elector Palatine (1556–1559) (d. 1559)
* April 25 – Georg Major, German Lutheran theologian (d. 1574)
* June 2 – Guillaume Bigot, French writer (d. 1550)
* June 6 – King John III of Portugal (d. 1557)
* July 26 – Christian Egenolff, German printer (d. 1555)
* July 27 – Francesco Corteccia, Italian composer (d. 1571)
* August 14 – Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Flemish painter (d. 1550)
* September 14 – Louis II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, Duke of Zweibrücken from 1514 to 1532 (d. 1532)
* December 6 – Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502–1568), Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duchess consort of Pomerania (d. 1568)
* December 13 – George III, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg (d. 1555)
* ''date unknown''
** Takeno Jōō, Japanese Sengoku period master of the tea ceremony and merchant (d. 1555)
** Miguel López de Legazpi, Spanish conquistador (d. 1572)
** Pedro Nunes, Portuguese mathematician (d. 1578)
** Francesco Spiera, Italian Protestant jurist (d. 1543)
** Anthony Maria Zaccaria, Cremonese founder of the Barnabite Order and saint (d. 1539)
* ''probable''
** Elizabeth Blount, English courtier, mistress of King Henry VIII of England (d. 1540)
** Cuauhtémoc, last Aztec ruler (Tlatoani) of Tenochtitlán and the last "Aztec Emperor" (d. 1525)
** Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc, marshal of France (approximate date; d. 1577)
** Hurrem Sultan, Ruthenian-born Haseki sultan of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1558)
** Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, English courtier (d. 1537)

Deaths

January–June

* February 18 – Hedwig Jagiellon, Duchess of Bavaria (b. 1457)
* March – Francesco Laurana, Dalmatian-born sculptor (b. c. 1430)
* March 2 – Jan I Carondelet, Burgundian jurist and politician (b. 1428)
* April 2 – Arthur, Prince of Wales, English prince, eldest son of Henry VII of England (b. 1486)
* April 15 – John IV of Chalon-Arlay, Prince of Orange (1475–1502) (b. 1443)
* April 20 – Mary of Looz-Heinsberg, Dutch noble (b. 1424)
* May 4 – Berthold II of Landsberg, Bishop of Verden (1470–1502) and Hildesheim (1481–1502) (b. 1464)
* May 6 – James Tyrrell, English knight, alleged murderer of the princes in the Tower (executed) (b. c. 1450)
* June 9 – Astorre III Manfredi, Italian noble (b. 1485)

July–December

* July 15 – Luka Radovanović, Catholic priest (b. 1425)
* August 18 – Knut Alvsson, Norwegian nobleman and politician (b. 1455)
* August 31 – Thomas Wode, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
* September 1 – Sōgi, Japanese Buddhist priest and poet (b. 1421)
* October 14 – Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y Quiñones, Spanish noble (b. 1444)
* November 10 – George I of Münsterberg, Imperial Prince, Duke of Münsterberg and Oels, Graf von Glatz (b. 1470)
* November 13 – Annio da Viterbo, Italian Dominican friar and scholar (b. 1432)
* December 31
** Oliverotto Euffreducci, Italian politician (b. 1475)
** Vitellozzo Vitelli, Italian condottiero (b. c. 1458)
* ''date unknown''
** Ahuitzotl, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan
** Giustina Rocca, Italian Renaissance lawyer, judge and diplomat
** Octavien de Saint-Gelais, French churchman, poet and translator (b. 1468)
** Gwerful Mechain, Welsh erotic poet (b. c. 1460?)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1502

1502,