1502

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1470s 1480s 1490s – 1500s – 1510s 1520s 1530s
Years:	1499 1500 1501 – 1502 – 1503 1504 1505

1502 in topic:
Subjects: Archaeology – Architecture – Art –
Literature – Music – Poetry – Science
Leaders: State leaders – Colonial governors
Category: Establishments – Disestablishments
Births – Deaths – Works

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

Events of 1502

January 1 – Portuguese explorers, led by Pedro Álvares Cabral, sail into Guanabara Bay, Brazil, mistaking it for the mouth of a river, which they name Rio de Janeiro.
May 11 – Christopher Columbus leaves Cadiz, Spain for his fourth and final trip to the 'New World'. He explores Central America, and discovers St. Lucia, the Isthmus of Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica.
May 21 – Portuguese navigator João da Nova discovers the island of Saint Helena
September 18 – Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his 4th & last voyage.
November 7 – Columbus reaches the coast of Honduras and passes south to Panama.
December 26 &ndach; 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.

The first African slaves brought to the New World arrive at the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic).
Ivan III of Russia and Meñli I Giray of Crimea attack the Grand Duchy of Lithuania without much success.
Meñli I Giray of Crimea destroys Saray, capital of the Big Horde.
Aztec ruler Auitzotl dies; Moctezuma II is elected emperor.
'Newfoundland' gets its name from a letter.
Christopher Columbus lands at Trujillo and names the mainland 'Honduras'.
Wittenberg University is founded.
In 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.'
Ismail I starts to rule.
The King's School in Macclesfield was founded by Sir John Percyvale.

January 7 – Pope Gregory XIII (d. 1585)
February 2 – Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher (d. 1574)
March 20 – Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (d. 1575)
April 25 – Georg Major, German Lutheran theologian (d. 1574)
June 6 – King John III of Portugal (d. 1557)
September 13 – John Leland, English antiquarian (d. 1552)
date unknown
- St. Anthony Maria Zaccaria, founder of the Barnabite Order (d. 1539)
- Takeno Joou, Japanese tea practicer of the Sengoku period (d. 1555)
- Miguel López de Legazpi, Spanish conquistador (d. 1572)
- Pedro Nunes, Portuguese mathematician (d. 1578)
- Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, English courtier (d. 1537)
- Francesco Spiera, Protestant Italian jurist (d. 1543)
probable
- Elizabeth Blount, mistress of King Henry VIII (d. 1540)
- Cuauhtémoc, last Aztec ruler (Tlatoani) of Tenochtitlán and the last "Aztec Emperor" (d. 1525)
- Stephen Hawes, English poet (d. c.1521)
- Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc, marshal of France (approximate date; d. 1577)

See also Category: 1502 births.

April 2 – Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII of England (b. 1486)
May 6 – James Tyrrell, alleged murderer of the princes in the Tower (executed) (b. c. 1450)
November 13 – Annio da Viterbo, Dominican friar and scholar
December 31 – Vitellozzo Vitelli, condottiero
date unknown
- Auitzotl, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan
- Margaret Drummond, mistress of James IV of Scotland (b. c. 1475)
- Francesco Laurana, sculptor
- Octavien de Saint-Gelais, poet and translator (b. 1468)
- Sōgi, Buddhist priest and Japanese poet (b. 1421)
- Alvise Vivarini, Italian painter (b. c. 1446)
- Matthias of Geatland, the Waffle Knight of legend

See also Category: 1502 deaths.