1502
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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 [1] 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 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.

Undated

• 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.

Births

• 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.

Deaths

• 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.