1506

Year 1506 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events of 1506

January - June

* January 22 - The Swiss Guard arrives at the Vatican, to serve as permanent ceremonial and palace guards under Pope Julius II.
* April 18 - Pope Julius II lays the foundation stone of the new (current) St. Peter's Basilica, replacing the Old Saint Peter's Basilica.

July - December

* August 19 - Sigismund I the Old succeeds his brother as King of Poland.

Undated

* The Portuguese mariner Tristão da Cunha sights the islands of Tristan da Cunha, naming the larger one with his own name.
* In Ming Dynasty China, the local costs of the courier system are met by a tax in silver assessed by the property of land instead of by corvée labor service.
* Pope Julius II personally leads papal troops against the French invaders of Italy.
* Duarte Barbosa returns to Lisbon.

Births

* February - George Buchanan, Scottish humanist scholar (d. 1582)
* February 2 - René de Birague, French cardinal and chancellor (d. 1583)
* April 7 - Francis Xavier, Spanish Jesuit saint (d. 1552)
* April 13 - Peter Faber, French Jesuit theologian (d. 1546)
* July 1 - Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (d. 1526)
*October - Louis de Blois, Flemish mystical writer (d. 1566)
*"date unknown"
**Vicente Masip, Spanish painter (d. 1579)
**William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, English statesman (d. 1563)
**Ii Naomori, Japanese samurai (d. 1560)
*"probable"
**Elizabeth Barton, English nun (d. 1534)
**Wu Cheng'en, Chinese novelist and poet (d. 1438)
**Margaret Lee, confidante of Queen Anne Boleyn (d. 1543)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* May 4 - Husayn Bayqarah, Timurid ruler of Herat (b. 1438)
* May 20 - Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer (b. 1451)
* August - Alexander Agricola, Flemish composer (b. c. 1445)
*August 19 - King Alexander Jagiellon of Poland (b. 1461)
* September 13 - Andrea Mantegna, Italian painter and engraver (b. 1432)
* September 25 - King Philip I of Castile (b. 1478)

: "See also ."