1508

Year 1508 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events of 1508

January - June

* February - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor attacks Venice.
* June 6 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a 3-year truce and cede several territories to Venice.

July - December

*August - Lebna Dengel succeeds his father Na'od as Emperor of Ethiopia. Due to his young age, his grandmother Eleni acts as regent.
* December 10 - The League of Cambrai is formed as an alliance against Venice between Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon.
* December - Michelangelo Buonarroti begins work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Ongoing

*Italian Wars (1494-1559)
*Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars (1492-1537)

Births

* June 9 - Primoz Trubar, Slovenian Protestant reformer (d. 1586)
* November 30 - Andrea Palladio, Italian architect (d. 1580)
* December 9 - Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (d. 1555)
* December 24 - Pietro Carnesecchi, Italian humanist (d. 1567)
*"date unknown"
**Livio Agresti, Italian painter (d. 1580)
**Jean Daurat, French poet (d. 1588)
**Marin Držić, Croatian playwright (d. 1567)

Deaths

* February - Robert Lauder of The Bass, governor of Berwick-on-Tweed (b. c. 1440)
* February 4 - Conrad Celtes, German humanist (b. 1459)
* February 15 - Giovanni II Bentivoglio, tyrant of Bologna (b. 1443)
* February 27 - James, Duke of Rothesay, heir to the throne of Scotland (b. 1507)
* February 28 - Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1448)
* April 10 - Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Italian "condottiero" (b. 1472)
* May 27 - Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)
* July 28 - Robert Blackadder, Bishop of Glasgow
* July 31 - Na'od, Emperor of Ethiopia (in battle)
* October 13 - Edmund de Ros, 11th Baron de Ros, English politician (b. 1446)
* October 18 - Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell, Lord High Admiral of Scotland
* December 10 - René II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1451)
*"date unknown"
**Isaac Abrabanel, Portuguese statesman, philosopher, and theologian (b. 1437)
**Lourenço de Almeida, Portuguese explorer
**Mahmud Khan (Moghul Khan), Khan of Tashkent
**Damkhat Reachea, emperor of Cambodia
**Bernard Stewart, Lord of Aubigny (b. c. 1452)