1502

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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Fourth_voyage] 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 ."

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 ."