1496

Year 1496 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events of 1496

* January 3 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
* March 5 - England King Henry VII issues letters patern to John Cabot and his sons, authorizing them to discover unknown lands.
* March - Santo Domingo is discovered.
* March 10 - Christopher Columbus leaves Hispaniola for Spain, ending his second visit to the Western Hemisphere.
* July - Spanish forces under Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordoba capture Atella after a siege. Among the prisoners is the French viceroy of Naples, the Comte de Montpensier. Ferrante II is restored to the throne of Naples.

Undated

* Jesus College (University of Cambridge) is founded.
* Henry VII of England signs the commercial treaty "Magnus Intercursus" with Venice, Florence, and the villes of the Hanse and Pays-Bas.
* Joanna, second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, heiress to Castile, marries the archduke Philip, heir through his mother to the Burgundian Netherlands, and through his father to the Holy Roman Empire.
* Christopher Columbus forcibly subjugates the island Hispaniola, enslaves the Amerindians and lays the basis for a system of land grants tied to the Amerindians' labor service.

Ongoing

* Charles VIII's Italian War (1494-98)

Births

* March 28 - Mary Tudor, queen of Louis XII of France (d. 1533)
* May 12 - King Gustav I of Sweden (d. 1560)
* August 28 - Konrad Heresbach, German Calvinist (d. 1576)
* October 20 - Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (d. 1550)
* December 20 - Joseph ha-Kohen, historian and physician (d. 1575)
*"date unknown"
**Lazare de Baïf, French diplomat and author (d. 1547)
**João de Barros, Portuguese historian (d. 1570)
**François Bonivard, Swiss patriot and historian (d. 1570)
**Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Spanish conquistador (d. 1584)
**Dirck Jacobsz, Dutch painter (d. 1567)
**Gregorio López de Tovar, Spanish humanist and lawyer (d. 1560)
**Richard Maitland, Scottish poet (d. 1586)
**Clément Marot, French poet (d. 1544)
**Louise de Montmorency, French noblewoman (d. 1547)
**Martin Ocelotl, Mexican priest (d. c. 1537)
**William Roper, son-in-law and biographer of Thomas More (d. 1578)
**Giovanni Battista da Sangallo, Italian architect (d. 1548)
**Shōkei, Japanese temple administrator (d. 1574)
**Menno Simons, Dutch Anabaptist leader (d. 1561)
**Agostino Steuco, Italian humanist scholar (d. 1548)
**Johann Walter, Lutheran composer and poet (d. 1570)
*"probable" - Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester (d. 1549)

Deaths

* January 1 - Charles, Count of Angoulême (b. 1459)
* February 24 - Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1445)
* March 4 - Archduke Sigismund of Austria (b. 1427)
* March 12 - Johann Heynlin, German humanist scholar (b. c. 1425)
* April 16 - Charles II, Duke of Savoy (b. 1489)
* April 29 - Dom Fernando de Almada, Count of Avranches (b. c. 1430)
*August 15 - Infanta Isabel of Portugal, queen of Castile and Leon (b. 1428)
* September 7 - King Ferdinand II of Naples (b. 1469)
* September 15 - Hugh Clopton, Lord Mayor of London (b. c. 1440)
* September 25 - Piero Capponi, Italian soldier and statesman (b. 1447)
* October 15 - Gilbert, Count of Montpensier (b. 1443)
* November 1 - Filip Callimachus, Italian humanist writer (b. 1437)
*"date unknown"
**Richard Bell, Bishop of Carlisle
**Alexander Inglis, Scottish clergyman
**Pietro di Francesco degli Orioli, Italian sculptor (b. c. 1458)
**Piero Pollaiuolo, Italian painter (b. 1443)
**Qaitbay, sultan of Egypt
**Ercole de' Roberti, Italian artist (b. c. 1451)
*"probable" - Jan IV Oświęcimski, duke of Oświęcim