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Year '1502' (MDII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Contents

Events of 1502

January - June

July - December

Undated

Births

Deaths

Events of 1502

January - June

★ January 1 - Portuguese explorers lead by Pedro Álvares Cabral sailed into Guanabara Bay, Brazil and mistook it for the mouth of a river which they named Rio de Janeiro.

★ May 11 - Christopher Columbus leaves Cadiz, Spain for his fourth [1] and final trip to the "New World". He explored Central America, and discovered St. Lucia, the Isthmus of Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica.

★ May 21 - Portuguese navigator João da Nova discovers island of Saint Helena.

July - December

★ September 18 - Christopher Columbus landed at Costa Rica on his 4th & last voyage.

★ November 7 - Columbus reached the coast of Honduras and passed south to Panama.

★ December 31 - Cesare Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI) occupies Urbino.

★ December 31 - Cesare Borgia imprisons two potentially treacherous allies, Vitelozzo and Oliveretto - he executes them the next morning.

Undated

★ First African slaves brought to the New World arrived at the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic).

★ Ivan III of Russia and Meñli I Giray of Crimea attack Grand Duchy of Lithuania without much success.

★ Meñli I Giray of Crimea destroys Saray, capital of Big Horde.

★ Aztec ruler Auitzotl dies; Moctezuma II elected emperor.

★ "Newfoundland" gets its name from a letter.

★ Christopher Columbus lands at Trujillo and named the mainland "Honduras".

★ Wittenberg University is founded.

★ In Germany, Peter Henlein of Nuremberg used iron parts and coiled springs to build a portable timepiece.

★ In Italy, Asher Lämmlein declares the Jewish Messiah would arrive in the next six months, resulting in the "year of penance."

Births

★ January 7 - Pope Gregory XIII (died 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 (died 1574)

★ June 6 - King John III of Portugal (died 1557)

★ September 13 - John Leland, English antiquarian (died 1552)

★ ''date unknown''

★
★ St. Anthony Maria Zaccaria, founder of the Barnabite Order (died 1539)

★
★ Takeno Joou, Japanese tea practicer of Sengoku period (died 1555)

★
★ Miguel López de Legazpi, Spanish conquistador (died 1572)

★
★ Pedro Nunes, Portuguese mathematician (died 1578)

★
★ Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, English courtier (died 1537)

★
★ Francesco Spiera, Protestant Italian jurist (died 1543)

★ ''probable''

★
★ Elizabeth Blount, mistress of King Henry VIII; died 1540)

★
★ Cuauhtémoc, last Aztec ruler (Tlatoani) of Tenochtitlán and the last "Aztec Emperor" (died 1525)

★
★ Stephen Hawes, English poet (died c.1521)

★
★ Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc, marshal of France (approximate date; died 1577)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

★ April 2 - Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII of England (born 1486)

★ May 6 - James Tyrrell, alleged murderer of the princes in the Tower (executed) (born c1540)

★ 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 (born c. 1475)

★
★ Francesco Laurana, sculptor

★
★ Octavien de Saint-Gelais, poet and translator (born 1468)

★
★ Sogi, Buddhist priest and Japanese poet (born 1421)

★
★ Alvise Vivarini, Italian painter (born c. 1446)

★
★ Matthias of Geatland, the Waffle Knight of legend.
: ''See also .''