Historical
1480: Russia - Ivan III of Moscow assumes position of Tsar of Russia
1480: Turkey, Italy - Treaty of Constantinople ends the fifteen year war between the Ottomans and Venice, Venice is forced to cede cities along the Albanian coast and pay for the right to trade in the Black Sea
1485: England - Battle of Bosworth Field, Henry Tudor defeats English King Richard III, and takes the English throne as Henry VII, ending the War of the Roses, this ends the Plantagenet line and establishes the House of Tudor, after the War of the Roses, English nobles were so weak that they could not challenge the strength of the Tudors, essentially ending feudalism in England
1485: Italy - Sandor Botticielli paints The Birth of Venus in Florence, his most famous work, he also Illustrates Dantes Divine Comedy and works on the Sistine Chapel
1486: England - Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York (granddaughter of Richard, Duke of York), uniting the English houses of York and Lancaster
1487: Portugal, South Africa - Portugese explorer Bartholomew Dias rounds South Africa after being blown off course and becomes the first European explorer to circle Southern Africa
1488: Morroco, Mali - African Kingdom of Mali falls to Moroccan Invaders
1491: Portugal, Angola - Portuguese explorers establish an embassy at Mbanza, the capital of the Bantu State (Angola), the Kongo ruler converts to Catholicism
1492: Spain, Portugal, Turkey - The Jews of Spain are ordered out of Spain by July 31, many traveling to the Ottoman Empire, while some settled in Portugal
1492: Spain, San Salvador - Christopher Columbus, financed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, sets sail from Spain to discover a westward passage to the Orient, on October 12 he lands at San Salvador
1492: Spain - The Moors are driven out of Spain, Granada surrenders to Isabella and Ferdinand, Granada was the last Muslim Kingdom in Spain
1493: Spain - Christopher Columbus returns from a second voyage to the New World with strange animals, a live Indian and other unsusual Items, Queen Isabella grants Columbus enormous priviledges
1494: Spain, Portugal - Treaty of Tordesillas, divides Portuguese and Spanish lands, the Spanish receive all of the land to the West and the Portuguese to the East, this gives Africa to Portugal while Spain receives all of the New World with the exception of Brazil
1497: England, Canada - John Cabot and his son Sebastian, sailing for King Henry of England, discover NewFoundland and claim It for England
1498: Italy - Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper in Milan, It is his most famous mural, a depiction of the last meal of Christ before he is executed
1498: Portugal, India - Vasco da Gama of Portugal sails to India and establishes a trading post, thus creating a new trade route between Europe and the East
1498: South America - Christopher Columbus, with seventeen ships and 1500 men, sails his third voyage to the New World, he discovers Trinidad and apparently lands in South America
1500: Portugal, Brazil - Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral claims Brazil for Portugal
1500: Spain, Brazil - Spanish navigator Vicente Yanez Pinzón discovers Brazil but is prevented from claiming It by the Treaty of Tordesillas
1500: Turkey, Italy - Second Battle of Lepanto, Ottoman fleet of Kemal Reis defeats the Venetians
1501: Italy - Michelangelo returns to his native Florence to begin work on the statue David
1501: Itan - Safavid dynasty rules Iran until 1736, Safavids adopt a Shia branch of Islam
1502: South America - First reported African slaves in the New World
1503: France - Nostradamus was born on either December 14 or December 21
1503: Italy - Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa and completes It three or four years later
1503: Spain, France - Battle of Cerignola, Spain defeats France, considered to be the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms
1503: Sudan - Foundation of the Sultanate of Sennar by Amara Dunqas, in what is modern Sudan
1504: Spain - A droughty period, with famine in all of Spain