Historical
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
1506: Spain - At least two thousand converted Jews are massacred in a Lisbon riot
1506: Spain - Christopher Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain
1506: Ukraine, Poland - Poland is Invaded by Tatars (or Tartars) from the Crimean Khanate (Ukraine)
1507: Dominican Republic, Haiti - The first recorded epidemic of smallpox in the New World occurs on the Island of Hispaniola and decimates the native Taino population
1509-1510: England - The Great Plague afflicts various parts of Tudor England
1509: Portugal - Battle of Diu marks the beginning of Portuguese dominance of the Spice trade
1511: Portugal, Malaysia - Afonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca, the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca (island of Malaysia)
1512: Poland - Polish scientist Copernicus writes Commentariolus, and moves the sun to the center of the solar system
1512: Spain - The southern part (historical core) of the Kingdom of Navarre (in Spain) is Invaded by Castile and Aragon
1513: England, France - Battle of the Spurs, Henry VIII crush the French
1513: England, Scotland - Battle of Flodden Field, Henry VIII repels the Invading Scots
1513: Italy - Machiavelli The Prince, writes a treatise about political philosophy
1513: Panama - Vasco Nunez de Balboa, in service of Spain arrives at the Pacific Ocean (which he called Mar del Sur) across the Isthmus of Panama, It was the first European to sight the new ocean
1513: Portugal, China - The Portuguese mariner Jorge Alvares lands at Macau, China, during the Ming Dynasty
1513: Turkey - Sultan Selim I (The Grim) orders the massacre of Shia Muslims in Anatolia
1514: Lithuania, Poland, Russia - Battle of Orsha halts the expansion of Muscovy into Eastern Europe
1515: Turkey, Poland - Battle of Chaldiran, the Ottoman Empire wrests Eastern Anatolia from the Safavids
1516-1517: Turkey, Egypt - The Ottomans defeat the Mamluks and gain control of Egypt, Arabia, and the Levant
1517: England - The Sweating Sickness epidemic hits Tudor England
1517: Saxony - The Protestant Reformation begins when Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses in Saxony