Historical
1450: Germany - Johannes Gutenberg Invents the printing press which revolutionizes communication and education, allows the development of newspapers and reasonably priced books, the first product printed is the Guttenberg Bible
1453: England, France - Battle of Castillon, French king Charles VI becomes the first king to maintain a standing army and attempts to reclaim Normandy defeat the English led by Talbot thus ending the Hundred Years War when the English surrender last outpost in Aquitaine
1453: Turkey - The ten century old Byzantine Empire ends when Muhammad II of Turkey captures Constantinople by hauling seventy small ships across land along with cannon that breached the wall of Constantinople
1454: Italy - Treaty of Lodi ends hostilities between Venice, Milan and Florence, the treaty was reached due to the efforts of Pope Nicholas V
1455: England - War of the Roses begins, a civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York and is limited to English nobility, the first battle was the Battle of St. Albans which took place near London, the Yorkist defeat the Royalist forces
1456: Portugal, Cape Verde Islands - Alivse da Cadamosto, employed by Henry the Navigator, discovers the Cape Verde Islands off the African coast near Dakar, the Islands are soon settled by the Portuguese who began to use It for the slave trade
1460: England - Battle of Wakefield, Queen Margaret of Anjou defeats and kills Richard Duke of York
1461: England - Battle of Towton Moors, in the War of Roses, the Royalist who wore red roses to battle are defeated by the Yorkist wearing white roses, Edward is crowned Edward IV King of England
1462: Turkey - Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II defeats Vlad IV ("Vlad the Impaler") of Walachia
1471: England - Battle of Tewkesbury, in the War of the Roses, Edward IV marries Elizabeth Woodville and is soon ousted by Earl of Warwick so that King Henry can return, Warwick is killed in the Battle of Barnet and Henry was returned to prison and Immediately killed and Margaret, his wife, continues the struggle but at the Battle of Tewkesbury her son is killed and she is captured
1471: Vietnam - Le Thanh-ton begins the Kingdom of Annam by capturing Vijaya the capital of the Cham (Vietnam)
1472: Turkey - Ivan III the Great marries the neice of the last Byzantine Emperor, It Increases Ivans prestige and helps him unify the various Russian principalities
1475: England, France - Treaty of Picquinty England's Edward IV Invaded France in support of the Burgundians. Edward was bought off by a payment and the promise of an annual allowance by Louus XI under the terms of the Treaty of Picquinty
1477: France - Battle of Nancy, Swiss fighting for Louis XI, kill Charles the Bold, the last of the Burgundy claimants to the throne, ends the constant battles for the French crown
1479: Italy, Turkey - Venice loses naval war to Turkey, together with most of her territories along the Aegean Sea
1479: Portugal, Spain - Treaty of Alcacovas, Portugal abandons Its claim to the both Castillian throne and the Canary Islands, in turn, Spain recognizes Portuguese primacy in Azores Islands along with the north and west African coasts
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
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