1502

Years: 1499 1500 1501 - 1502 - 1503 1504 1505
Decades: 1470s 1480s 1490s - 1500s - 1510s 1520s 1530s
Centuries: 15th century - 16th century - 17th century

Events

January 1 - Portuguese explorers sailed into Guanabra Bay , Brazil and mistook it for the mouth of a river which they named Rio de Janeiro
May 9 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final trip to the "New World".
May 21 - Portuguese discover island of St Helena.
December 31 - Cesare Borgia imprisons two potentially treacherous allies, Vitelozzo and Oliveretto - he executes them the next morning.
Ivan III of Russia and Mengli Ghiray of Crimean Khanate attack Grand Duchy of Lithuania without much success.
Mengli Ghiray of Crimean Khanate destroys Saray, capital of Big Horde
Aztec ruler Auitzotl dies; Moctezuma II elected emperor.
Peter Henlein builds the first pocketwatch.
"Newfoundland" gets its name from a letter.
Christopher Columbus lands at Trujillo and named the mainland "Honduras".
Wittenberg University founded.

January 7 - Pope Gregory XIII, who implements the Gregorian Calendar in 1582
June 6 - King John III of Portugal
John Leland - English antiquarian
Anne Boleyn - Later second Queen consort of Henry VIII of England. Another possible year of birth is 1507.
Cuauhtémoc, later Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan (estimated date).
Elizabeth Blount, later mistress of Henry VIII of England (approximate date).