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Year 1500 (MD) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.

The year was seen as being especially important by many Christians in Europe, who thought it would bring the beginning of the end of the world. Their belief was based on the phrase "half-time after the time", when the apocalypse was due to occur, which appears in the Book of Revelation and was seen as referring to 1500.^[1]

Events[link]

January–June[link]

• January 5 – Duke Ludovico Sforza recaptures Milan, but is soon driven out again by the French.
• February 17 – Battle of Hemmingstedt: The Danish army fails to conquer the peasants' republic of Dithmarschen.
• April 22 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral officially discovers Brazil and claims the land for Portugal. He has 13 vessels with him.

July–December[link]

• July 14 – the Muscovites defeat the Lithuanians and the Poles in the Battle of Vedrosha.
• August – Second Battle of Lepanto: The Turkish fleet of Kemal Reis defeats the Venetians. The Turks proceed to capture Modon and Coron, the "two eyes of the Republic."
• August 10 – Diogo Dias discovers an island which he names St Lawrence (after the saint's day on which it was first sighted), later to be known as Madagascar
• November 11 – Treaty of Granada: Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.
• November 16 – Emperor Go-Kashiwabara accedes to the throne of Japan.
• December 31 – The last of the incunabula are published.

Date unknown[link]

• Europe's population is estimated at 56.7 million (Spielvogel).
• Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa is admitted to baccalaureate.
• Saxony's mint at Annaberg begins producing guldengroschens.

Births[link]

• January 6 – John of Avila, Spanish mystic and saint (d. 1569)
• February 22 – Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian humanist (d. 1564)
• February 24 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1558)
• April 12 – Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (d. 1574)
• April 23 – Alexander Ales, Scottish theologian (d. 1565)
• May 17 – Frederick II, Duke of Mantua, (d. 1540)
• November 2 – Benvenuto Cellini, Italian goldsmith and sculptor (d. 1571)

Date unknown

• Johannes Aal, Swiss theologian and composer (d. 1553)
• Charles Dumoulin, French jurist (d. 1566)
• Reginald Pole, Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1558)
• Johann Stumpf, Swiss writer (d. 1576)

Probable

• Wu Cheng'en, Chinese novelist (d. 1582)
• Heinrich Faber, German music theorist (d. 1552)
• Francisco de Moraes, Portuguese writer (d. 1572)
• Mem de Sá, Governor-General of Brazil (d. 1572)

Deaths[link]

• May 29
  • Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese explorer (b. c. 1450)
  • Thomas Rotherham, English cleric and minister (b. 1423)
• June 26 – Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset (b. 1499)
• September 2 – Albert, Duke of Saxony (b. 1443)
• September 15 – John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. c. 1420)
• October 6 – John Alcock, English churchman (b. c. 1430)
• October 21 – Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (b. 1442)

Date unknown

• Michael Tarchaniota Marullus, Greek scholar, poet and soldier (b. c. 1453)

Probable

• Juan Pérez de Gijón, Spanish composer (b. 1460)
• Stefano Infessura, humanist writer (b. c. 1435)
• Fyodor Kuritsyn, Russian statesman

References[link]