1502

Centuries: 15th century - 16th century - 17th century

Decades: 1450s 1460s 1470s 1480s 1490s - 1500s - 1510s 1520s 1530s 1540s 1550s

Years: 1497 1498 1499 1500 1501 - 1502 - 1503 1504 1505 1506 1507

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Events

• January 1 - Rio de Janeiro discovered
• in Russia, Ivan II the Great attacks Livonia without success
• Aztec ruler Auitzotl dies; Moctezuma II elected emperor
• Peter Henlein builds the first pocketwatch
• "Newfoundland" gets its name from a letter.
• Fourth voyage of Christopher Columbus begins. He landed at Trujillo and named the mainland "Honduras".
• Portuguese explorers sailed into Guanabra Bay, Brazil and mistook it for the mouth of a river which they named Rio de Janeiro.
• Wittenberg University founded.

Births

• June 7, Pope Gregory XIII, who implements the Gregorian Calendar in 1582
• John Leland, English antiquarian
• Anne Boleyn, later second Queen consort of Henry VIII of England).(Another possible year of birth is 1507.

Deaths

• Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales son of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, aged 15