1500

1500 (MD) was a leap year beginning on Wednesday according to the current Julian calendar on those dates. This year was not a leap year in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.

It is the year 1500 of the Common Era and anno Domini, the year 500 of the second millennium, the hundredth and last year of the fifteenth century, and the first year of the decade of the 1500s.

Events

• January 5: in present Italy – in the framework of the Italian war of 1499-1501 – Ludovico Sforza reconquers the villa of Milan.
• 26 January: in the current Brazil, the Spanish navigator Vicente Yáñez Pinzón is the first European to see the mouth of the Amazon River.
• 17 February: In Dithmarschen (Germany) Denmark fails in its attempt to take the village of his wife, in the battle of Hemmingstedt.
• 22 April: in the current Brazil, the Portuguese Pedro Álvares Cabral and his men are the first Europeans to arrive in that country.
• In April, in today's Italy, the Frenchman Louis de la Trémouille—in the framework of the Italian war of 1499-1501—returns Milan. Ludovico and Ascanio Sforza are defeated and imprisoned.
• 22 June: in current Spain, Pope Alexander VI opened the School Student General (current University of Valencia).
• In August—in the framework of the Italian war of 1499-1501—the Kemal Reis Turk defeats the Venetians in the battle of Modon.
• 11 November: Spain and France—in the framework of the Italian war of 1499-1501—the kingdom of Naples is divided by the treaty of Granada.
• December 24: the great captain Gonzalo Fernandez of Córdoba—in the framework of the Italian war of 1499-1501—is leading Cefalonia, a major Hispanic-Venezuelan victory over the Ottoman Empire.
• In December, in current Italy—in the framework of the Italian war of 1499-1501— César Borgia conquers Imola.
• In Japan the city of Nagasaki is founded.
• A group of Portuguese sailors, led by Gaspar Corte Real explore Greenland, the Labrador Peninsula and Newfoundland.

Science and technology

• Juan de la Cosa makes his mapmundi.

Births

• January 6: Juan de Ávila, a Spanish religious (f. 1569).
• 24 February: Charles of Habsburg, king of Spain between 1516 and 1556 and Roman-Germanic emperor between 1520 and 1558 (f. 1558).
• Fatma Sultan, Ottoman princess, daughter of Selim I and sister of Suleimán the Magnificent (f.1573).
• 17 May: Federico II Gonzaga, an Italian aristocrat (f. 1540).
• November 3: Benvenuto Cellini, Italian sculptor (f. 1571).

• Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón, Spanish architect.
• Gomez Pereira, philosopher, doctor and Spanish humanist.
• Maurice Scève, French poet.
• Sperone Speroni, humanist, scholar and Italian playwright of the Renaissance (f. 1588).
• Pedro de Valdivia, Spanish military, first captain general of Chile.
• Miguel de Cervantes, poet, writer, playwright and Spanish soldier (1527).

Deaths

• May 29: Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese explorer (n. 1450).
• July 19: Miguel de la Paz, Prince of Asturias and Gerona and Crown Prince of Portugal.
• September 12: Alberto III, German aristocrat.
• October 21: Go-Tsuchimikado, Japanese emperor.

Demographics

• The most populous cities on Earth were:

1. Beijing, China, 672 000
2. Viyaia Nagara (India) 500 000
3. Tenochtitlan (Imperio Azteca) 500 000
4. Cairo, Egypt 400 000
5. Hangzhou, China 250 000
6. Cusco (Incaic Experience) 250 000
7. Tabriz (Persia) 250 000
8. Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, 200 000
9. Gaur, India, 200 000
10. Paris, France, 185 000

• The population in Spain is estimated at 5 million