1498

Events

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visits Quelimane and Moçambique in southeastern Africa.

May 20 - Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut (now Kozhikode), India, becoming the first European to get there by sailing around Africa.

May 23 - Girolamo Savonarola, ruler of Florence, is executed for criticizing the Pope.

July 31 - On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad and Tobago|Trinidad.

Christopher Columbus lands on the South American continent.

The Portugal|Portuguese sail up to the coasts of modern Tanzania and Kenya.

John Cabot leaves port on an expedition, never to be seen again.

Births

Andrés de Urdaneta, Spanish Friar (died 1568)

April 9 - John, Cardinal of Lorraine, French churchman (died 1550)

November 15 - Eleonore of Austria, Queen of Portugal and France (died 1558)

Giorgio Giulio Clovio, Italian painter (died 1578)

Marten Jacobszoon Heemskerk van Veen, Dutch painter (died 1574)

Juraj Julije Klovic, Dalmatian miniaturist (died 1578)

Anna of Masovia, Polish princess

Meera, Rajput princess (died 1547)

Andreas Osiander, German protestant theologian (died 1552)

Sagara Taketo, Japanese retainer (died 1551)

Pier Paolo Vergerio, Italian religious reformer (died 1565)

Deaths

March 24 - Edward Stafford, 2nd Earl of Wiltshire (born 1470)

April 28 - Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, English politician (killed in battle)

April 7 - King Charles VIII of France (born 1470)

May 23 - Girolamo Savonarola, Italian religious reformer and ruler of Florence (born 1452)

December 7 - Alexander Hegius von Heek, German humanist

Johannes Martini, Flemish composer

Antonio Pollaiuolo, Italian painter

Domenico Rosselli, Italian sculptor