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The 1460s

554 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 15th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1460 CE59 entries

  • June 26 – Wars of the Roses: Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick and Edward, Earl of March (eldest son of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York) land in England at Sandwich, Kent with an army, and march on London.
  • July 4 – The cannons of the Tower of London, still in Lancastrian hands, are fired on the city of London, which is mostly in Yorkist. The Tower is surrendered on July 19.
  • September 14 – The siege of Trebizond, the capital of the Empire of Trebizond, is started by the Ottoman Empire. Franz Babinger, "La date de la prise de Trébizonde par les Turcs (1461)", Revue des études byzantines, 7 (1949), pp.

1461 CE63 entries

  • February 2 – After the "sun dog" (parhelion) weather phenomenon in England gives the illusion of three suns rising at dawn, Edward, Earl of March, leads the Yorkists to victory over the Lancastrians in battle at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross. Edward convinces his frightened troops that the three sunrises represents the Holy Trinity and divine support for the Yorkist cause. The Lancastrians, led by Owen Tudor and his son Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, are defeated, and Owen Tudor is taken prisoner and executed.
  • August 15 – The Empire of Trebizond, the last major Romano-Greek outpost, falls to the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed II, after a 21-day siege.
  • November 27 – An earthquake estimated later at 6.4 magnitude occurs at L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of the Kingdom of Naples and kills more than 80 people.

1462 CE58 entries

  • June 17 – In the "Night Attack at Târgoviște", Vlad the Impaler ("Dracula") attempts to assassinate Mehmed II, forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.
  • September 17 – Thirteen Years' War – Battle of Świecino (Battle of Żarnowiec): The Kingdom of Poland defeats the Teutonic Order.
  • December – After Radu III the Fair takes over the throne in Wallachia, Vlad III Dracula seeks help in Transylvania, where he is captured by Mathias Corvinus, and imprisoned for the next 12 years, over false charges of treason.

1463 CE52 entries

  • May 25 – The Kingdom of Bosnia falls to the Ottoman Empire as the last monarch, King Stephen Tomašević, is captured and executed by orders of the Sultan Mehmed II. According to the chronicle of Benedetto Dei, the Sultan himself carries out the beheading.
  • June 18 – The free imperial city of Rottweil, part of the Holy Roman Empire and now a part of Germany, becomes an associate state of the Swiss Confederacy.
  • November 1 – The last emperor of Trebizond, David Megas Komnenos, is beheaded in Constantinople two years after his capture by the Ottoman Empire, by orders of the Sultan Mehmed II, in addition to his sons Basil and Manuel and his daughter Anna (who had been a concubine of the Sultan) and two other people.

1464 CE51 entries

  • February 7 – After leading the Ottoman Empire's conquest of his native Bosnia, General Isa-beg Isaković becomes the first Ottoman Governor of Bosnia. The province will remain under Turkish control for more than 400 years until 1878.
  • April 25 – Battle of Hedgeley Moor in England: Yorkist forces under John Neville defeat the Lancastrians under Sir Ralph Percy, who is killed.
  • August – Sophronius I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, dies after a reign of 11 years and is succeeded by the former Partriarch, Gennadius II.

1465 CE59 entries

  • April 27 – Nobility in the Castilian city of Plasencia declare that they will consider King Enrique IV deposed, four months after the Liga Nobiliaria had issued an ultimatum to the King.
  • May 14 – The Moroccan Revolt in Fez ousts the Marinid rulers, and leads to the killing of many Jews.
  • June 5 – The Farce of Ávila takes place in the Kingdom of Castile in Spain as noblemen in Ávila declare that King Enrique IV is deposed and that they will only recognize his half-brother, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, as their monarch. King Enrique, who was the subject of a similar deposition in Plasencia on April 27, continues his reign of the rest of the kingdom from Madrid.

1466 CE56 entries

  • June 17 – Mülhausen, a free city within the Holy Roman Empire, joins the Swiss Confederacy in an alliance against the Habsburg dynasty including the Emperor Frederick III.
  • July 12 – In the fourth year of the Ottoman–Venetian War, Admiral Vettore Cappello of the Republic of Venice Navy lands on the Greek mainland at Piraeus and the Venetians begin marching toward Athens to free it from Ottoman control.
  • September 23 – Peace talks begin in the city of Nieszawka in Poland to end the Thirteen Years' War between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Knights.

1467 CE57 entries

  • April 23 – The Albanian League of Lezhë, aided by troops from the Republic of Venice, is successful in ending the Ottoman siege of the fortress at Krujë after 10 months.
  • October 17 – King James III of Scotland gives royal assent to numerous laws passed by the Scottish Parliament in its six day session at Edinburgh, including the Ferries Act requiring the ramps of ferry boats be improved to support the weight of horses being shipped ("That briggis of buirdis be maide at ferryis for the eis of schipping of hors") and three acts relating to coins and currency.
  • November 11 – At the Battle of Chapakchur, in what is now the Bingöl Province of Turkey, the tribal confederation of Aq Qoyunlu, with 12,000 cavalry and infantry led by Uzun Hasan, makes a surprise attack against 6,000 troops of the Qara Qoyunlu nation, commanded by the Sultan Jahan Shah. The Sultan is decapitated in the battle while trying to flee.

1468 CE56 entries

  • September 8 – The Orkney Islands are pledged to Scotland by King Christian I of Kingdom of Norway in consideration of an agreement for the marriage of 16-year-old King James III of Scotland to Princess Margrete, King Christian's daughter, with the islands pledged as security against the payment of the dowry. As the money is never paid, the connection with the crown of Scotland becomes perpetual.
  • September 19 – In the Kingdom of Castile in Spain, near El Tiemblo, the "Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando" (Tratado de los Toros de Guisando) is signed between King Enrique IV the Impotent and his half-sister, Princess Isabella. The treaty, executed at the ancient sculpture of bulls near Ávila, designates Isabella as heiress to the throne of Castile and León. She will become the Queen upon Enrique's death six years later.
  • November 20 – The Hanseatic warship Hanneke Vrome capsizes and sinks off of the coast of Finland, killing its estimated 180 passengers and crew, along with a valuable cargo including 10,000 Rheingulden coins, equivalent to at least 34,000 kg of gold. The ship had been sailing between the Hanseatic cities of Lübeck (in Germany) and Reval (now Tallinn, capital of Estonia) when it ran into a gale.

1469 CE43 entries

  • August 1 – The Order of Saint Michael ( Ordre de Saint-Michel) is founded by King Louis XI of France as a response to the 's Order of the Golden Fleece.
  • October 19 – Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella I of Castile in Valladolid, bringing about a dynastic union.
  • December 9 – Lorenzo de' Medici becomes the Lord of Florence, the de facto executive of the Florentine Republic in Italy, upon the death of his father, Piero di Cosimo de' Medici.