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The 1500s

597 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 16th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1500 CE62 entries

1501 CE69 entries

  • March 25 – Portuguese navigator João da Nova discovers Ascension Island. It is definitely sighted and named on May 20, 1503 (Feast of the Ascension) by Afonso de Albuquerque.
  • December 22 – (1 Jumada al-Thani 907 AH) Ismail I is enthroned as the first Shah of Iran, choosing Tabriz as his capital, founding the Safavid dynasty in northern Iran. He declares Shi'ism the official and compulsory religion, under penalty of death.
  • December 31 – First Battle of Cannanore: João da Nova fleet engaged the fleet of the Zamorin in a battle outside of the Cannanore harbor, the first Portuguese naval battle in the Indian Ocean.

1502 CE61 entries

  • May 3 – Portuguese navigator João da Nova discovers the uninhabited island of Saint Helena.
  • May 9 – Christopher Columbus leaves Cadiz in Spain for his fourth and final trip to the New World, taking with him 147 men on his flagship, Capitana and the companion ships Gallega, Vizcaína, and Santiago de Palos. He explores Central America, and discovers the Isthmus of Panama and the land now occupied by Honduras, and Costa Rica, and possibly the island of St. Lucia as well
  • December 26 – Cesare Borgia kills Ramiro d'Orco; this incident is referenced in Machiavelli's The Prince

1503 CE61 entries

  • April 2 – The Kingdom of Cochin (ruled by a Portuguese-installed raja, Unni Ramman Koyil II in modern-day India's Kerala state) is invaded by 50,000 Nair troops of the Zamorin of Calicut.
  • May 20 (Feast of the Ascension) – Ascension Island is first definitively sighted, by Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque.
  • October 1 – Fort Emmanuel is christened at Cochin after Afonso de Albuquerque obtained permission to be able to build it. It is the first European fort in India, in addition to being the first Portuguese fort.

1504 CE57 entries

  • July 3 – The siege of Cochin in India by the invading forces of Calicut ends as the Portuguese and Cochin defenders defeat the invaders. Calicut loses 5,000 dead in battle and another 13,000 to disease, while Cochin and Portugal sustain minimal losses.
  • September 8 – Michelangelo's sculpture of David is unveiled in Florence.
  • December 8 – (approximate date) Islamic scholar Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah issues the Oran fatwa for Muslims in Spain (1 Rajab 910 AH in Islamic calendar, Gregorian date is approximate).

1505 CE62 entries

  • March 25 – Appointed as the Viceroy of Portuguese India by King Manuel I of Portugal, Dom Francisco de Almeida departs from Portugal with an armada of 22 ships and 1,500 men, according to one estimate by João de Barros.
  • June 19 – Zhu Houzhao, the 13-year-old son of the late Hongzhi Emperor of Ming Dynasty China, is enthroned as the Zhengde Emperor upon his father's death.
  • August 15 – The Portuguese State of India is founded in what is now the state of Kerala, after the Kingdom of Portugal takes over territory of the Bijapur sultanate at Calicut.

1506 CE53 entries

  • January 14 – The classical statue of Laocoön and His Sons is unearthed in Rome. On the recommendation of Giuliano da Sangallo and Michelangelo, Pope Julius II purchases it, and places it on public display in the Vatican a month later.
  • February 9 – Henry, Prince of Wales is made a Knight of the Golden Fleece by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
  • April 19 – The Lisbon Massacre begins in Portugal with three days of violence, in which thousands of Jews are tortured and killed by Catholics.

1507 CE59 entries

  • March 1 – Eleven months after the Lisbon Massacre, King Manuel I of Portugal issues an edict permitting the cristãos-novos ("New Christians", Portuguese Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity) to freely emigrate from the kingdom.
  • October 10 – The Kingdom of Portugal conquers the island of Ormuz in the Persian Gulf.
  • November 26 – Pope Julius II issues a damnatio memoriae forcing the members of the House of Borgia out of control of the Papal States.

1508 CE50 entries

  • March 13 – The oldest annual foot race in Europe, the "Red Hose Race", is run for the first time, taking place in Scotland at Carnwath, Lanarkshire.
  • May 8 – Italian renaissance artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni of Florence signs a contract with the Vatican to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, in return for a promised fee of 3,000 gold ducats (equivalent in 2023 to more than U.S. $600,000).
  • December – Michelangelo begins painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Holy See of Rome, on a commission by Pope Julius II (signed May 10).

1509 CE63 entries

  • May 9 – The Venetians, encamped around the town of Treviglio, move south towards the Po River in search of better positions.
  • June 11 – Luca Pacioli's De divina proportione, concerning the golden ratio, is published in Venice, with illustrations by Leonardo da Vinci.
  • September 11 – Portuguese fidalgo Diogo Lopes de Sequeira becomes the first European to reach Malacca, having crossed the Gulf of Bengal.