Events of 1456

• July 7 – A retrial acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.

• July 21–July 22 – Battle of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade): The Hungarians under John Hunyadi rout the Turkish army of Sultan Mehmed II. The noon bell ordered by Pope Callixtus III commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world (hence the noon bell is still rung to this day).

• August 20 – Vladislav II, reigning Prince of Wallachia, is killed in battle by Vlad III Dracula, who succeeds him.

• Lazar Branković becomes king of Serbia.

• October 17 – The University of Greifswald is established, making it the second oldest university in northern Europe (also for a period the oldest in Sweden and Prussia).

• Luigi de Cadamosto discovers the Cape Verde Islands.

• Emperor Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia founds the city of Debre Berhan.

• Muscovy and Novgorod Republic conclude the Treaty of Yazhelbitsy.

Births

• March – Jan Łaski, Polish nobleman (d. 1531)

• March 1 – King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (d. 1516)

• June 11 – Anne Neville, queen of Richard III of England (d. 1485)

• June 23 – Margaret of Denmark, queen of James III of Scotland (d. 1486)

• date unknown – Jan Lubrański, Polish bishop (d. 1520)

Deaths

• May 24 – Ambroise de Loré, French military leader (b. 1396)

• August 11 – John Hunyadi, Transylvanian statesman and general (b. 1387)

• October 17 – Nicolas Grenon, French composer

• October 23 – Giovanni da Capistrano, Italian saint (b. 1386)

• November 1 – Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, father of King Henry VII of England

• November 9 – Ulrich II of Celje (b. 1406)

• November 25 – Jacques Cœur, French merchant

• December 4 – Charles I, Duke of Bourbon (b. 1401)

• date unknown

• Juan de Mena, Spanish poet (b. 1411)

1456 Year Equivalents

• Hindu Calendar, (March 14, 1399 – March 13, 1400) ¹

• Hindu Calendar, (March 21/22, 1529 – March 20/21, 1530)²

• Islamic calendar,

• Hebrew calendar,