Events of 1496

• January 3 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

• March 5 – England King Henry VII issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorizing them to discover unknown lands.

• March – Santo Domingo is discovered.

• March 10 – Christopher Columbus leaves Hispaniola for Spain, ending his second visit to the Western Hemisphere.

• July – Spanish forces under Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordoba capture Atella after a siege. Among the prisoners is the French viceroy of Naples, the Comte de Montpensier. Ferrante II is restored to the throne of Naples.

Undated

• Jesus College (University of Cambridge) is founded.

• Henry VII of England signs the commercial treaty Magnus Intercursus with Venice, Florence, and the villes of the Hanse and Pays-Bas.

• Joanna, second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, heiress to Castile, marries the archduke Philip, heir through his mother to the Burgundian Netherlands, and through his father to the Holy Roman Empire.

• Christopher Columbus forcibly subjugates the island Hispaniola, enslaves the Amerindians and lays the basis for a system of land grants tied to the Amerindians' labor service.

Ongoing

• Charles VIII's Italian War (1494–98)

Births

• March 18 – Mary Tudor, queen of Louis XII of France (d. 1533)

• May 12 – King Gustav I of Sweden (d. 1560)

• August 28 – Konrad Heresbach, German Calvinist (d. 1576)

• October 20 – Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (d. 1550)

• December 20 – Joseph ha-Kohen, historian and physician (d. 1575)

• date unknown

• *Lazare de Baïf, French diplomat and author (d. 1547)

• *João de Barros, Portuguese historian (d. 1570)

• *François Bonivard, Swiss patriot and historian (d. 1570)

• *Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Spanish conquistador (d. 1584)

• *Dirck Jacobsz, Dutch painter (d. 1567)

• *Gregorio López de Tovar, Spanish humanist and lawyer (d. 1560)

• *Richard Maitland, Scottish poet (d. 1586)

• *Clément Marot, French poet (d. 1544)

• *Louise de Montmorency, French noblewoman (d. 1547)

• *Martin Ocelotl, Mexican priest (d. c. 1537)

• *William Roper, son-in-law and biographer of Thomas More (d. 1578)

• *Giovanni Battista da Sangallo, Italian architect (d. 1548)

• *Shōkei, Japanese temple administrator (d. 1574)

• *Menno Simons, Dutch Anabaptist leader (d. 1561)

• *Agostino Steuco, Italian humanist scholar (d. 1548)

• *Johann Walter, Lutheran composer and poet (d. 1570)

• probable – Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester (d. 1549)

Deaths

• January 1 – Charles, Count of Angoulême (b. 1459)

• February 24 – Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1445)

• March 4 – Archduke Sigismund of Austria (b. 1427)

• March 12 – Johann Heynlin, German humanist scholar (b. c. 1425)

• April 16 – Charles II, Duke of Savoy (b. 1489)

• April 29 – Dom Fernando de Almada, Count of Avranches (b. c. 1430)

• August 15 – Infanta Isabel of Portugal, queen of Castile and Leon (b. 1428)

• September 7 – King Ferdinand II of Naples (b. 1469)

• September 15 – Hugh Clopton, Lord Mayor of London (b. c. 1440)

• September 25 – Piero Capponi, Italian soldier and statesman (b. 1447)

• October 15 – Gilbert, Count of Montpensier (b. 1443)

• November 1 – Filip Callimachus, Italian humanist writer (b. 1437)

• date unknown

• *Richard Bell, Bishop of Carlisle

• *Alexander Inglis, Scottish clergyman

• *Pietro di Francesco degli Orioli, Italian sculptor (b. c. 1458)

• *Piero Pollaiuolo, Italian painter (b. 1443)

• *Qaitbay, sultan of Egypt

• *Ercole de' Roberti, Italian artist (b. c. 1451)

• probable – Jan IV Oświęcimski, duke of Oświęcim