Lorenzo "the Magnificent", ruler of Florence and patron of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo, dies.
Date given in the Julian calendar.
Emir Muhammad XII surrenders to Ferdinand and Isabella, ending the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula.
Ferdinand and Isabella order the Jews of Castile and Aragon to convert or leave their kingdoms.
Spain and Portugal agree to divide newly found lands outside Europe along a meridian in the Atlantic.
The Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa, proving the Indian Ocean could be reached by sea.
Vasco da Gama's fleet left Lisbon, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, sailed up the East African coast and reached Calicut, opening a direct sea route between Europe and Asia.
Henry Tudor defeats and kills Richard III, taking the throne as Henry VII and founding the Tudor dynasty, effectively ending the Wars of the Roses.