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Smallpox epidemic among the Incas of South America, due to the arrival of the Spanish in the Isthmus of Panama.

Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his army briefly occupied Buda. They returned permanently in 1541, where they remained until 1686, when it returned to Christian hands.

Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent wins the Battle of Mohacs (Hungary) in just 48 hours

The Muslim Suleiman the Magnificent moves with 400,000 men, 30,000 camels, 40,000 horses, 300 cannons, towards Hungary

Finale Emilia, Bassa Modenese. The clock is added to the future Clock Tower. The same one that would be destroyed by the 2012 earthquake and which would become its symbol when, for a few hours, it remained half standing, with its clock broken. The clock

The Portuguese landed in New Guinea. Western New Guinea was claimed by the Netherlands in 1828, while the eastern part was claimed by Germany and Great Britain in 1884.

Jubilee celebrated by Clement VII; the plague and the emergence of Martin Luther’s movement caused few pilgrims to arrive

Peasants’ War in Europe: popular peasant uprising

Kochi, Kerala, India. Vasco da Gama died and was buried here in the Church of San Francisco. The coffin containing the Portuguese navigator’s body was later moved to Lisbon in 1539.

Giovanni da Verrazzano explores the eastern coast of North America between Florida and Cape Breton.

Pedro de Alvarado, a student of Cortes, crowns the conquest of the Inca Empire with the capture of the city of Santiago de los Caballeros (now Antigua, Guatemala).

Milan. Salai (real name Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno), a student of Leonardo da Vinci, was killed by an arrow at the age of about 44. Several paintings by Leonardo da Vinci were found among his belongings, possibly including the Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) and

The tomato was introduced to Europe, but remained a botanical garden curiosity until Italians began eating it in the 19th century.

Charles V orders two Dutch monks to be burned at the stake because they had supported Luther’s ideas; during his reign another 2,000 Dutch people die for their ideas.

We finally have the certainty that the surface of the world is not infinite or, worse, that it does not end abruptly somewhere: Magellan’s expedition returns from its voyage around the world

Juan Sebastian Elcano returns to Spain and completes the circumnavigation of the globe begun by Magellan. Four years earlier, five ships had set sail, but only the Victoria returned home. Only 18 of the 264 sailors on board survived the voyage.

The Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent conquer the island of Rhodes and drive the Knights Hospitaller of St. John from the Aegean Sea.

The Fortress or White City of Belgrade, the advanced bastion of Christianity, falls to the soldiers of the Ottoman Sultan Seluiman (Suleiman the Magnificent). In the confusion of the battle, Louis II, King of Hungary, drowns in a trench ditch. By the end of the

Luther Challenges the Diet of Worms. On this day, Martin Luther, the main architect of the Protestant Reformation, challenges the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by refusing to recant his writings. Luther had been summoned to Worms, Germany, before the assembly of the Holy Roman

Martin Luther is brought before Charles V at the Diet of Worms and asked to recant his ideas.

Luther is now popular throughout Germany

Pedro de Alvarado, Cristobalde Olid and Gonzalo de Sondoval cut the three main access routes to Tenochtitlan

Gerolamo Cardano enrolled at the University of Pavia. Shortly thereafter, he began writing his book on gambling, the first treatise on chance.

Smallpox epidemic among the Aztecs of Central America, caused by the arrival of the Spanish. The plague reaches Mexico with an infected slave from Cuba, already occupied by the Spanish. It will kill half the Aztecs, including Emperor Cuitlahuac.

Swedish uprising in Stockholm: Danish bloodbath

Papal bull Exsurge Domine attributing 41 doctrinal errors to Luther

Pedro de Alvarado, left by Cortes in Tenochtitlan, under an excuse massacres 8,000-10,000 Aztec nobles with cannon fire; when Cortes learns of this, he marches back to the capital; and organizes the retreat from the city, now besieged by the enraged Aztecs.

Hernan Cortes arrives in Tecnochtitlan (now Mexico City), the Aztec capital; Montezuma welcomes him to the royal palace; after a week, Cortes takes Montezuma hostage and rules through him.

Frankfurt. Charles V is proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor. He will come to dominate a vast territory encompassing all of Central Europe, including Germany, Bohemia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Northern Italy, Emilia, Tuscany, Southern Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Americas, and possessions in Africa, India,

Leonardo da Vinci died at Clos Luce in France, near the Château d’Amboise, on the Loire River, and was buried in the church of Sainte-Florentin. His last work, on the study of the areas of right-angled triangles, ends with the words “et cetera. Why the

Leonardo Da Vinci writes his will

Among Martin Luther’s 95 Theses was a rejection of the celibacy of friars, priests, and nuns. Protestantism would, in fact, approve and even encourage the marriage of priests, as sex was a human need and a divine gift. Luther himself married a nun, with whom

Protestantism is born: Martin Luther nails his 95 theses to a door of the castle church in Wittenberg; Luther was a 34-year-old theology professor and Augustinian monk.

The Portuguese, in an anti-Turkish operation, allied themselves with the Shah of Persia to control the Persian Gulf, but the Ottomans controlled Aden and the naval blockade failed.

Rumors spread in Spain of a powerful and wealthy kingdom in the Mexican interior in Central America. Only four years later, the Aztec capital was a heap of ruins, the Aztec Empire a thing of the past, and the Spaniard Hernana Cortes reigned over a

Thousands of indigenous people in the Spanish colony of Cuba perished in the heavy labor they were subjected to, so much so that the indigenous population was in danger of disappearing. They were nomadic by nature and unaccustomed to methodical agricultural work. Thus, a few

Almost all the European powers join together in an alliance against Venice.

Many Jews, already expelled from Castile and Aragon as heretics, moved from the Ottoman Empire to Venice. In 1566, with the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule and the founding of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, Amsterdam also became a refuge for Jews.

Leonardo wrote on a sheet of the Codex Atlanticus several personal notes regarding his forthcoming book, De ludo geometrico: among the topics listed were thirteen graphic (not arithmetic) solutions to squaring the circle. Intellectual interest in squaring, which had been high for centuries, came to

The Portuguese complete the conquest of Madeira, Azores, and found the city of Funchal.

Leonardo da Vinci returns to Milan again. He will never return to Florence. He likes Milan better: it lacks the hated Michelangelo, his brothers aren’t there to sue him, and there’s a vertical power structure where he’s in direct contact with the highest levels, rather

Florence. The inheritance of his uncle Francesco da Vinci briefly brings Leonardo da Vinci back to Florence. Francesco, perhaps aware that Leonardo had been broke for years and had received nothing since his father’s death, leaves Leonardo his plot of land. This leads Leonardo’s brothers

Milan. Leonardo da Vinci meets the young Francesco Melzi, and is adopted by Leonardo, in agreement with the boy’s family. He effectively makes him his adoptive son, who will remain at his side for the rest of Leonardo’s life and carefully preserve his writings and

Michelangelo returned to Florence from Rome, where he had worked for Pope Julius II. His return to Florence unnerved Leonardo, who, on the wall opposite Michelangelo’s work on the Battle of Cascina, was having difficulty completing the Battle of Anghiari, once again due to his

Modena. The ducal coat of arms, in addition to the emblem of the Lombard League, features the words SPQM (the Senate and the People of Modena) and AVIA PERVIA (meaning “Difficult things become easy with good will”), as well as two drills, widely used in

Amerigo Vespucci was the first to describe tobacco smoking among Native Americans. Jacques Carter, in 1535, was the first European to taste tobacco in America. But Christopher Columbus was probably the first European to see anyone smoking. These were the local Native Americans, who smoked

At twenty-one, Martin Luther decided to become an Augustinian monk. Entering a monastery, at the time, meant dying to the world. There was a long and solemn ritual, beginning with the tonsure, the wearing of the monastic habit, the recitation of the breviary, and the

Palazzo della Signoria (now Palazzo Vecchio), Florence. Leonardo da Vinci records in his diary that a violent storm caused serious leaks in the wall on which he was painting the Battle of Anghiari. He had received the commission in 1503.

Martin Luther passes his degree exam and becomes magister artium at the University of Erfurt.

Leonardo Da Vinci, following Cesare Borgia’s army in Romagna on his campaign to reconquer and control the Romagna territory, arrives in Cesenatico, where he designs its port.

Alberto Cantino, an agent of the Duke of Modena and Ferrara, managed to steal from Lisbon a copy of a map depicting the latest discoveries in America made by Pedro Alvares Cabral (1500). It was kept in Ferrara until the end of the 16th century,

Leonardo da Vinci from Cesare Borgia as an architect and military engineer, travels with Borgia and Machiavelli in Romagna

Portugal. The quantity of imported pepper reached 300 tons. In 1503, it exceeded 3,000 tons (30,000 quintals), later settling between 2,000 and 3,000 tons annually. Pepper accounted for approximately a third of the total spice imports. The impact on other importers, led by Venice, was

The Portuguese Gaspar de Lomos gave the name to the place Rio De Janeiro (“January River” because they had mistaken the bay for the mouth of a river) in Brazil.

Columbus brings cocoa beans to Europe

Earthquake measured 5.8 on the Richter scale in Sassuolo (Modena)

The first tulips are imported from Constantinople to Holland.

Postal systems spread across Europe

The Chinese are the most prosperous people on Earth

France is at war with foreign enemies 52% of the time

England is at war with foreign enemies 53% of the time

Spain is at war with foreign enemies 81% of the time

But someone sees clearly! Galileo brings a turning point to humanity: Colonization of the Americas, Defeat of the Incas (Pizarro), Aztecs (Cortes) and Maya, Magellan, Annexation of Portugal, Destruction of the Invincible Spanish Armada

Regiomontanus: “Ephemeris” eclipse forecast (used by Columbus)

The Portuguese organized 12 missions to the Indies. Each lasted 12 months or a little more. The number of ships was enormous each time: 29 in the fifth mission in 1505. Intermediate strongholds were established along the coast: Cannanore (Kannur), Cochin (Kochi), Kollam, Goa, and

Leonardo da Vinci returned to his native Florence from Milan. Florence was still reeling from the period under Savonarola, who seized power in 1494 by leading a religious rebellion against the Medici family. He then burned books and works of art in the “Bonfire of

Leonardo da Vinci, having left Milan after the fall of Ludovico il Moro, went first to Mantua, then to Venice and finally to Florence.

Over the course of four centuries, precious metal worth £109 billion today will be shipped from South America (mostly from Peru) to Europe or Asia.

During the Middle Ages, until 1500, the flow of technology and know-how was clearly from Islam to Europe. From 1500 onward, the flow gradually reversed. For China, this turning point was around 1450.

Gaspar Corte Real (Portugal) leaves for Northeast America: he will not return

Jubilee celebrated by Alexander VI

The New Mayan Empire, weakened by recurring famines caused by natural events (hurricanes) and wars, is slowly subjugated by the Aztecs

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama set sail directly from Malindi, Kenya, to India. He arrived in Calicut less than a month later. In a single expedition, he added 9,000 kilometers to the route to India. He then returned home after a very difficult journey, during

Leonardo da Vinci completes “The Last Supper.” It is a work that ingeniously combines natural and artificial perspective, conveying a sense of motion that communicates the emotions and thoughts of the portrayed figures. It captures a moment of drama, a theatrical performance. The Duke of

The Venetians Giovanni and Sebastiano Caboto explore the North Atlantic, reaching Newfoundland.

Charles VIII’s French soldiers spread syphilis in Naples. Upon their return to France, they spread the epidemic throughout France and then throughout Europe. Out of patriotic zeal, it was called the “French disease” in Italy and the “Neapolitan disease” in France. It gradually disappeared only

Lorenzo de’ Medici, known as the Magnificent, dies. Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (Florence, January 1, 1449 – Florence, April 9, 1492), was an Italian writer, politician, and patron of the arts, Lord of Florence from 1469 until his death,

The Reconquest of Spain. With the conquest of the kingdom of Granada by the Christian forces of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, the Moors lost their last Spanish stronghold. In the 13th century, the Christian Reconquest had pushed the Muslims southward, and Granada was the

By now all Western scholars recognize the Earth as spherical.

Milan. The young Salai (Gian Giacomo Caprotti, 10 years old) begins working with Leonardo da Vinci (38 years old). Salai means “little devil” and will appear in dozens of Leonardo’s drawings. It seems likely, from Leonardo’s writings, that (perhaps from the boy’s 15th birthday), the