1502

Events

• January 1 – Portuguese explorers sailed into Guanabra Bay, Brazil and mistook it for the mouth of a river which they named Rio de Janeiro
• May 9 – Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final trip to the "New World".
• May 21 – Portuguese discover island of St Helena.
• December 31 – Cesare Borgia imprisons two potentially treacherous allies, Vitelozzo and Oliveretto – he executes them the next morning.
• Ivan III of Russia and Mengli Ghiray of Crimean Khanate attack Grand Duchy of Lithuania without much success.
• Mengli Ghiray of Crimean Khanate destroys Saray, capital of Big Horde
• Aztec ruler Auitzotl dies; Moctezuma II elected emperor.
• Peter Henlein builds the first pocketwatch.
• "Newfoundland" gets its name from a letter.
• Christopher Columbus lands at Trujillo and named the mainland "Honduras".
• Wittenberg University founded.

Births

• January 7 – Pope Gregory XIII, pope from 1572 to 1585 (died 1585)
• March 20 – Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist
• April 25 – Georg Major, Lutheran theologian of the Protestant Reformation (died 1574)
• June 6 – King John III of Portugal, fifteenth king of Portugal (died 1557)
• September 13 – John Leland, English antiquarian (died 1552)
• St. Anthony Maria Zaccaria, founder of the Barnabite Order (died 1539)
• Stephen Hawes, popular English poet (died 1521)
• Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, English courtier (died 1537)
• Pedro Nunes, Portuguese mathematician (died 1578)
• Francesco Spiera, Protestant Italian jurist (died 1543)

Deaths

• April 2 – Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII of England
• May 6 – James Tyrrell, alleged murderer of the Princes in the Tower (executed) (born 1450)
• Auitzotl, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan
• Margaret Drummond, mistress of James IV of Scotland (born 1475)
• Alvise Vivarini, Italian painter (born 1446)