Events

• July 6 - Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of Congo River
• December 5 - Pope Innocent VIII gives the inquisition a mission to hunt heretics and witches in Germany with the lead of Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger
• First cuirassier units (kyrissers) formed in Austria

Births

• January 1 - Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss reformer
• Julius Caesar Scaliger, humanist scholar

Deaths

• August 12 - Pope Sixtus IV
• John of Kolno, semi-legendary Polish sailor and navigator serving for the court of Denmark.