1494

Year 1494 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar).

Events

* January 25 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.
* May 3 - Christopher Columbus first spots Jamaica.
* May 31 - First Battle of Acentejo: Natives of the island of Tenerife, known as Guanches, defeat the invading Spanish forces.
* June 7 - Treaty of Tordesillas: Spain and Portugal divide the New World between themselves.
* October 22 - Ludovico Sforza becomes Duke of Milan, and starts a chain of events that leads to the First Italian War.

Undated

* Amda Seyon II succeeds his father Eskender as Emperor of Ethiopia.
* Na'od succeeds his nephew Amda Seyon II as Emperor of Ethiopia.
* Aztec forces conquer and sack Mitla.
* Italy is invaded by Charles VIII of France.

Births

* February 2 - Bona Sforza, queen of Sigismund I of Poland (d. 1557)
* April 9 - Francois Rabelais, French Renaissance writer (d. 1553)
* April 20 - Johannes Agricola, German Protestant reformer (d. 1566)
* May 24 - Pontormo, Italian painter (d. 1557)
* September 5 - Hans Sachs, German "Meistersinger" (d. 1576)
* September 12 - King Francis I of France (d. 1547)
* November 6 - Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1566)
*"date unknown"
**Saitō Dōsan, Japanese warlord (d. 1556)
**John Sutton, 3rd Baron Dudley (d. 1554)
**Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, Spanish philosopher and theologian (d. 1573)
**Ambrosius Holbein, German painter (d. 1519)
**Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, Spanish explorer and cartographer (d. 1519)
**Hans Tausen, Danish religious reformer (d. 1561)
**Qiu Ying, Chinese painter (d. 1552)
**William Tyndale, English reformer and martyr (d. 1536)

Deaths

* January 11 - Domenico Ghirlandaio, Italian artist (b. 1449)
* January 25 - King Ferdinand I of Naples (b. 1423)
* August 1 - Giovanni Santi, artist and father of Raphael (b. c. 1435)
* August 11 - Hans Memling, Flemish painter (b. c. 1430)
* September 24 - Poliziano, Italian humanist (b. 1454)
* October 26 - Amda Seyon II, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. c. 1487)
* November 8 - Melozzo da Forlì, painter (b. c. 1438)
* November 17 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian humanist (b. 1463)
* December 20 - Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italian poet (b. c. 1434)
*"date unknown"
**Eskender, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1472)