15th century

1401 – 1500 · 27 events

What happened around the world

1429 Joan of Arc relieves Orléans — A peasant girl turns the tide of the Hundred Years' War
c. 1450 Gutenberg's printing press — Books go mass-market — and Europe starts reading
1492 Fall of Granada — The Reconquista ends; that same year Spain expels its Jews
1492 Ensisheim meteorite — A stone falls into a wheat field and survives to this day
1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — Spain and Portugal split a world not yet discovered

1410 Battle of Grunwald — Poland and Lithuania break the might of the Teutonic Order
c. 1411 Andrei Rublev's Trinity — The most famous Russian icon
1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — Ivan III abolishes the veche and carts off its bell
1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — Akhmat withdraws without a fight — by tradition, the yoke ends
1485–1495 Building the brick walls of the Moscow Kremlin — Italian masters build the fortress that still stands today
1497 Ivan III's law code — One law for the Muscovite state, and St George's Day

1453 Fall of Constantinople — The Ottomans end the thousand-year Byzantine Empire

c. 1440 Oba Ewuare and the rise of Benin — Ewuare the Great builds a kingdom famed for its bronzes
1468 Sonni Ali takes Timbuktu — Songhai becomes West Africa's largest empire
1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — Proof that a sea route to India around Africa exists
1493 Askia Muhammad seizes power in Songhai — A general makes Songhai one of Africa's largest empires

1405–1433 Voyages of Zheng He — Hundreds of Ming ships sail as far as Africa
1446 King Sejong promulgates Hangul — A simple alphabet takes literacy beyond the elite
1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — Europe opens direct sea trade with Asia

1428 Aztec Triple Alliance — Three city-states launch an empire over central Mexico
c. 1438 Pachacuti founds the Inca Empire — Cusco grows into pre-Columbian America's largest state
c. 1450 Building of Machu Picchu — An Inca mountain retreat the Spanish never found
c. 1450 Founding of the Iroquois Confederacy — Five warring nations agree to a 'Great Law of Peace'
1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — The Old World and the New are linked for good
1500 Cabral reaches Brazil — An India-bound fleet drifts west and claims a new land

c. 1445 Extinction of the moa — Giant birds wiped out soon after people arrive
c. 1445 Extinction of Haast's eagle — When the moa vanish, their giant hunter goes with them

Rus and Russia: Vasily I 1389 – 1425, Vasily II the Blind 1425 – 1462, Ivan III 1462 – 1505
England and Britain: Henry IV 1399 – 1413, Henry V 1413 – 1422, Henry VI 1422 – 1461, Edward IV 1461 – 1483, Richard III 1483 – 1485, Henry VII 1485 – 1509
Franks and France: Charles VI the Mad 1380 – 1422, Charles VII 1422 – 1461, Louis XI 1461 – 1483, Charles VIII 1483 – 1498, Louis XII 1498 – 1515
Holy Roman Empire & Austria: Rupert of the Palatinate 1400 – 1410, Sigismund 1410 – 1437, Albert II 1438 – 1439, Frederick III 1440 – 1493, Maximilian I 1493 – 1519
Ottoman Empire: Bayezid I the Thunderbolt 1389 – 1402, Interregnum 1402 – 1413, Mehmed I Çelebi 1413 – 1421, Murad II 1421 – 1451, Mehmed II 1451 – 1481, Bayezid II 1481 – 1512
China: dynasties: Ming 1368 – 1644
Japan: shoguns & emperors: Ashikaga Yoshimitsu 1368 – 1408, Ashikaga Yoshimochi 1408 – 1423, Ashikaga Yoshikazu 1423 – 1425, Ashikaga Yoshinori 1429 – 1441, Ashikaga Yoshikatsu 1442 – 1443, Ashikaga Yoshimasa 1449 – 1473, Ashikaga Yoshihisa 1473 – 1489, Ashikaga Yoshitane 1490 – 1493, Ashikaga Yoshizumi 1494 – 1508
India: empires: Delhi Sultanate 1206 – 1526
Rome and Byzantium: Palaiologoi 1261 – 1453