Cabral reaches Brazil
An India-bound fleet drifts west and claims a new land
Pedro Álvares Cabral's Portuguese fleet, bound for India, swung far to the west and reached the coast of Brazil. Cabral claimed the land for Portugal, beginning the colonisation of South America's largest country.
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Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1492 Fall of Granada — 8 years earlier
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — 6 years earlier
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — 8 years later
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — 17 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — 22 years earlier
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — 20 years earlier
Middle East
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — 1 year later
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — 20 years later
Africa
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — 12 years earlier
Asia
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — 2 years earlier
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — 11 years later
Alive at the time
- Christopher Columbus (aged 49)
- Leonardo da Vinci (aged 48)
- Nicolaus Copernicus (aged 27)
- Michelangelo (aged 25)
- Martin Luther (aged 17)
- Ivan III (aged 60)
- Isabella I of Castile (aged 49)
- Henry VII (aged 43)
- Maximilian I (aged 41)
- Moctezuma II (aged 34)