Marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella
A secret wedding creates the future Spain
The heirs of Aragon and Castile married at Valladolid against the will of King Henry IV, the groom arriving disguised as a servant. From 1479 they ruled both crowns, and as the Catholic Monarchs they took Granada and sent Columbus across the ocean.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 1469 Afanasy Nikitin's journey to India — same year
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — 9 years later
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — 11 years later
Middle East
- 1453 Fall of Constantinople — 16 years earlier
Africa
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — 19 years later
Asia
- 1446 King Sejong promulgates Hangul — 23 years earlier
- 1449 Tumu Crisis — 20 years earlier
- 1467–1477 Ōnin War — 2 years earlier
Americas
- c. 1450 Building of Machu Picchu — 19 years earlier
- c. 1450 Founding of the Iroquois Confederacy — 19 years earlier
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — 23 years later
Oceania
- c. 1445 Extinction of the moa — 24 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Mehmed II (aged 37)
- Christopher Columbus (aged 18)
- Leonardo da Vinci (aged 17)
- Pachacuti (aged 51)
- Louis XI (aged 46)
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa (aged 33)
- Ivan III (aged 29)
- Isabella I of Castile (aged 18)
- Richard III (aged 17)
- Amerigo Vespucci (aged 15)