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Year 1494 (MCDXCIV) 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 sights 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.
• June 25 – The first hurricane ever observed by Europeans strikes the Spanish settlement of La Isabela on Hispaniola.
• 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.
• Fra Luca Pacioli's Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita is published in Venice, containing the first printed account of algebra in the vernacular and the first published description of the double-entry accounting system.

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)
  • Christina Gyllenstierna, Swedish national heroine (d.1559)

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)

From Wikiquote