February 7– At the public square in Florence, on Shrove Tuesday, followers of the charismatic Dominican friar and evangelist Girolamo Savonarola carry out the first "bonfire of the vanities" and burn thousands of artworks, books, clothing, mirrors, music instruments, playing cards and other objects deemed by them to be a temptation to sin.
March 13– King Henry VII of England gives royal assent to numerous acts passed as parliament adjourns, including the following:
Weights and Measures Act 1496, standardizing units of weight and of volume throughout England. Specifically, the smallest unit, the "sterling" is set at the weight of 32 corns of wheat, 20 sterlings are an ounce, 12 ounces are a pound. A gallon of wheat must weight 8 pounds Troy weight, and a 12-gallon bushel must weight 64 pounds.
Benefit of Clergy Act 1496, requiring that charges against a church official for treason must be tried in a government court of law. For other charges, clergymen may still have the benefit of being tried by an ecclesiastical court under canon law.
May 10–Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz, for his first voyage to the New World. The account of a voyage (lasting until October 15, 1498) is doubted because the only mention of it is in a letter written six years later, and the course described would have traveled across the land of Mexico and into the Pacific Ocean.
May 20– Italian-born explorer John Cabot sets sail from Bristol in England, on the ship Matthew (principally owned by Richard Amerike), looking for new lands to the west (some sources give a May 2 date).
June 13– Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, issue the ordinance of Medina del Campo, creating a money system based on the copper maravedí, creating the peso of 34 maravedis. In the next three centuries, this system will dominate international payments. It will be used in almost all parts of the Americas and large parts of Asia. It is the basis for a number of modern currencies, including the U.S. dollar.
June 27– At what is supposed to be a meeting at Nysa about a united front by the nobility of Poland against the Ottoman Empire, Nicholas II of Niemodlin (Mikołaj II Niemodlińsk), the Duke of Opole in Poland as well as ruler of the duchies of Niemodlin, Brzeg, and Strzelce, attempts to stab two of the other nobles attending, Casimir II, Duke of Cieszyn and the Bishop Jan IV Roth. Nicholas is beheaded the next day.
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and his crew become the first Europeans to set foot on South African soil as the ship São Gabriel arrives at St Helena Bay and makes landfall.
November 22– The Vasco da Gama expedition discovers the first sea route from Europe to India as he and his crew, on four ships, round the Cape of Good Hope.
November 26– The coronation of Hans of Denmark as King of Sweden takes place at Stockholm, as he adopts the regnal name of King Johann II of Sweden.
December 16– The Vasco da Gama expedition travels past the Great Fish River on South Africa's Eastern Cape and sails into previously unexplored waters in the Indian Ocean.
↑Tomlins, Thomas Edlyne; Raithby, John (1811). Benefit of Clergy Act 1496[12 Hen. VII. - A.D. 1496 Chapter VII]. The Statutes at Large, of England and of Great Britain: from Magna Carta to the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol.II. London, Great Britain: George Eyre and Andrew Strahan. pp.790–791. OCLC1110419501– via Internet Archive.
↑Sven Ulric Palme, Sten Sture den äldre (Sten Sture the Elder) (Stockholm: AB Wahlström & Widstrand 1950) pp.209-210.
12Soyer, François (2007). The Persecution of the Jews and Muslims of Portugal: King Manuel I and the End of Religious Tolerance (1496–7). Leiden: Brill. ISBN9789004162624.
123Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp.135–138. ISBN0-7126-5616-2.
↑Bengt Liljegren (2004). Rulers of Sweden. Historiska Media. p.63. ISBN9789185057634.
↑Annals of the Four Masters - Part 13. Annals of the Four Masters. Retrieved April 17, 2018. Great famine prevailed through all Ireland in this and the following year, so that people ate of food unbecoming to mention, and never before heard of as having been introduced on human dishes.