1461

January–December

• February 2 - Battle of Mortimer's Cross: Yorkist troops led by Edward, Duke of York defeat Lancastrians under Owen Tudor and his son Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke in Wales.
• February 17 - Second Battle of St Albans, England: The Earl of Warwick's army is defeated by a Lancastrian force under Queen Margaret, who recovers control for her husband.
• March 4 - The Duke of York seizes London, and proclaims himself King Edward IV of England.
• March 5 - Wars of the Roses: Henry VI of England is deposed by Edward, Duke of York.
• March 29 - Battle of Towton: Edward IV defeats Queen Margaret, to make good his claim to the English throne.
• July 10 - Stephen Tomašević becomes the last King of Bosnia, on the death of his father Stephen Thomas; he is crowned on November 17, in Saint Mary's Church, Jajce.
• June 28 - Edward, Richard of York's son, is crowned as Edward IV, King of England.
• July - Byzantine general Graitzas Palaiologos honourably surrenders Salmeniko Castle, the last garrison of the Despotate of the Morea, to invading forces of the Ottoman Empire, after a year-long siege.
• July 22 - Louis XI of France succeeds Charles VII of France as king.
• August 7 - The Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor; after setting fire to the eastern and western gates of the Imperial City, Beijing, Cao Qin finds himself hemmed in on all sides by imperial forces, loses three of his own brothers in the fight, and instead of facing execution, he flees to his home in the city, and commits suicide by jumping down a well located within his walled compound.
• August 15 - The Empire of Trebizond, the last major Romano-Greek outpost, falls to the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed II, after a 21-day siege.
• November 26 - A severe earthquake occurs in L'Aquila.

  Date unknown

• Cirencester Grammar School is founded in south-west England by the Bishop of Durham.
• Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli become students of Verrocchio.
• Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is founded by the Ottomans.
• François Villon writes Le Grand Testament.