1487

January–December

• January 29 - Richard Foxe becomes Bishop of Exeter.
• March - Sigismund, Archduke of Austria, largely on the poor advice of his counselors, declares war on Venice, and seizes silver mines in and around the Sugana Valley.
• May 24 - Lambert Simnel is crowned King "Edward VI of England" in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland. He claims to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, and challenges Henry VII for the throne of England, where he lands on June 5.
• June 16 - Battle of Stoke Field: The rebellion of pretender Lambert Simnel, led by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, and Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell, is crushed by troops loyal to Henry VII.
• August - Bartolomeu Dias leaves Lisbon, on his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope.
• August 13 - The Siege of Málaga ends, when the Spanish take the city.
• September 9 - Hongzhi becomes Emperor of China.
• November 30 - Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria promulgates the Reinheitsgebot, specifying three ingredients – water, malt and hops – for the brewing of beer.

  Date unknown

• Afonso de Paiva and Pêro da Covilhã travel overland from Lisbon, in search of the Kingdom of Prester John.
• The witch-hunters' manual Malleus Maleficarum, written by Heinrich Kramer with Jacob Sprenger, is published at Speyer in the Holy Roman Empire.
• Aztec emperor Ahuitzotl dedicates the Great Temple Pyramid of Tenochtitlán, with thousands of human sacrifices.
• Italian architects work on the Moscow Kremlin.
• Leonardo da Vinci creates his Vitruvian Man drawing.
• Stockport Grammar School is founded, in the north of England.