1490
Year 1490 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.Events
January–December
- January 4 - Anne of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France, will be considered as guilty of the crime of Lèse-majesté.
- March 13 - Charles II becomes Duke of Savoy at age 1; his mother Blanche of Montferrato is regent.
- March or April - 1490 Ch'ing-yang event, a presumed meteor shower or air burst over Qingyang in Ming dynasty China, said to have caused casualties.
- July 13 - John of Kastav finishes a cycle of frescoes in the Holy Trinity Church, Hrastovlje.
- November 20 - First edition of the chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanch by Joanot Martorell printed in Valencia.
- December 19 - Anne of Brittany is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
Date unknown
- Ashikaga Yoshitane becomes shōgun of Japan.
- Perkin Warbeck claims to be the son of King Edward IV of England, at the court of Burgundy.
- Traditional date of the Battle of Glendale between the Scottish clans MacDonald and MacLeod.
- Catholic missionaries arrive in the African Kingdom of Kongo.
- Pêro da Covilhã arrives in Ethiopia.
- Regular postal service connects the Habsburg residences of Mechelen and Innsbruck, the first in Germany.
- Leonardo da Vinci observes capillary action, in small-bore tubes.
- Leonardo da Vinci develops an oil lamp: the flame is enclosed in a glass tube, placed inside a water-filled glass globe.
- All Saints' Church, the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, is begun.
- Chinese scholar and printer Hua Sui invents bronze-metal movable type printing in China, although the earlier Wang Zhen had experimented with tin movable type in 1298.
- Tirant lo Blanch, by Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan de Galba, is published.
- Aldus Manutius moves to Venice.
- John Colet receives his M.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford.
- Johann Reuchlin meets Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.
- Merchants carry coffee from Yemen to Mecca .
- Battle of Chocontá: The northern tribes of the pre-Columbian Muisca Confederation are beaten by the southern tribes.
Births
- February 14 - Valentin Friedland, German scholar and educator of the Reformation
- February 17 - Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, French military leader
- March 6 - Fridolin Sicher, Swiss composer
- March 22 - Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, Italian noble
- March 24 - Giovanni Salviati, Italian Catholic cardinal
- April - Vittoria Colonna, Italian poet
- April 4 - Vojtěch I of Pernstein, Bohemian nobleman
- May 17 - Albert, Duke of Prussia, last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
- June 28 - Albert of Mainz, German elector and archbishop
- July 25 - Amalie of the Palatinate, Duchess consort of Pomerania
- August 5 - Andrey of Staritsa, son of Ivan III "the Great" of Russia
- September 23 - Johann Heß, German theologian
- October - Olaus Magnus, Swedish ecclesiastic and writer
- October 12 - Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer
- November 10 - John III, Duke of Cleves
- December 25 - Francesco Marinoni, Italian Roman Catholic priest
- December 26 - Friedrich Myconius, German Lutheran theologian
- December 30 - Ebussuud Efendi, Ottoman Grand Mufti
- approx. date - Properzia de' Rossi, Italian Renaissance sculptor
- date unknown
- *Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, Scottish noble
- *Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist
- *Bars Bolud Jinong, Mongol Khagan
- *Jean Salmon Macrin, French poet
- *Caspar Schwenckfeld, German theologian
- *Anna Bielke, Swedish noble and commander
- *David Reubeni, Jewish political activist and mystic
- probable
- * Wijerd Jelckama, Frisian rebel and warlord
- * Adriaen Isenbrandt, Flemish painter
- * Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, Lord Chancellor of England
- * María de Toledo, Vicereine and regent of the Spanish Colony of Santo Domingo
- * John Taverner, English composer and organist
- * María de Salinas, Lady Willoughby, Spanish lady-in-waiting and friend to Catherine of Aragon
- * Quilago, queen regnant of the Cochasquí in Ecuador
Deaths
- January 27 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese shōgun
- March 6 - Ivan the Young, Ruler of Tver
- March 13 - Charles I, Duke of Savoy
- April 6 - King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary
- May 12 - Joanna, Portuguese Roman Catholic blessed and regent
- May 22 - Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent
- August 11 - Frans van Brederode, Dutch rebel leader
- date unknown
- * Martí Joan de Galba, Catalan novelist
- * Aonghas Óg, last independent Lord of the Isles
