1494

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	14th century 15th century 16th century
Decades:	1470s 1480s 1490s 1500s 1510s
Years:	1491 1492 1493 1494 1495 1496 1497

1494 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1494 MCDXCIV
Ab urbe condita	2247
Armenian calendar	943 ԹՎ ՋԽԳ
Assyrian calendar	6244
Balinese saka calendar	1415–1416
Bengali calendar	901
Berber calendar	2444
English Regnal year	9 Hen. 7 – 10 Hen. 7
Buddhist calendar	2038
Burmese calendar	856
Byzantine calendar	7002–7003
Chinese calendar	癸丑年 (Water Ox) 4191 or 3984     — to — 甲寅年 (Wood Tiger) 4192 or 3985
Coptic calendar	1210–1211
Discordian calendar	2660
Ethiopian calendar	1486–1487
Hebrew calendar	5254–5255
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1550–1551
- Shaka Samvat	1415–1416
- Kali Yuga	4594–4595
Holocene calendar	11494
Igbo calendar	494–495
Iranian calendar	872–873
Islamic calendar	899–900
Japanese calendar	Meiō 3 (明応３年)
Javanese calendar	1411–1412
Julian calendar	1494 MCDXCIV
Korean calendar	3827
Minguo calendar	418 before ROC 民前418年
Nanakshahi calendar	26
Thai solar calendar	2036–2037
Tibetan calendar	阴水牛年 (female Water-Ox) 1620 or 1239 or 467     — to — 阳木虎年 (male Wood-Tiger) 1621 or 1240 or 468

Year 1494 (MCDXCIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar).

Events

January–December

• January 4 – The Cetinje Octoechos (Цетињски октоих, an Eastern Orthodox octoechos (liturgy), first tone), the first incunabulum written in the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic and the first book printed in Cyrillic in Southeast Europe, is completed in Cetinje.
• January 25 – Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.
• May – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, recognises Perkin Warbeck as rightful King of England.
• May 5 – Christopher Columbus first sights Jamaica.
• May 7 – The infant Amda Seyon II succeeds his father Eskender as Emperor of Ethiopia.
• May 31 – First Battle of Acentejo: Natives of the island of Tenerife, known as Guanches, defeat the invading Spanish forces.

1st June. Friar John Cor of Lindores Abbey pays duty on 8 bolls of malt in the Scottish Exchequer Rolls to make aqua vitae for King James IV. This is first written reference to Scotch Whisky.

• 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 invites Charles VIII of France to invade Italy in support of his claim, beginning the Italian War of 1494–98.
• October 26 – Amda Seyon II is deposed and killed and his uncle Na'od succeeds him as Emperor of Ethiopia.
• November 9 – The house of Medici are expelled from Florence.
• November 10 – Fra Luca Pacioli's Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalità 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.
• November 17 – Italian War of 1494–98: Armies of Charles VIII of France enter Florence.
• December 25 – Second Battle of Acentejo: The Spanish crush the native forces of the island of Tenerife, leading to the subjugation of this last bastion of resistance in the Canary Islands.

Date unknown

• Aztec forces conquer and sack Mitla.
• Aldus Manutius prints Pietro Bembo's De Aetna in Venice, considered to be the first book to include the semicolon.
• Johann Reuchlin publishes De verbo mirifico.

Births

Suleiman the Magnificent

Francis I of France

• February 2 – Bona Sforza, queen of Sigismund I of Poland (d. 1557)
• February 20 – Johan Friis, Danish statesman (d. 1570)
• March 24 – Georgius Agricola, German mineralogist and scholar (d. 1555)
• March 25 – Elisabeth of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach, Margravine (d. 1518)
• April 4 – Ambrosius Moibanus, German theologian (d. 1554)
• April 20 – Johannes Agricola, German Protestant reformer (d. 1566)
• April 25 – Juan Téllez-Girón, 4th Count of Ureña, Spanish count (d. 1558)
• May 24 – Pontormo, Italian painter (d. 1557)
• August 18 – Johannes Scheubel, German mathematician (d. 1570)
• September 8 – Sri Chand (d. 1629)
• September 11 – Elisabeth of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duchess of Guelders (1518–1538) (d. 1572)
• September 12 – King Francis I of France (d. 1547)
• October 31 – Wolfgang of the Palatinate, Count Palatine of Neumarkt (1524–1558), governor of the Upper Palatinate (d. 1558)
• November 5 – Hans Sachs, German meistersinger ("mastersinger") (d. 1576)
• November 6 – Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1566)
• November 12 – Margaret of Anhalt-Köthen, Princess of Anhalt by birth, by marriage Duchess of Saxony (d. 1521)
• November (probable) – François Rabelais, French Renaissance writer (d. 1553)
• date unknown
  • Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, Spanish explorer and cartographer (d. 1519)
  • Christina Gyllenstierna, Swedish national heroine (d. 1559)
  • Ambrosius Holbein, German painter (d. 1519)
  • Qiu Ying, Chinese painter (d. 1552)
  • Saitō Dōsan, Japanese warlord (k. 1556)
  • John Sutton, 3rd Baron Dudley (d. 1554)
  • Hans Tausen, Danish religious reformer (d. 1561)

Deaths

• January 11 – Domenico Ghirlandaio, Italian artist (b. 1449)
• January 25 – King Ferdinand I of Naples (b. 1423)
• May 7 – Eskender, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1471)
• 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, Italian painter (b. c. 1438)
• November 17 – Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian humanist (b. 1463)
• December 19 or December 20 – Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italian poet (b. c. 1434-1441)