1492 is considered to be a significant year in the history of the West, Europe, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Spain, and the New World, among others, because of the number of significant events to have taken place during it. Some of the events which propelled the year into Western consciousness, also listed below, include the completion of the Reconquista of Spain, Europe’s discovery of the New World, and the expulsion of Jews from Spain.
Known dates
- January 2 – Fall of Granada: Muhammad XII, the last Emir of Granada, surrenders his city to the army of the Catholic Monarchs (Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile) after a lengthy siege, ending the ten-year Granada War and the centuries-long Reconquista, and bringing an end to 780 years of Muslim control in Al-Andalus.[1]
- January 6 – Ferdinand and Isabella enter Granada.[2]
- January 15 – Christopher Columbus meets Ferdinand and Isabella at the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos in Córdoba, Andalusia, and persuades them to support his Atlantic voyage intended to find a new route to the East Indies.
- January 16 – Antonio de Nebrija publishes Gramática de la lengua castellana, the first grammar text for the Castilian Spanish language, in Salamanca, which he introduces to the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, newly restored to power in Andalusia, as “a tool of empire”.
- January 23 – The Pentateuch is first printed.[3]
- March 31 – Ferdinand and Isabella sign the Alhambra Decree, expelling all Jews from Spain unless they convert to Roman Catholicism.
- April 17 – The Capitulations of Santa Fe are signed between Christopher Columbus and the Crown of Castile, agreeing on arrangements for his forthcoming voyage.
- June 7 – Casimir IV Jagiellon, of the Jagiellon Royal House, dies, ending his reign over Poland and Lithuania.
- June 8 – Death of Elizabeth Woodville, the last living Yorkist queen.
- July 31 – The Jews are expelled from Spain; 40,000–200,000 leave. Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire, learning of this, dispatches the Ottoman Navy to bring the Jews safely to Ottoman lands, mainly to the cities of Thessaloniki (in modern-day Greece) and İzmir (in modern-day Turkey).[4]
- August 3 – The Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus sails with three ships from Palos de la Frontera, in the service of the Crown of Castile, on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, intending to reach Asia.
- August 11 – Pope Alexander VI succeeds Pope Innocent VIII as the 214th pope, after the 1492 papal conclave, the first held in the Sistine Chapel.
- September 6 – Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
- October 3 – English army besieges Boulogne.[5]
- October 12 – Christopher Columbus‘ expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean and lands on Guanahani, but he believes he has reached the East Indies.
- October 28 – Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba.
- November 3 – The Peace of Étaples is signed between England and France, ending French support for Perkin Warbeck, the pretender to the English throne. All English-held territory in France (with the exception of Calais) is returned to France.[6]
- November 7 – The Ensisheim meteorite, a 127 kg (280 lb) meteorite, lands in a wheat field near the village of Ensisheim in Alsace.
- December 5 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola.[7]
- December 25 – Columbus’ ship Santa María runs aground off Cap-Haïtien, and is lost.
