1498

Vasco da Gama reaches India by sea.

Template:About year Template:Year nav Script error: No such module "Sidebar". Script error: No such module "Year in various calendars".Year 1498 (MCDXCVIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1498th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 498th year of the 2nd millennium, the 98th year of the 15th century, and the 9th and pre-final year of the 1490s decade.

Events

March 2 – Vasco da Gama visits Quelimane and Mozambique, in southeastern Africa.
April 14 – Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama reaches Malindi, in modern-day Kenya.
May
- John Cabot leaves Bristol on an expedition, never to be seen again.
- The English Merchant Adventurers are granted a trade monopoly with the Netherlands.^[1]
May 20 – Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut (modern-day Kozhikode), India, becoming the first European to get there by sailing around Africa, thus discovering the maritime route to India. He finds a local Arab merchant who is able to interpret for him.
May 23 – Girolamo Savonarola, ruler of Florence, is executed for criticizing the Pope.
May 30 – Christopher Columbus sets out on his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere from Sanlúcar, Spain.
June – Niccolò Machiavelli is elected by the Great Council as the second chancellor of the Republic of Florence.
Summer – The final Welsh revolt of the medieval era breaks out in Meirionnydd, North Wales; Harlech Castle is captured by the rebels before the revolt is suppressed.
July 31 – Columbus becomes the first European to visit the island of Trinidad.
August 1 – Columbus discovers the mouth of the Orinoco.
August 4–12 – Columbus explores the Gulf of Paria. On August 5 he lands on the Paria Peninsula,^[2] the first definitely recorded landing of Europeans on the mainland Americas.
September 20 – 1498 Nankai earthquake off the coast of Japan.

João Fernandes Lavrador and Pedro de Barcelos journey to Greenland; during their voyage, they discover the land which they name Labrador.
The Wiener Hofmusikkapelle, a forerunner of the Vienna Boys' Choir, is founded by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Gun barrel rifling is invented in Augsburg, Bavaria.
Probable date at which Leonardo da Vinci completes the painting The Last Supper, on the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan).

February 4 – Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Italian painter (b. c. 1432)
April 7 – King Charles VIII of France (b. 1470)^[4]
May 23 – Girolamo Savonarola, Italian religious reformer and ruler of Florence (b. 1452; executed)^[5]
June 7 – Anđeo Zvizdović, Bosnian Franciscan friar and evangelist (b. c. 1420)
July 14 – Gentile Budrioli, Italian astrologer and herbalist
August 17 – John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton, English baron (b. 1437)
August 23 – Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Portugal, eldest daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon (b. 1470)^[6]
September 14 – Giovanni il Popolano, Italian diplomat (b. 1467)
September 16 – Tomás de Torquemada, Spanish Dominican friar and first Grand Inquisitor (b. 1420)^[7]
December 7 – Alexander Hegius von Heek, German humanist (b. c. 1443)^[8]
December 19 – Jeanne de Laval, French noble (b. 1433)
date unknown
- Tun Perak, Malay general and statesman
- Domenico Rosselli, Italian sculptor (b. c. 1439)
probable – Johannes Martini, Flemish composer (b. c. 1440)