- March 26 – William Caxton, the first printer of books in English, prints his translation of Aesop's Fables in London.
- May 30 – Charles VIII of France (Charles l'Affable) is crowned.
- June 22 – The first known book printed by a woman, Anna Rügerin, is an edition of Eike of Repgow's compendium of customary law, the Sachsenspiegel, produced in Augsburg.
- July 6 – Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of the Congo River.
- July 22 – Battle of Lochmaben Fair: A 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, is defeated by forces loyal to Albany's brother James III of Scotland; Douglas is captured.
- August 29 – Pope Innocent VIII succeeds Pope Sixtus IV, as the 213th pope.
- September 21 – Treaty of Nottingham: A three-year truce between the kingdoms of England and Scotland is signed.
- December 5 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, giving the inquisition a mission to hunt heretics and witches in Germany, led by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger.
Huldrych Zwingli
- January 1 – Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss religious reformer (d. 1531)[1]
- January 17 – George Spalatin, German religious reformer (d. 1545)
- February 21 – Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg (1499–1535) (d. 1535)
- March 4 – George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1543)
- April 12
- April 23 – Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian humanist scholar (d. 1558)
- June 25 – Bartholomeus V. Welser, German banker (d. 1561)
- July 11 – Ottaviano de' Medici, Italian politician (d. 1546)
- November 29 – Joachim Vadian, Swiss humanist and reformer (d. 1551)
- December 13 – Paul Speratus, German Lutheran (d. 1551)
- date unknown – Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese military commander (d. 1531)
- date unknown – Luisa de Medrano, Spanish scholar (d. 1527)
- date unknown – Purandara Dasa, Indian composer and saint (d. 1564)