1497

January–March

• January 16 - At Westminster, King Henry VII opens his sixth English Parliament for a two-month session. The House of Commons elects Sir Thomas Englefield as its speaker.
• February 7 - At the public square in Florence, on Shrove Tuesday, followers of the charismatic Dominican friar and evangelist Girolamo Savonarola carry out the first "bonfire of the vanities" and burn thousands of artworks, books, clothing, mirrors, music instruments, playing cards and other objects deemed by them to be a temptation to sin.
• March 13 -
• *King Henry VII of England gives royal assent to numerous acts passed as parliament adjourns, including the Weights and Measures Act 1496, standardizing units of weight and of volume throughout England. Specifically, the smallest unit, the "sterling" is set at the weight of 32 corns of wheat, 20 sterlings are an ounce, 12 ounces are a pound. A gallon of wheat must weight 8 pounds Troy Weight, and a 12-gallon bushel must weight 64 pounds.
• *King Henry also assents to the Benefit of Clergy Act 1496, requiring that charges against a church official for treason must be tried in a government court of law. For other charges, clergymen may still have the benefit of being tried by an ecclesiastical court under canon law.
• March 3 - The Russo-Swedish War (1495–1497) ends with a six year truce signed in Russia at Novgorod. Stockholm Due to gathering unrest at home, the Swedish leader Sten Sture the Elder is forced to offer a peace to Ivan III of Moscow.

April–June

• April 18 - Captain Andrea Loredan of the Republic of Venice departs southward on the Adriatic Sea on a large, heavily-armed warship with a crew of 450, with a mission of locating the Spanish Navarrese pirate Pedro Navarro.
• May 10 - Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz, for his first voyage to the New World. The account of a voyage is doubted because the only mention of the voyage is in a letter written six years later, and the course described would have traveled across the land of Mexico and into the Pacific Ocean.
• May 12 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
• May 20 - John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, on the ship Matthew, looking for new lands to the west.
• May - The Cornish Rebellion breaks out in England, incited by war taxes.
• June 13 - Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, issue the ordinance of Medina del Campo, creating a money system based on the copper maravedí, creating the peso of 34 maravedis. In the next three centuries, this system will dominate international payments. It will be used in almost all parts of the Americas and large parts of Asia. It is the basis for a number of modern currencies, including the U.S. dollar.
• June 17 - Battle of Deptford Bridge near London: Cornish rebels under Michael An Gof are soundly defeated by Henry VII.
• June 24 - John Cabot lands in North America.
• June 26 - The coronation of Federico di Trastamara, son of King Alfonso II, as King of Naples takes place at the Cathedral of Barletta.
• June 27 - At what is supposed to be a meeting at Nysa in about a united front by the nobility of Poland against the Ottoman Empire, Mikołaj II Niemodlińsk, the Duke of Opole in Poland as well as ruler of the duchies of Niemodlin, Brzeg, and Strzelce, attempts stab two of the other nobles attending, Casimir II, Duke of Cieszyn and the Bishop Jan IV Roth. Mikolaj II is beheaded the next day.

July–September

• July 8 - Vasco da Gama's fleet departs from Lisbon, beginning his expedition to India.
• September 7 - Second Cornish Uprising in England: Perkin Warbeck lands near Land's End; on September 10 he is proclaimed as King in Bodmin.
• September 28 - At the Battle of Rotebro, John, King of Denmark, defeats Sten Sture the Elder.
• September 30 - The Treaty of Ayton establishes a seven-year peace between England and Scotland.

October–December

• October 4 - Leaders of the Second Cornish Uprising surrender to the King at Taunton; the following day, Warbeck, having deserted his army, is captured at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire.
• October 6 -
• *Sten Sture the Elder agrees to recognize Hans, King of Denmark and of Norway as the rightful King of Sweden and ends his 27-year term as the Swedish Regent.
• October 18 - The nobles of Sweden's estates formally elect King Hans of Denmark and Norway as King of Sweden, restoring the power of the Kalmar Union.
• November 7 -
• *Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and his crew become the first Europeans to set foot on South African soil as the ship São Gabriel arrives at St Helena Bay and makes landfall.
• *Filiberto II becomes the new Duke of Savoy upon the death of his father, Filippo II, who had reigned for only 19 months.
• November 22 - The Vasco da Gama expedition discovers the first sea route from Europe to India as he and his crew, on four ships, round the Cape of Good Hope.
• November 26 - The coronation of Hans of Denmark as King of Sweden takes place at Stockholm, as he adopts the regnal name of King Johann II of Sweden.
• December 5 - King Manuel I of Portugal proclaims an edict in which he demands that Jews convert to Christianity or leave the country.
• December 16 - the Vasco da Gama expedition travels past the Great Fish River on South Africa's Eastern Cape and sails into previously unexplored waters in the Indian Ocean.
• December 23 - Sheen Palace is destroyed by fire. Henry VII of England rebuilds it as Richmond Palace.

Date unknown

• Ivan the Great issues his law code, the Sudebnik.
• The Ottomans give Russian merchants freedom of trade within the empire.
• Iamblichus De mysteriis Aegyptorum edited by Marsilio Ficino is published.
• The Annals of the Four Masters refer to a famine in Ireland which "prevailed through all Ireland".