1500


Year 1500 was a leap year starting on Wednesday in the Julian calendar. It was the last year of the 15th century. The year 1500 was not a leap year in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.
The year 1500 was seen as being especially important by many Christians in Europe, who thought it would bring the beginning of the end of the world. Their belief was based on the phrase "half-time after the time", when the apocalypse was due to occur, which appears in the Book of Revelation and was seen as referring to 1500. This time was also just after the Old World's discovery of the Americas in 1492, and therefore was influenced greatly by the New World.
Historically, the year 1500 is also often identified, somewhat arbitrarily, as marking the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of the early modern period.
The end of this year marked the halfway point of the 2nd millennium, as there were 500 years before it and 500 years after it.

Events


January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

  • Europe's population is estimated at 56.7 million people. The world's population is estimated to be between 425 million and 540 million.
  • Saxony's mint at Annaberg begins producing guldengroschens, also known as guldiners.
  • Although other reports exist, it is thought that the last wolf in England is killed this year, making the species extinct in that country. The wolf is thought to have been killed in Allithwaite, in Cumbria. However, reports of wolf sightings and laws concerning wolf bounties exist in rural areas of the north until the 18th century.
  • A group of Māori migrate east from the New Zealand mainland to the Chatham Islands, developing a distinct pacificist culture known as the Moriori.

Births

Deaths

January–June

July–December

;Probable