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Year '1503' (MDIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Contents

Events of 1503

January - June

July - December

Undated

Births

Deaths

Events of 1503

January - June

★ January 20 - Seville in Castile is awarded exclusive right to trade with the New World.

★ February 13 - Disfida di Barletta - Famous challenge between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta.

★ February 23 - Battle of Ruvo - French-Spanish Wars in Italy.

★ April 21 - Battle of Cerignola. Aragonese forces under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeat the French under the Duc de Nemours, who is killed. Considered to be the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms.

★ May 10 - Christopher Columbus discovers the Cayman Islands and he names them ''Las Tortugas'' after the numerous sea turtles there.

★ May 13 - Capture of Naples by the Spanish.

★ May 28

★
★ James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor are married by Pope Alexander VI according to Papal Bull.

★
★ The Treaty of Everlasting Peace between Scotland and England is signed. It would actually last 10 years.

July - December

★ July 23 - Orbital calculations suggest that on this day, Pluto moved outside Neptune's orbit, remaining there for 233 years.

★ August 8 - King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Scotland.

★ September 22 - Pope Pius III (Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini) succeeds Pope Alexander VI as the 215th pope, but dies on October 18.

★ October 30 - Queen Isabella of Spain bans violence against native tribes.

★ October 31 - Pope Julius II succeeds Pope Pius III as the 216th pope, though some sources list November 1 as the actual date of election.

★ December 14 - Michel de Nostredame aka Nostradamus was born in Frace. World famous for his Visions, wrote the book, Les Propheties, which first appeared in the year 1555.

★ December 29 - Battle of (the) Garigliano, near Gaeta Italy - Spanish forces under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeat a French-Italian mercenary army under Ludovico II, the Marquis of Saluzzo. The French forces withdraw to Gaeta.

Undated

★ Leonardo da Vinci starts work on the ''Mona Lisa''.

★ The book ''"Imitation of Christ"'' by Thomas à Kempis is re-published in an English translation.

★ Canterbury Cathedral is finally finished, after 433 years of construction.

★ Henry VII’s chapel, the final stage of English gothic art, is begun in Westminster Abbey.

★ The pocket handkerchief comes into general use in polite European society.

★ Perpendicular style chapel is added to Westminster Abbey.

★ Vasco da Gama establishes India's first Portuguese fortress at Cochin.

★ Mariotto Albertinelli paints his masterpiece, the "Visitation of the Virgin".

★ Bermuda Islands are discovered by Juan de Bermudez.

★ The last ruler of the Great Horde is executed as a political maneuver. When Moscow and Lithuania made peace, the Lithuanian king ordered the execution in order to seal the pact with Moscow of whom the Mongol leader was an enemy.

Births

★ January 11 - Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola), Italian artist (d. 1540)

★ March 10 - Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1564)

★ March 22 - Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer (died 1583)

★ April - Henry II of Navarre (died 1555)

★ June 1 - Wilhelm von Grumbach, German adventurer (died 1567)

★ June 28 - Giovanni della Casa, Italian poet (died 1556)

★ June 30 - John Frederick, Elector of Saxony (died 1554)

★ August 12 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway (died 1559)

★ November 17 - Agnolo di Cosimo, Italian artist and poet (d. 1572)

★ December 14 - Nostradamus, French physician and prophet (died 1566)

★ ''date unknown''

★
★ Lucas David, Prussian historian (died 1583)

★
★ Robert Estienne, French printer (died 1559)

★
★ John Frith, English Protestant priest and martyr (died 1533)

★
★ Shimazu Katsuhisa, Japanese nobleman (died 1573)

★
★ Tomé de Sousa, Portuguese nobleman, first general-governor of Brazil (d.1573 or 1579)

★ ''probable'' - Nicholas Bourbon, French poet
: ''See also .''

Deaths

★ February 11 - Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII of England (born 1466)

★ May 20 - Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Italian patron of the arts (b. 1463)

★ June 30 - Pierre d'Aubusson, Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes (born 1423)

★ August 18 - Pope Alexander VI (born 1431)

★ October 8 - Peter II, Duke of Bourbon (born 1438)

★ October 18 - Pope Pius III (born 1439)

★ November 23 - Margaret of York, wife of Charles I, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1446)

★ December 28 - Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (born 1471)

★ ''date unknown''

★
★ Richard Amerike, English merchant and patron of John Cabot (born 1445)

★
★ Reginald Bray, British courtier (born 1440)

★
★ Edward Story, Bishop of Carlisle and Chichester
: ''See also .''