Major Events
- Feb 3 Bartolomeu Dias and his crew are the first Europeans to land on South African soil at Mossel Bay (east of modern Cape Town)
- Feb 5 Roman Catholic German Emperor Maximilian I caught in Belgium
- Jun 11 Battle of Sauchieburn, rebellion against the Scottish crown results in death of King James III
- Jun 24 James IV is crowned King of Scotland at Scone Abbey in Scone, aged 15
- Dec 15 Bartolomeu Dias returns to Portugal after becoming 1st known European to sail round the Cape of Good Hope
Born in 1488
- Jan 6 Helius Eobanus Hessus, German poet (Silvae), born in Haina, Germany (d. 1540)
- Mar 19 Johannes Magnus, last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden (d. 1544)
- Apr 21 Ulrich von Hutten, German knight, scholar and poet (led Imperial Knights against Roman Catholic Church), born in Schlüchtern, Hesse (d. 1523)
Who Died in 1488
- Jan 13 Hermann Vischer, "the Old", German brass sculptor, buried
- May 2 Jacob van Horne, Burgundy statesman, dies
- Jun 11 James III, King of Scots (1460-88), killed in battle or assassinated soon after at Milltown near Bannockburn at 36
- Jul 18 Alvise Cadamosto, Italian explorer (b. 1432)
- Sep 9 Francis II, Duke of Brittany, tried to retain independence from France for Brittany, dies after a fall from a horse at 55
More 1488 Deaths
Leonardo da Vinci