Afonso V becomes king of Portugal at the age of six, after the death of his father, Edward, King of Portugal. Because of his young age, Afonso V was placed under the regency of his mother, Eleanor of Aragon, as specified in his father's will. The regency was disputed by his uncle Pedro, Duke of Coimbra. Afonso formally took power as king in 1448.
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What Happened in September?
Battles, deaths, and monumental religious moments. Explore significant events from September that helped shape the world. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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The University of Barcelona is established by King Alfonso V of Aragon.
The Battle of Blore Heath takes place during the Wars of the Roses in England, where the Yorkist forces, led by Richard Neville, defeat the Lancastrians.
The Treaty of Alcáçovas is signed by the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon and Afonso V and his son, Prince John of Portuga. It ended the War of Castilian Succession between Portugal and Castile and formally divided the Atlantic Ocean into Portuguese and Castilian spheres of influence, a foundational step in European colonialism
The printing of the first edition of "Malleus Maleficarum," a treatise on witchcraft, is completed in Germany, contributing to the witch-hunt hysteria of the time.
The Battle of Granada takes place, marking the final phase of the Spanish Reconquista, as the forces of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille, together known as the Catholic Monarchs, capture the city of Granada from the Moors. More
Columbus begins his second trip, setting sail from Cádiz, Spain, on September 24, 1493, commanding a massive fleet of 17 ships and around 1,200 men. The fleet included soldiers, priests, and colonists equipped with tools, livestock and seeds, to establish a permanent settlement.
Taking a more southerly route than his first trip, Columbus landed in the Lesser Antilles on November 3, 1493. He went on to explore and name several islands, including Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua, and Puerto Rico, before arriving back at Hispaniola.
King Charles VIII of France begins his invasion of Italy by crossing the Alps in early September 1494. The French king's army then marched through Italy, entering Florence in November and Rome on the last day of the year, as part of a campaign that formally initiated the Italian Wars More
Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral arrives at Calicut, India, on September 13, 1500. It followed the landing In May 1498, of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and marked the beginning of Portugal's presence in India leading to the establishment of trade, conflicting with local Muslim traders who up to then had controlled it.
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Michelangelo begins work on the statue of David which went on to become a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture.
Michelangelo's David, the renowned marble sculpture is believed to have been formally "unveiled" to the public and fully revealed on this date. It had been temporarily installed on June 8 next to the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria on a wooden platform replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes.
The work, was originally commissioned in 1501 by the Opera del Duomo (the Overseers of the Office of Works of the Florence Cathedral) when Michelangelo was only 26 years old, It is considered to be one of the great works of art of the Renaissance. Michelangelo sculpted the statue from a single block of Carrara marble which had remained neglected for 25 years because of the presence of too many imperfections. The colossal statue stands at 17 feet (5.17 meters) tall. In 1873, it was removed from the piazza to protect it from damage, and was moved to the Accademia Gallery. The statue was not placed in its permanent setting in the Accademia until 1882. A replica was placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1910. More
Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa becomes the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean after crossing the Isthmus of Panama.
Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, sets sail from Sanlucar de Barrameda in southern Spain with five ships and a crew of 270 men, on what become the first circumnavigation of the world and the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic.
Magellan himself died during the tumultuous three year voyage, with Spaniard Juan Sebastian Elcano completing the journey from the Phillipines back to Spain with a final crew of only 18 men on September 6 1522. Despite Magellan’s tragic end, his legacy has become synonymous with exploration and geography—including the Strait in South America that still bears his name. More
Suleiman the Magnificent succeeds his father, Selim I, as Ottoman Sultan, the tenth and longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire. His realm extended from Hungary to Iran, and from Crimea to North Africa and the Indian Ocean. As he engaged in bitter rivalries with the Catholic Habsburgs and the Shiite Safavids, he presided over a multilingual and multireligious empire that promised peace and prosperity to its subjects. He died on the night of September 6/7, 1566, at the age of 71 of natural causes. More
The expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan becomes the first to complete a circumnavigation of the globe as Spaniard Juan Sebastian Elcano arrives back in Spain from the Philippines with a final crew of only 18 men from the original 270 in the Ship Victoria.
Magellan had died in the Philippines where Elcano took command of the surviving ship sailing it across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and completing the tumultuous three year voyage back to Spain, arriving in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. More
Magellan_Elcano_Circumnavigation-fr.svg: Sémhurderivative work: Uxbona, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Queen Elizabeth I is born. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth was the last Tudor Monarch. She is considered one of the most influential English monarchs and her 45-year reign one of the most glorious in English history. More
King Christian III, of Denmark establishes a Lutheran state church in Norway.
Pope Paul III officially recognizes the Society of Jesus as a religious order by promulgating the bull Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae, which established the Jesuit Order. More
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (João Rodrigues Cabrilho) a Portuguese explorer sailing the Caravel "San Salvador" under the Spanish flag, enters San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, landing at what is now Point Loma. Cabrillo named the bay San Miguel, in honor of Saint Michael the Archangel. This was the first recorded European landing on the West Coast of the United States.
Cabrillo had set sail from the port of Navidad, Mexico, on June 27, 1542 with a Spanish-commissioned expedition to find a route to the Orient and to map the coast of the present-day United States. Cabrillo died on January 3, 1543, from an infected injury sustained during a skirmish on an island, likely San Miguel Island part of the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara. the The expedition's second-in-command, Bartolomé Ferrelo, took command and continued the voyage, potentially reaching as far north as the Rogue River in Oregon, and returning to Mexico the following year with the log of their discoveries. More
Unknown sourceUnknown source, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The Peace of Augsburg between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Protestant princes is signed, The treaty officially recognized the division of Christianity and granted each prince in the Holy Roman Empire the right to choose either Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism as the official religion of their state. Calvinism was not allowed until the Peace of Westphalia, which took place in 1648.