Major Events
- Feb 2 Battle of Mortimer's Cross: in a major battle of the War of the Roses Yorkist army of Edward, Earl of March, defeats Lancaster force led by Jasper Tudor
- Feb 17 Wars of the Roses: Second Battle of St Albans - Lancastrian army defeats Yorkists and recaptures King Henry VI
- Mar 4 Edward Plantagenet lays claim to the throne of England as Edward IV in London
- Mar 29 Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Duke Edward of York defeats the Lancastrian army, deposes King Henry VI and Queen Margaret of Anjou and proclaims himself as King Edward IV
- Jun 28 Yorkist Edward IV crowned King of England after deposing Henry VI from the House of Lancaster
- Aug 7 Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor
- Aug 10 Alfonso ed Espina, bishop of Osma urges for an Inquisition in Spain
- Aug 15 Empire of Trebizond surrenders to forces of Sultan Mehmet II - last Byzantine Empire remnant to fall. Emperor David exiled and later murdered.
- Aug 15 Louis XI is crowned King of France at Reims cathedral after the death of his father Charles VII
- Nov 20 Astronomer Regiomontanus returns with Cardinal Basilios Bessarion's to his house in Rome, home to one of largest libraries in Europe
Born in 1461
- Feb 6 Džore Držić, Croatian poet and playwright who is considered one of the fathers of Croatian literature, born in Dubrovnik, Croatia (d. 1501)
- Apr 3 Anne of France, French princess, daughter of King Louis XI and Regent of France (1483-91) for her brother King Charles VIII during his minority, born in Chateau of Genappe, Brabant, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1522)
- Aug 5 Alexander Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania (d. 1506)
- Dec 25 Christina of Saxony, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1521)
Who Died in 1461
- Feb 2 Owen Tudor, Welsh founder of the Tudor dynasty of England
- Mar 29 Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (b. 1421)
- Apr 8 Georg von Purbach, Austrian mathematician and astronomer (best known for his streamlined presentation of Ptolemaic astronomy in the Theoricae Novae Planetarum), dies at 37
- Jul 22 Charles VII, King of France (1422-61) who drove the English out from Northern France, dies at 58
Louis XI