Major Events
- Jan 20 Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) established by the Crown of Castile in the port of Seville to deal with American affairs
- Feb 13 Disfida di Barletta - Famous challenge between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta, Southern Italy
- Feb 18 Henry Tudor (later Henry VIII) appointed Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the English throne
- Apr 24 Michelangelo undertakes to carve 12 Apostles for the Cathedral of Florence, each four and a quarter braccia high (248.2cm), at the rate of at least one completed statue per year. He produced only one, of St. Matthew, and that remained unfinished.
- Apr 28 Battle at Cerignalo: Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeats a French force led by Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours
- May 10 Christopher Columbus is the first European to discover the Cayman Islands, names them Las Tortugas after its sea turtles
- Sep 11 Michelangelo begins sculpting the 12 Apostles for the Cathedral of Florence, over-life-sized marble statues of which only 1 was partly finished, that of St. Matthew
- Oct 30 Queen Isabella of Spain bans violence against Indians in the Americas
- Nov 11 Julius II elected pope - rules till his death in 1513, one of the most powerful popes of the Renaissance
- Dec 29 Battle of Garigliano: Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeats French forces in Italy, giving Spain control of the Kingdom of Naples
Christian III
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Who Died in 1503
- Feb 11 Elizabeth of York, Queen Consort of England and wife of King Henry VII, dies of a post-partum infection on her 37th birthday
- Feb 15 Henry Deane, Archbishop of Canterbury (1501-03), dies
- Apr 7 [Zoe] Sophia Palaiologina, Byzantine princess, wife of Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow, dies (b. 1449)
- May 20 Lorenzo de Medici, Italian patron (b. 1463)
- Aug 18 Alexander VI [Rodrigo de Borja], Spanish Pope controversial for acknowledging his children (1492-1503), dies at 72
More 1503 Deaths
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Raphael