1494

Year 1494 (MCDXCIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. January 4 – The Cetinje Octoechos (Цетињски октоих, an Eastern Orthodox octoechos (liturgy), first tone), the first incunabulum written in the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic, and the first book printed in Cyrillic in Southeast Europe, is completed in Cetinje. January 25 – Alfonso II becomes King of Naples. May – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, recognises the pretender Perkin Warbeck as rightful King of England. May 5 – Christopher Columbus first sights Jamaica. May 7 – The infant Amda Seyon II succeeds his father Eskender as Emperor of Ethiopia. May 31 – First Battle of Acentejo: Natives of the island of Tenerife, known as Guanches, defeat the invading Spanish forces. June 7 – Treaty of Tordesillas: Spain and Portugal divide the New World between themselves. June 25 – The first hurricane ever observed by Europeans strikes the Spanish settlement of La Isabela, on Hispaniola. October 22 – Ludovico Sforza becomes Duke of Milan, and invites Charles VIII of France to invade Italy in support of his claim, beginning the Italian War of 1494–98. October 26 – Amda Seyon II is deposed and killed, and his uncle Na'od succeeds him as Emperor of Ethiopia. November 9 – The House of Medici is expelled from Florence. November 10 – Fra Luca Pacioli's Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalità is published in Venice, containing the first printed account of algebra in the vernacular, and the first published description of the double-entry accounting system. November 17 – Italian War of 1494–98: The armies of Charles VIII of France enter Florence. December 25 – Second Battle of Acentejo: The Spanish crush the native forces of the island of Tenerife, leading to the subjugation of this last bastion of resistance in the Canary Islands. Aztec forces conquer and sack Mitla. Johann Reuchlin publishes De verbo mirifico. Charles VIII of France purchases the right to the Byzantine Empire from exiled pretender, Andreas Palaiologos.