1495

January–December

• February - King's College, Aberdeen, predecessor of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, is founded on the petition of William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen. It is the first English-speaking university to teach medicine.
• February 22 - Italian War of 1494–98: King Charles VIII of France enters Naples, to claim the city's throne. A few months later, he decides to return to France, and leaves Naples with most of his army, leaving a force under his cousin Gilbert, Count of Montpensier as viceroy. Syphilis is first definitely recorded in Europe during this invasion..
• May 26 - A Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba lands in Calabria, with the purpose of ousting the French and restoring Ferdinand II of Naples to the throne.
• June 1 - Friar John Cor records the first known batch of Scotch whisky.
• June 28 - Battle of Seminara: Córdoba and Ferdinand are defeated by a French army under Bernard Stewart, Lord of Aubigny.
• July 3 - Battle of Deal: Perkin Warbeck's troops land in Kent, in support of his claim to the English crown, backed by Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy. They are routed before Warbeck himself can disembark, and he retreats to Ireland and then to Scotland.
• July 6 - Battle of Fornovo: The French army under King Charles secures its retreat from Italy, by defeating a combined Milanese-Venetian force under Giovanni Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua.
• Summer - John, King of Denmark, sets sail for Kalmar, Sweden, to negotiate with Sten Sture the Elder to restore the power of the Kalmar Union. However, his flagship, Gribshunden, catches fire and sinks off the coast of Ronneby with loss of life, and he is forced to abandon the mission.
• October 25 - King Manuel I of Portugal begins his reign.
• November 30 - An explosion at Vyborg Castle deters the Russian forces, who have invaded Sweden through Karelia.

  Date unknown

• The oldest extant cable railway is probably the Reisszug, a private line providing goods access to Hohensalzburg Fortress at Salzburg in Austria. This line is generally described as the oldest funicular.
• Poynings' Law comes into effect, placing the Parliament of Ireland under the authority of the Parliament of England.
• The Reichskammergericht of the Holy Roman Empire is founded in Frankfurt.
• Henry VII of England commissions the world's first dry dock, at Portsmouth.
• Piero Pacini da Pescia publishes Epistles, Gospels, and Popular Readings in the Tuscan Language