1501 in science

Astronomy

• Nilakantha Somayaji completes his astronomical treatise Tantrasamgraha.
• Amerigo Vespucci maps the two stars Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, as well as the stars of the constellation Crux, which are below the horizon in Europe.

  Exploration

• March 25 – Portuguese navigator João da Nova probably discovers Ascension Island.
• November 1 – Amerigo Vespucci discovers and names Baía de Todos os Santos in Brazil.
• Gaspar Corte-Real makes the first known landing in North America by a Western European explorer this millennium.
• Rodrigo de Bastidas becomes the first European to explore the Isthmus of Panama.

  Medicine

• Continuing until 1587, a pandemic outbreak of fever, headache, sweating and black tongue spreads through Europe. Initially called morbus Hungaricus, it will later be regarded as an outbreak of typhus.

  Births

• January 17 – Leonhart Fuchs, German botanist
• March 23 – Pietro Andrea Mattioli, Italian physician and botanist
• September 24 – Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician and physician
• approx. date – Garcia de Orta, Portuguese Sephardi Jewish physician

  Deaths

• presumed date – Gaspar Corte-Real, Portuguese explorer