1501 in science

The year 1501 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

Astronomy

• 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.^[1]
• November 1 (All Saints) - 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.^[2]
• Rodrigo de Bastidas becomes the first European to explore the Isthmus of Panama.^[2]

Medicine

• Continuing until 1587, a pandemic outbreak of fever, headache, sweating and black tongue spreads through Europe. Initially called morbus Hungaricus (the Hungarian disease), it will later be regarded as an outbreak of typhus.^[3]

Births

• January 17 - Leonhart Fuchs, German botanist (d. 1566)
• September 24 - Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician and physician (d. 1576)
• approx. date - Garcia de Orta, Portuguese Sephardi Jewish physician (d. 1568)

Deaths

• presumed date - Gaspar Corte-Real, Portuguese explorer (b. 1450)

References