1500

1500 (MD) was a leap year starting on Wednesday in the Julian calendar.  The year was not a leap year in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.  It was the last year of the 15th century.

The year was seen as being important by many Christians in Europe.  They thought it would be the start of the end of the world.  Their belief was based on the phrase "half-time after the time" when the apocalypse was due to occur.  This phrase appears in the Book of Revelation and was seen as referring to 1500.  This time was also just after the Old World's discovery of the Americas in 1492.  And it was greatly influenced by the New World.  

Historically, the year 1500 is often seen as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Era.

 Events 
 Europe's population was about 60 million.
 January 5 – Duke Ludovico Sforza recaptures Milan, but is soon driven out again by the French.
 January 26 – Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to discover Brazil.
 April 21 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral officially discovers Brazil and claims the land for Portugal.
 November 11 – Treaty of Granada – Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.
 Emperor Go-Kashiwabara ascends to the throne of Japan.
 Battle of Hemmingstedt: The Danish army fails to conquer the peasants' republic of Dithmarschen.
 Second Battle of Lepanto – The Turkish fleet of Kemal Re'is defeats the Venetians.  The Turks proceed to capture Modon, Lepanto, and Koron.
 The Luo, a Nilotic people from modern Sudan, settle the Cwezi states, establishing the state of Buganda. (approximate date)
 Diogo Dias is the first European to see Madagascar.