The prime factors of 1488 are: 2x2x2x2x3x31

As if you cared. Now on to more interesting things.

• King Tuthmosis I of Egypt defeated the small nubian kingdom of Kerma in battle, extending Egypt's border and destroying Kerma's captial city.
• King Amphictyon of Athens died after a 10 year reign, and was succeeded by Erichthonius I.

• The North-Indian palacial city of Bikaner was founded in an area then known as Jangaldesh, now known as Rajasthan.
• The Great Italian Renaissance artist Verrocchio died. Though not so widely known in his own time, he later gained fame as the teacher of the legendary Leonardo da Vinci.
• At the same time, da Vinci was beginning his illegal explorations of cadavers, making the first known detailed drawings of human interior anatomy.
• Also in Italy, Michelangelo Buonarroti was in 1488 first apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio.
• Ming Dynasty Emperor Ming Xian Zong died after 33 years of relative peace on the throne.
• Bartholomeo Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope, sailing under the Portuguese flag.
• Japanese nobleman Hosokawa Masamoto hired local architect Somai to design and build a zen garden at Ryoanji, after a fire destroyed the original temple built there. Ryoanji and its garden still stand today.
• The fantastically bisexual and horribly incapable King James III of Scotland was murdered following the battle of Sauchieburn. His attacker was dressed as a priest and was never caught. James was 36 years old.
• In the Gyeongsang province of Korea, groundwork for the Haeinsa temple was begun. The temple will later house a 6802-volume complete copy of the Mahayana Buddhist Tripitaka Koreana, making it a very important temple. Much of the Temple burned in 1817, but the Tripitaka repository was spared.
• King Borom Trailokanat of Thailand (then Ayutthaya), a devout Buddhist, died at age 40.
• The first printed Hebrew Bible was made. It will later be used by William Tyndale to print an English translation, much to the chagrin of the Catholic Church. Tyndale's bible will later become the official "Great Bible" of the Church of England.
• Rockets, brought west from Asia, were first used in battle in Europe by the Spanish. Due to the poor range of the rockets and improvements in small firearms, the rockets were soon abandoned.
• Japanese martial artist Izasa Ienao, founder of several schools of martial arts, died at a whopping hundred and one years old.
• Rabbi Hakham Yosef ben Ephraim Karo was born in Spain. He became a respected teacher of the Torah in Turkey and elsewhere.

1487 - 1488 - 1489