• Castillian Spanish forces lay siege to Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain. The city would fall in January of the following year.
• King Charles VIII of France frees himself from the regency of his sister, Anne de Beaujeu, marries Anne of Brittany, and initiates preparations to invade the kingdom of Naples, upon which his father, Louis XI, had previously acquired a claim through Charles, duke of Maine from René of Naples.
• Spanish writer Diego de San Pedro publishes his sentimental novel Tratado de amores de Arnalte y Lucena ("Treatise on the Loves of Arnalte and Lucena").

These people were born in 1491:

• Future King of England Henry VIII.
• Founder of the Jesuits Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
• Vietnamese poet and prophet Nguyen Binh Khiem.
• French navigator Jacques Cartier.
• German Protestant reformer Martin Bucer
• French diplomat Guillaume Du Bellay.

These people died in 1491:

• William Caxton, the first English printer.
• French statesman Jean Balue.

1490 - 1491 - 1492

15th century