1490

Year 1490 (MCDXC) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

January–December

 * January 4 – Anne of Brittany announces that all those who ally themselves with the king of France will be considered guilty of the crime of Lèse-majesté.
 * March 13 – Charles II becomes Duke of Savoy at age 1; his mother Blanche of Montferrato is regent.
 * March or April – 1490 Qingyang event, a presumed meteor shower or air burst over Qingyang in Ming dynasty China, said to have caused casualties.
 * July 4 – Defeat of John Corvinus in the battle of Bonefield
 * July 13 – John of Kastav finishes a cycle of frescoes in the Holy Trinity Church, Hrastovlje (modern-day southwestern Slovenia).
 * July 22 – Ashikaga Yoshitane becomes 10th Muromachi shōgun of Japan.
 * November 20 – The first edition of the chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanch, by Joanot Martorell, is printed in Valencia.
 * December 19 – Anne of Brittany is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.

Date unknown

 * Perkin Warbeck claims to be the son of King Henry VII of England, at the court of Burgundy.
 * Traditional date of the Battle of Glendale (Skye) between the Scottish clans MacDonald and MacLeod.
 * Catholic missionaries arrive in the African Kingdom of Kongo.
 * Pêro da Covilhã arrives in Ethiopia.
 * Regular postal service connects the Habsburg residences of Mechelen and Innsbruck, the first in Germany.
 * Leonardo da Vinci observes capillary action, in small-bore tubes.
 * Leonardo da Vinci develops an oil lamp: the flame is enclosed in a glass tube, placed inside a water-filled glass globe.
 * All Saints' Church, the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, is begun.
 * Tirant lo Blanch, by Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan de Galba, is published.
 * Aldus Manutius moves to Venice.
 * John Colet receives his M.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford.
 * Johann Reuchlin meets Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.
 * Merchants carry coffee from Yemen to Mecca (approximate date).
 * Battle of Chocontá: The northern (zaque) tribes of the pre-Columbian Muisca Confederation (central Colombia) are beaten by the southern (zipa) tribes.

Births

 * February 14 – Valentin Friedland, German scholar and educator of the Reformation (d. 1556)
 * February 17 – Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, French military leader (d. 1527)
 * March 6 – Fridolin Sicher, Swiss composer (d. 1546)
 * March 22 – Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, Italian noble (d. 1538)
 * March 24 – Giovanni Salviati, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1553)
 * April – Vittoria Colonna, Italian poet (d. 1547)
 * April 4 – Vojtěch I of Pernstein, Bohemian nobleman (d. 1534)
 * May 17 – Albert, Duke of Prussia, last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (d. 1568)
 * June 28 – Albert of Mainz, German elector and archbishop (d. 1545)
 * July 25 – Amalie of the Palatinate, Duchess consort of Pomerania (d. 1524)
 * August 5 – Andrey of Staritsa, son of Ivan III "the Great" of Russia (d. 1537)
 * September 23 – Johann Heß, German theologian (d. 1547)
 * October – Olaus Magnus, Swedish ecclesiastic and writer (d. 1557)
 * October 12 – Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (d. 1548)
 * November 10 – John III, Duke of Cleves (d. 1539)
 * December 25 – Francesco Marinoni, Italian Roman Catholic priest (d. 1562)
 * December 26 – Friedrich Myconius, German Lutheran theologian (d. 1546)
 * December 30 – Ebussuud Efendi, Ottoman Grand Mufti (d. 1574)
 * approx. date – Properzia de' Rossi, Italian Renaissance sculptor (d. 1530)
 * date unknown
 * Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, Scottish noble (d. 1556)
 * Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist (d. 1566)
 * Bars Bolud Jinong, Mongol Khagan (d. 1531)
 * Argula von Grumbach, German Protestant reformer (d. 1564)
 * Jean Salmon Macrin, French poet (d. 1557)
 * Caspar Schwenckfeld, German theologian (d. 1561)
 * Anna Bielke, Swedish noble and commander (d. 1525)
 * David Reubeni, Jewish political activist and mystic (d. 1541)
 * probable
 * Wijerd Jelckama, Frisian rebel and warlord (d. 1523)
 * Adriaen Isenbrandt, Flemish painter (d. 1551)
 * Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1567)
 * María de Toledo, Vicereine and regent of the Spanish Colony of Santo Domingo (d. 1549)
 * John Taverner, English composer and organist (d. 1545)
 * María de Salinas, Lady Willoughby, Spanish lady-in-waiting and friend to Catherine of Aragon
 * Quilago, queen regnant of the Cochasquí in Ecuador (d. 1515)

Deaths

 * January 27 – Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese shōgun (b. 1435)
 * March 6 – Ivan the Young, Ruler of Tver (b. 1458)
 * April 6 – King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (b. 1443)
 * May 12 – Joanna, Portuguese Roman Catholic blessed and regent (b. 1452)
 * May 22 – Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent (b. 1416)
 * August 11 – Frans van Brederode, Dutch rebel leader (b. 1465)
 * date unknown
 * Martí Joan de Galba, Catalan novelist
 * Aonghas Óg, last independent Lord of the Isles