1456

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Year 1456 (MCDLVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

January–December

• May 18 – Second Battle of Oronichea (1456): Ottoman forces of 15,000 go to capture Albania but are met and swiftly defeated by Skanderbeg's smaller force.
• June 9 – Halley's Comet makes an appearance, as noted by the humanist scholar Platina.
• July 7 – A retrial of Joan of Arc acquits her of heresy 25 years after her execution.
• July 21–July 22 – Battle of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade): The Hungarians under John Hunyadi rout the Turkish army of Sultan Mehmed II. The noon bell ordered by Pope Callixtus III commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world (and hence is still rung).
• August 20 – Vladislav II, reigning Prince of Wallachia, is killed in battle by Vlad the Impaler, who succeeds him.
• October 17 – The University of Greifswald is established, making it the second oldest university in northern Europe, also for a period the oldest in Sweden and Prussia.

Date unknown

• Lazar Branković becomes despot of Serbia.
• Alvise Cadamosto discovers some of the Cape Verde Islands.
• Diogo Gomes reaches the Geba River in Guinea Bissau and explores the Gambia River.
• Emperor Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia founds the city of Debre Berhan.
• Muscovy and Novgorod Republic conclude the Treaty of Yazhelbitsy.

Births

• March – Jan Łaski, Polish nobleman (d. 1531)
• March 1 – King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (d. 1516)
• June 11 – Anne Neville, queen of Richard III of England (d. 1485)
• June 23 – Margaret of Denmark, queen of James III of Scotland (d. 1486)
• June 25 – Henry V of Rosenberg, Bohemian nobleman (d. 1489)
• October 16 – Ludmila of Poděbrady, Regent of the duchies of Brzeg and Oława (1488–1503) (d. 1503)
• November 7 – Margaret of Bavaria, Electress Palatine, Princess of Bavaria-Landshut by birth (d. 1501)
• November 8 – Queen Gonghye, Korean royal consort (d. 1474)
• date unknown – Jan Lubrański, Polish bishop (d. 1520)
• date unknown – Jeanne Hachette, French heroine

Deaths

• May 24 – Ambroise de Loré, French military leader (b. 1396)
• August 11 – John Hunyadi, Transylvanian statesman, Regent-Governor (1446–1453) of the Kingdom of Hungary. (b. 1387)
• October 17 – Nicolas Grenon, French composer (b. 1375)
• October 23 – Giovanni da Capistrano, Italian saint (b. 1386)
• November 1 – Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, father of King Henry VII of England (b. 1431)
• November 9 – Ulrich II, Count of Celje (b. 1406)
• November 25 – Jacques Cœur, French merchant (b. 1395)
• December 4 – Charles I, Duke of Bourbon (b. 1401)
• December 24 – Đurađ Branković, Despot of Serbia (b. 1377)
• date unknown – Juan de Mena, Spanish poet (b. 1411)

References