1444

1444 (MCDXLIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1444th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 444th year of the 2nd millennium, the 44th year of the 15th century, and the 5th year of the 1440s decade. As of the start of 1444, the Gregorian calendar was 9 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which was the dominant calendar of the time.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	14th century 15th century 16th century
Decades:	1420s 1430s 1440s 1450s 1460s
Years:	1441 1442 1443 1444 1445 1446 1447

1444 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1444 MCDXLIV
Ab urbe condita	2197
Armenian calendar	893 ԹՎ ՊՂԳ
Assyrian calendar	6194
Balinese saka calendar	1365–1366
Bengali calendar	851
Berber calendar	2394
English Regnal year	22 Hen. 6 – 23 Hen. 6
Buddhist calendar	1988
Burmese calendar	806
Byzantine calendar	6952–6953
Chinese calendar	癸亥年 (Water Pig) 4141 or 3934     — to — 甲子年 (Wood Rat) 4142 or 3935
Coptic calendar	1160–1161
Discordian calendar	2610
Ethiopian calendar	1436–1437
Hebrew calendar	5204–5205
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1500–1501
- Shaka Samvat	1365–1366
- Kali Yuga	4544–4545
Holocene calendar	11444
Igbo calendar	444–445
Iranian calendar	822–823
Islamic calendar	847–848
Japanese calendar	Kakitsu 4 / Bun'an 1 (文安元年)
Javanese calendar	1359–1360
Julian calendar	1444 MCDXLIV
Korean calendar	3777
Minguo calendar	468 before ROC 民前468年
Nanakshahi calendar	−24
Thai solar calendar	1986–1987
Tibetan calendar	阴水猪年 (female Water-Pig) 1570 or 1189 or 417     — to — 阳木鼠年 (male Wood-Rat) 1571 or 1190 or 418

Events

January–December

• March 2 – The League of Lezhë, an alliance of Albanian principalities, is established in Lezhë; George Kastrioti Skanderbeg is proclaimed commander of the Albanian resistance.
• May 22 – The Treaty of Tours, signed between England and France, secures a truce in the Hundred Years' War for five years.
• June 15 – Cosimo de' Medici founds a public library at San Marco, Florence.^[1]
• June 29 – Battle of Torvioll: Skanderbeg defeats an Ottoman army.
• August 6 – A Portuguese fleet of caravels, led by Lançarote de Freitas, lands 235 slaves at Algarve, Portugal.^[2]
• August 15 – The Peace of Szeged is signed between the Turkish Ottoman Empire and Hungary.
• August 26 – Old Zürich War – Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs: Charles VII of France, seeking to send away troublesome troops made idle by the truce with England, sends his son (the Dauphin Louis) with a large army into Switzerland, to support the claims of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. The massively outnumbered Swiss force is destroyed in this battle, but inflict such casualties on the French that they withdraw.
• August – After making peace with the Karamanids, Ottoman Sultan Murad II abdicates in favor of his son Mehmed II.
• November 10 – Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Władysław III of Poland and Hungary are defeated by the Turks, under Sultan Murad II. Władysław is killed, ending the Jagiellonian Union of Hungary and Poland.

Date unknown

• Constantine XI Palaiologos, as ruler of the Despotate of the Morea, invades the Duchy of Athens (at this time under Florentine control), and forces it to pay tribute and return Thebes to the Byzantine Empire.
• Forces of the Sultan of Egypt fail to take Rhodes from the Knights of Rhodes.
• Portuguese explorers reach the mouth of the rivers Senegal and Gambia.
• The first European slave market for the sale of African slaves, the Mercado de Escravos, opens in Lagos, Portugal.
• A serious fire occurs at Old St Paul's Cathedral in London.
• The Iguvine Tablets are discovered at Gubbio, Italy.
• Stephen II of Moldavia takes as co-ruler his step brother Petru, also brother-in-law to John Hunyadi.

Births

• January 24 – Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1476)
• March 15 – Francesco Gonzaga, Catholic cardinal (d. 1483)
• April 22 – Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk (d. 1503)
• May 29 – Otto III, Duke of Pomerania-Stettin (1460–1464) (d. 1464)
• June 14 – Nilakantha Somayaji, Indian astronomer-mathematician (d. 1544)
• June 28 – Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus (d. 1487)
• October 18 – John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk (d. 1476)

• date unknown – Donato Bramante, Italian architect (d. 1514)^[3]

Deaths

• January 8 – Wilhelm II, Count of Henneberg-Schleusingen (b. 1415)
• February 14 – Henriette, Countess of Montbéliard, regent of Württemberg (b. 1387)
• March 9 – Leonardo Bruni, Italian humanist (b. 1374)
• April 26 – Robert Campin, Flemish painter (b. 1378)
• May 20 – Saint Bernardino of Siena, Italian Franciscan missionary (b. 1380)
• May 27 – John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader (b. 1404)^[4]
• October 15 – Niccolò Piccinino, Italian mercenary (b. 1386)^[5]
• November 10 – King Władysław III of Poland (in battle) (b. 1424)^[6]
• November 25 – Martin Gouge, French chancellor
• date unknown – Pier Paolo Vergerio the Elder, Italian humanist, statesman, and canon lawyer

References

1. Norman, Jeremy M. (2022-12-20). "Foundation of the Library of the Dominican Convent of San Marco, the First "Public" Library in Renaissance Europe". HistoryofInformation.com. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
2. Thomas, Hugh (1999). The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440 - 1870. Simon and Schuster. pp. 22. ISBN 9780684835655.
3. British Museum. Department of Prints and Drawings; Richard Fisher (1886). Introduction to a Catalogue of the Early Italian Prints in the British Museum. Chiswick Press. pp. 348–.
4. Raphael Holinshed (1907). Shakespeare's Holinshed: The Chronicle and the Historical Plays Compared. Chatto and Windus. p. 218.
5. Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini; Pope Pius II (November 2013). Europe (c.1400-1458). CUA Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-8132-2182-3.
6. Jerzy Lukowski; Hubert Zawadzki (20 September 2001). A Concise History of Poland. Cambridge University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-521-55917-1.