Year 1487 (MCDLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.

• January 29 – Richard Foxe becomes Bishop of Exeter.
• March – Sigismund, Archduke of Austria, largely on the poor advice of his counselors, declares war on Venice, and seizes silver mines in and around the Sugana Valley.
• May 24 – Lambert Simnel is crowned King "Edward VI of England" in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.^[1] He claims to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, and challenges Henry VII for the throne of England, where he lands on June 5.
• June 16 – Battle of Stoke Field: The rebellion of pretender Lambert Simnel, led by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, and Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell, is crushed by troops loyal to Henry VII.^[2]
• August – Bartolomeu Dias leaves Lisbon, on his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope.
• August 13 – The Siege of Málaga (1487) ends, when the Spanish take the city.
• September 9 – Hongzhi becomes Emperor of China (Ming Dynasty).
• November 30 – Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria promulgates the Reinheitsgebot, specifying three ingredients – water, malt and hops – for the brewing of beer.

• Afonso de Paiva and Pêro da Covilhã travel overland from Lisbon, in search of the Kingdom of Prester John (Ethiopia).
• The witch-hunters' manual Malleus Maleficarum, written by Heinrich Kramer with Jacob Sprenger, is published at Speyer in the Holy Roman Empire.
• Aztec emperor Ahuitzotl dedicates the Great Temple Pyramid of Tenochtitlán, with thousands of human sacrifices.
• Italian architects work on the Moscow Kremlin.
• Leonardo da Vinci creates his Vitruvian Man drawing (approximate date).^[3]
• Stockport Grammar School is founded, in the north of England.

• February 7 – Queen Dangyeong, Korean royal consort (d. 1557)
• February 8 – Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1550)
• February 15 – Henry of the Palatinate, bishop of Utrecht (d. 1552)
• April 10 – William I, Count of Nassau-Siegen (d. 1559)
• July 5 – Johann Gramann, German theologian (d. 1541)
• July 17 – Ismail I, Shah of Persia (d. 1524)
• August 27 – Anna of Brandenburg, Duchess of Schleswig and Holstein (d. 1514)
• September 10 – Pope Julius III (d. 1555)^[4]
• October 5 – Ludwig of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German nobleman (d. 1553)
• November 14 – John III of Pernstein, Bohemian land-owner, Governor of Moravia and Count of Kladsko (d. 1548)
• date unknown
  • Amda Seyon II, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1494)
  • Magdalena de la Cruz, Franciscan nun of Cordova (d. 1560)
  • Fray Tomás de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama (d. 1551)
  • Piotr Gamrat, Polish Catholic archbishop (d. 1545)
  • Stanisław Kostka, Polish noble (d. 1555)
  • Pedro de Mendoza, Spanish conquistador (d. 1537)
  • Michael Stifel, German mathematician (d. 1567)
  • Giovanni da Udine, Italian painter (d. 1564)
  • Peter Vischer the Younger, German sculptor (d. 1528)

• March 21 – Nicholas of Flüe, Swiss hermit and saint (b. 1417)
• May 27 – Tilokaraj, king of Lan Na (b. 1409)
• June 16 – John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln (b. c. 1463)^[2]
• June 26 – John Argyropoulos, Greek philosopher
• July 16 – Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus (b. 1436)
• August 23 – Maria of Cleves, French noble (b. 1426)
• September 9 – Chenghua Emperor of China (b. 1447)
• September 14 – Mara Branković, Serbian princess (b. 1416)
• September 30 – John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1400)
• October 22 – Antonio Bettini, Italian religious writer (b. 1396)
• date unknown
  • William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel (b. 1417)
  • Tlacaelel, high priest of Tenochtitlán (b. 1398)