[Edit]

top

April 2 - Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (İstanbul).

May 29 - Fall of Constantinople to Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire).

July 17 - Battle of Castillon. The French under Jean Bureau utterly defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed.

October 19 - The French recapture of Bordeaux brings the Hundred Years' War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.

Johann Gutenberg invents the movable type printing press.

top

September 1 - Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and statesman (d. 1515)

October 13 - Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (died 1471)

November 22 - Jacob Obrecht, Flemish composer (died 1505)

Alfonso d'Albuquerque, Portuguese admiral (died 1515)

top

February 28 - Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (born 1400)

May 29 - Constantine XI, last Byzantine Emperor (killed in battle) (born 1404)

June 2 - Alvaro de Luna, Constable of Castile

July 17 - John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English military leader

July 20 - Enguerrand de Monstrelet, French chronicler

December 24 - John Dunstable, English composer (born 1390)

Giovanni Giustiniani, Italian captain

Lucas Notaras, last Grand Duke of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire