1453

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Year 1453 (MCDLIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. It is sometimes cited as the notional end of the Middle Ages by historians who define the medieval period as the time between the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and the fall of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire.

Events

January–December

• April – Tarabya and Studius are taken by the Ottoman Empire in preparation for the assault on Constantinople, as are the Prince Islands, by the Ottoman fleet under Admiral Baltaoglu.

Siege of Constantinople

• April 2–May 29 – Siege and Fall of Constantinople: The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror ends the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Empire after more than a thousand years by capturing the capital, Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Mortars are perhaps used in battle for the first time in this action. The consequent closure of the traditional overland route from Western Europe to the Far East and need to identify new maritime routes leads to the Age of Discovery.
• May 22 – Partial lunar eclipse.
• May–June – Epibatos and Selymbria also fall to the Ottoman Turks after the final fall of Constantinople.
• July – Revolt of Ghent: Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, crushes the Ghent rebellion.

Battle of Castillon

• July 17 – Battle of Castillon: The French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed.
• October 19 – The Hundred Years' War comes to a close with the French recapture of Bordeaux, leaving the English retaining only Calais on French soil.

Births

• September 1 – Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and statesman (d. 1515)
• October 13 – Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (d. 1471)
• November 22 – Jacob Obrecht, Flemish composer (d. 1505)
• probable – Afonso de Albuquerque, Portuguese admiral (d. 1515)

Deaths

Konstantinos XI.

• February 28 – Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (b. 1400)
• May 29
  • Constantine XI Palaiologos, last Byzantine Emperor ("Last Roman Emperor")
  • Ecumenical Patriarch Athanasius II of Constantinople (all killed in, or shortly after, the siege of Constantinople)
  • Demetrios Palaiologos Metochites, last governor of Constantinople
• June 1 – Giovanni Giustiniani, Italian captain
• June 2 – Álvaro de Luna, Duke of Trujillo, Constable of Castile
• June 3 or 4 – Loukas Notaras, last megas doux of the Byzantine Empire
• June 4 – Andronikos Palaiologos Kantakouzenos, last Grand Domestic of the Byzantine Empire
• July 17
  • Dmitry Shemyaka, Grand Prince of Moscow 1445, 1446–1447, poisoned in Veliky Novgorod by Vasily Tyomny's agents
  • John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English military leader
• July 20 – Enguerrand de Monstrelet, French chronicler
• December 24 – John Dunstaple, English composer (b. 1390)
• Demetrius III, former co-king of Georgia (b. c. 1413)

References