What happened when Constantinople fell in 1453?

The day the medieval world officially ended.

The answer

On May 29, 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II breached Constantinople's legendary Theodosian Walls using massive cannons, including a 27-foot bombard that fired 600-pound stone balls. The fall of this 1,100-year-old Christian capital ended the Byzantine Empire and sent Greek scholars fleeing westward, carrying classical texts that helped ignite the Italian Renaissance. The city was renamed Istanbul and became the jewel of the Ottoman Empire for nearly five centuries.

Source: History.com

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