Siege of Constantinople Begins

Date: April 6, 1453 • Location: Fatih, Turkey

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1453.

Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople. The city falls on May 29 and is renamed Istanbul.

Mehmed II, commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire twice, from August 1444 to September 1446 and again from February 1451 to May 1481.