Ottoman forces under Sultan Mehmed II capture Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire.
Date given in the Julian calendar.
Johannes Gutenberg develops metal movable-type printing in Mainz, launching Europe's printing revolution.
The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile later unites their crowns, laying the foundation of a unified Spain.
Filippo Brunelleschi's dome for Florence Cathedral is completed, an emblematic engineering feat of the Renaissance.
Returning from exile, the banker Cosimo de' Medici becomes the de facto ruler of Florence; the Medici become major patrons of Renaissance art.
Captured and tried by a pro-English church court, Joan of Arc is burned at the stake; she was rehabilitated in 1456 and canonized in 1920.
French forces joined by Joan of Arc force the English to abandon the siege of Orléans, a turning point of the Hundred Years' War.