The Ottoman Empire conquered the Byzantine capital, an event often taken to mark the end of the Middle Ages.
On 29 May 1453, Ottoman forces under Mehmed II took Constantinople after a 53-day siege. The last emperor, Constantine XI, died in the fighting, ending the Byzantine Empire after more than a thousand years.
From the Ghaznavid raids on India to the Mughal Empire and Suleiman I — five centuries in which Turkic-led Islamic empires took western Asia and India, while Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas raised civilisations of their own
From Canossa to the eve of the Reformation — papal power at its height and in decline, towns and parliaments, royal power growing through the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death, and the Renaissance and printing