Ottoman forces captured Constantinople after a lengthy siege, ending the Byzantine Empire and the Christian imperial capital in the East.

Fall of Constantinople

Ottoman forces under Mehmed II captured Constantinople after a fifty-three-day siege, ending the Byzantine Empire.

Ottoman conquest of Constantinople

Jaroslav Cerny, the Czech Egyptologist whose work on hieratic ostraca illuminated daily life at the workmen's village of Deir el-Medina, died in Oxford.

Jaroslav Cerny dies

Expeditions to Príncipe and Sobral photographed a total solar eclipse, measuring the deflection of starlight passing near the Sun, an observation consistent with the bending predicted by general relativity.