istoryworld
Events relating to turkey
Many of the treasures adorning the church of San Marco in Venice are loot taken from Constantinople during the fourth crusade
Osman inherits the leadership of the tribal group later known by a version of his name, as the Ottoman Turks
Turkish tribes, besieging Genoese merchants in Caffa, lob the corpses of plague victims over the town walls and thus spread the Black Death
Gallipoli is taken by the Ottoman Turks, giving them their first foothold in Europe
The Ottoman sultan Bayazid is defeated and captured near Ankara by Timur, who keeps the sultan in captivity until his death the following year
Christian boys, trained as slaves in the personal service of the Turkish sultan, acquire considerable power as the elite corps of janissaries
The Turks terrify Constantinople by lobbing vast stones at the city from a 19-ton bombard of cast iron
Constantinople falls to a 21-year-old Muslim conqueror, Mehmed II, bringing the Ottoman Turks their capital city
The Christian emperor Constantine XI dies in the fighting in Constantinople, as the Greek Byzantine empire yields to that of the Ottoman Turks
The Turks complete the occupation of Greece, which remains within the Ottoman empire until the nineteenth century
Mehmed II, conqueror of Constantinople, begins to build Topkapi Sarayi as his palace
The name of Constantinople changes to Istanbul, a word based on the everyday Greek name for the city
Bayazid II, the Turkish sultan, makes a special point of welcoming in Istanbul the Jews expelled from Spain
The last Abbasid caliph, captured by the Ottoman Turks, is taken as a prisoner to Istanbul - ending the authentic line of 'successors' to Muhammad
Sinan completes his masterpiece, the mosque of Suleiman I in Istanbul
Spanish and Venetian galleys defeat the Turks in the battle of Lepanto
The Blue Mosque, commissioned by Ahmed I, begins to rise in Istanbul like a twin to the nearby Santa Sophia
The Mayflower settlers in Plymouth offer thanksgiving for their first harvest, eating turkeys in a celebration shared by local Indians
On the first day of the new year Samuel Pepys gets up late, eats the remains of the turkey and begins his diary
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, observing the Turkish practice of inoculation against smallpox, submits her infant son to the treatment
A border incident at Balta, in the southern Ukraine, sparks a war between Russia and Turkey that will last six years
In the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji, ending the recent Russo-Turkish war, the Ottoman empire cedes the Crimea to Russia
The Eastern Question, concerning Turkey's ability to control its vast empire, becomes a persistent nineteenth-century theme
The Straits Convention, agreed between the European powers and Turkey, is a concerted attempt to prop up the Ottoman empire
The Russian tsar, Nicholas I, calls Turkey 'the sick man of Europe'
