After weeks of relentless cannon fire from massive bronze guns, Ottoman troops poured through a breach in the Theodosian Walls. Emperor Constantine XI died fighting in the streets, and by nightfall the last remnant of the Roman Empire had ceased to exist. Mehmed II rode into the city and converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, marking a hinge point between medieval and early modern history.
Stranded on the harsh Patagonian coast through the southern winter, Magellan's fleet faced a mutiny that he crushed by executing and marooning ringleaders. The ordeal nearly ended the expedition before it found the strait connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, opening the first passage for a fleet to circle the globe.
Crowds lined the streets as Charles II returned from exile to reclaim the throne his father Charles I had lost to the executioner's block in 1649. The Restoration ended the Puritan Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell's successors and ushered in a new era of theaters reopening, courtly excess, and eventual religious and political turbulence.
After decades as a French and British fur-trading region and then an American territory, Wisconsin joined the Union following a wave of settlement driven by lead mining and farmland. Its admission reflected the rapid westward expansion of the United States in the mid-19th century and shifted the balance of free and slave states in Congress.
Built by John Brown & Company for the Cunard Line, the Lusitania was launched at Clydebank to reclaim British prestige in transatlantic travel from German rivals. She would go on to set speed records before being torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915, killing nearly 1,200 people and helping draw the United States toward World War I.
The merger combined Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company, which had automated the 1890 US Census using punched cards, with the International Time Recording Company and the Computing Scale Company. Renamed IBM in 1924 under Thomas Watson, the firm grew into the dominant force in twentieth-century computing.
Climbing as part of a British expedition led by John Hunt, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay pushed through the final icy ridge and stood atop the world's highest peak. They spent about 15 minutes at the summit, taking photographs and burying small offerings, before beginning the perilous descent. News reached London just in time for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.
Astronauts Tom Stafford, John Young, and Gene Cernan flew the lunar module to within 8.4 nautical miles of the Moon's surface before firing engines to return to the command module, verifying hardware and procedures for the Apollo 11 landing two months later. Their splashdown in the Pacific closed out a flawless full-dress rehearsal.