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How it happened: Ottomans conquer Istanbul

On this day 566 years ago Istanbul was conquered by an Ottoman king. Constantinople, as it was then known, was capital of the Byzantine Empire. It was surrounded by many Muslim states.

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Sultan Mehmet II, also known as Mehmet the Conqueror, led an army and conquered Istanbul in 1453. He had planned to conquer Istanbul when he was just a prince, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency. Mehmet II gave orders to prepare for a siege of Edirne, a northwestern province of present-day Turkey which shares a land border with Greece.