Henry VI, son of Henry V and Catherine of France, is king of England and theoretically king of France before his first birthday

The Temple of Heaven in Beijing is built for the third emperor of the Ming dynasty

A peasant girl, Joan of Arc, hears the voices of saints urging her to relieve the siege of Orléans

Joan of Arc wins her way into the presence of Charles VII at Chinon and persuades him, eventually, to trust her

Joan of Arc leads French forces in the successful relief of Orléans

Joan of Arc stands nearby while Charles VII is anointed at Reims, then kneels before him and for the first time calls him her king

Joan of Arc is captured in a skirmish with the Burgundians, who subsequently hand her over to the English

Joan of Arc, tried by the Inquisition on behalf of the English in Rouen, is burned at the stake as a relapsed heretic

Cosimo de' Medici, arrested by a rival faction, escapes with his life thanks to bribes and well-placed friends

Charles VII enters Paris, marking conclusively the end of the French civil war

On the death of his father, James I, James II becomes king of Scotland

The office of Holy Roman emperor becomes a hereditary title within the Habsburg dynasty

After a decisive victory over the Chanca people, a young Inca prince seizes the throne in Peru and takes the name Pachacuti

Cuzco, city of the Incas, grows rapidly in power after Pachacuti ('transformer of the earth') becomes emperor

Naples is captured by Alfonso V, breaking the link with France and uniting Sicily and Naples as an Aragonese kingdom

Christian boys, trained as slaves in the personal service of the Turkish sultan, acquire considerable power as the elite corps of janissaries

Francesco Sforza, a soldier of fortune, wins power in Milan

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

An engagement at St Albans is the first battle in the 30-year struggle between the white and red roses of York and Lancaster

Matthias Corvinus begins a long reign which brings Moravia, Silesia and much of Austria within the Hungarian kingdom

On the death of his father, James II, James III becomes king of Scotland

The first success in the Wars of the Roses goes to the white rose, with the Yorkist prince crowned as Edward IV

Henry VI flees to Scotland, abandoning the kingdom to the usurping Edward IV

Mehmed II, conqueror of Constantinople, begins to build Topkapi Sarayi as his palace