The fall of Constantinople, on May 29,1453 was the final phase of the Byzantine-Ottoman Wars and the darkest page in Greek ...

The French fired 100-pound stone balls during a siege in 1375, Balkan gunners fired on Venetian ships in 1378, and the Ottoman Turks reportedly used cannon at the First Battle of Kosovo in 1389.

But this time, the Ottomans had a secret weapon: a newfangled cannon brought to them by a Hungarian Christian named Orman. Orman had first offered his cannon to the Byzantines, who refused to meet ...