1436
Brunelleschi's Dome Consecrated
After sixteen years of construction, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore finally had a roof. Four million bricks, laid in self-supporting herringbone courses, spanned a space no medieval mason had dared. Florence's skyline acquired the shape it still has, and Europe acquired proof that antiquity could be exceeded. Pope Eugenius IV presided over the consecration ceremony while Florentine citizens crowded every balcony and rooftop to watch.
Emperor Zara Yaqob Reforms Ethiopian Church
The Solomonic emperor of Ethiopia centralized the Ethiopian Orthodox Church under royal authority, imposed rigorous doctrinal uniformity across the highlands, and persecuted followers of traditional religions with an inquisitorial zeal that rivaled anything in contemporary Europe. He composed theological treatises defending the veneration of the Virgin Mary and demanded that all subjects wear Christian amulets. Ethiopian Christianity acquired its distinctively orthodox and politically enmeshed character under his authoritarian piety.
Khmer Capital Moves to Phnom Penh
Following Ayutthaya's devastating sack of Angkor five years earlier, the Khmer court permanently abandoned its monumental temple capital and relocated south to Phnom Penh at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. The move reflected a fundamental shift from inland agrarian power to maritime trade, but the loss of Angkor's vast hydraulic infrastructure of canals and reservoirs accelerated Khmer decline into a smaller, commercially oriented kingdom.
Paris Returns to French Control
After sixteen years of English occupation, Parisian burghers opened the gates to Charles VII's constable. English troops retreated to the Bastille and then fled by river. The king entered his own capital for the first time. Joan of Arc's vision was becoming, building by building, real geography. The peaceful transfer contrasted with the bloody Burgundian takeover of 1418, though English garrisons held several strongpoints for years.
Compacts of Iglau
The Council of Basel and the moderate Hussite Utraquists signed the Compacts of Iglau, allowing Bohemian laity to receive communion in both kinds. Sigismund was finally accepted as Bohemian king. The first institutional compromise between Roman Catholicism and a Reform movement had been signed, and it would hold for two centuries.