1438
Pachacuti Becomes Sapa Inca
Repelling a Chanka invasion that should have destroyed Cuzco, the young prince seized the throne from his father and began the most explosive imperial expansion in human history. Within his lifetime the Inca would stretch from Quito to central Chile. He also redesigned Cuzco to look, from above, like a puma.
Albrecht II Elected King of Germany
The Habsburg archduke of Austria inherited the German, Hungarian, and Bohemian crowns in a single year, initiating the dynasty's long march toward European dominance. He died of dysentery within eighteen months, but the precedent was set: the Holy Roman Empire now belonged, by custom, to the Habsburgs. His posthumous son Ladislaus became a pawn in dynastic struggles between Hungarian, Bohemian, and Austrian factions for two decades.
Inca Redesign Cuzco as a Puma
Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui demolished old Cuzco and rebuilt the sacred capital in the shape of a crouching puma, with the fortress of Sacsayhuaman forming the animal's head and teeth. Massive polygonal stones, some weighing well over a hundred tons, were fitted together without mortar so precisely that a knife blade cannot pass between their joints. Andean stone engineering had reached its absolute zenith.
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges
Charles VII of France issued a royal decree asserting the French church's autonomy from papal financial and appointive control, giving the king effective authority over French bishoprics, abbeys, and their substantial revenues. The Gallican church became, in practice, a department of the French state, its appointments subject to royal rather than Roman approval. The papacy protested loudly; France ignored the protests with increasing confidence for the next century.