Hezârfen's flight over the Bosphorus
Legend says a man flew on wings from Europe to Asia
The traveller Evliya Çelebi wrote that the scholar Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi leapt from Galata Tower on artificial wings and glided across the Bosphorus to Üsküdar. Sultan Murad IV rewarded him, then exiled him as too dangerous. No other source confirms the story.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
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Legend says the first Ottoman flyer was rewarded with a bag of gold — and then exiled. Sultan Murad IV supposedly decided that a man who could glide across the Bosphorus was too dangerous. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — 22 years earlier
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — 14 years earlier
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — 16 years later
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — 17 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — 20 years earlier
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — 19 years earlier
- 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement — 22 years later
Africa
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — 8 years earlier
Asia
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — same year
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — 12 years later
Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — 25 years earlier
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — 23 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Galileo Galilei (aged 68)
- René Descartes (aged 36)
- Rembrandt (aged 26)
- Nur Jahan (aged 55)
- Ferdinand II (aged 54)
- Tokugawa Hidetada (aged 53)
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba (aged 49)
- Shah Jahan (aged 40)
- Gustavus Adolphus (aged 38)
- Michael I (aged 36)