50. It’s Constantinople, Not Istanbul

The Roman Empire split into two during the year 330 AD, leaving us with a West and East Roman Empire under different rulership. The Eastern Roman Empire, which would later come to be known as the Byzantine Empire, would outlast the West Roman Empire by almost 1,000 years.

The Ottoman Empire would eventually break into the capital Constantinople and destroy them. Forty years after this, Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas, a time when some who had been born while Byzantium was still around could have been alive still.