Constantinople

Venice, defeated in its war against Constantinople, forced its wealthy citizens to lend the state money in exchange for interest payments — an arrangement historians credit as the origin of the modern bond market. The story illustrates how medieval fiscal desperation, not financial innovation for its own sake, gave birth to public debt as we know it.

On this day in 1923, the Turkish National Movement entered Constantinople, a turning point that paved the way for the founding of the Republic of Turkey later that year. The anniversary is being marked with reminders of the country's transition from Ottoman rule to a modern republic, alongside travel and history notes about Istanbul.