Free Republic

Built as Byzantium around 657 BC and then renamed Constantinople in the 4th century CE after Constantine the Great made the city his capital, the city of Istanbul officially received its present name on this day in 1930. Surprisingly, the capital of the Byzantine Empire was not renamed after the Ottomans captured it in 1453. Variations of “Constantinople” continued to be used by the Turkish-speaking conquerors long after they took control of the city. “It’s a fact that the Ottomans called Istanbul ‘Kostantiniyye,’ among other names, in thousands of their official documents,” said Christoph Herzog, chair of Turkish studies at...

SEATTLE - Mary Kay Letourneau and her former sixth-grade pupil — the father of her two youngest children — will be married Friday night, "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" reported Thursday. Tents were being set up Thursday afternoon for the ceremony in a secluded spot in King County, according to the television programs, which obtained exclusive rights to cover the event. A rehearsal dinner for bridesmaids, groomsmen and relatives was planned Thursday. Letourneau, now 43, served 7 1/2 years in prison after she was convicted of raping Vili Fualaau, now 22. She was released last August. The couple first met...