585 BC: Solar eclipse, as predicted by Greek philosopher Thales, occurs while Lydians are at war with the Medes and leads to a truce. It is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates are calculated. 1431: Joan of Arc is accused of relapsing into heresy by donning male clothing again, providing justification for […]
1679: Habeas Corpus Act passes in England, strengthening a person’s right to challenge unlawful arrest and imprisonment 1703: Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) is founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great 1873: Heinrich Schliemann discovers “Priam’s Treasure” a cache of gold and other objects in Hisarlik (Troy) in Anatolia 1905: Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea […]
1896: Dow Jones Industrial Average begins with an average of 12 industrial stocks, the daily closing value is 40.9 1908: At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom 1927: Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce […]
1720: The ship Grand-Saint Antoine reaches Marseille, bringing Europe’s last major outbreak of bubonic plague, which kills around 100,000 people 1810: In the May Revolution, citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Spanish Viceroy Cisneros during Semana de Mayo 1914: British House of Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill 1942: First commercial fluid catalytic cracking […]
1595: Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library 1738: John Wesley is converted, launching the Methodist movement, celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day 1844: Samuel Morse taps out “What hath God wrought” in the world’s first telegraph message 1883: Brooklyn Bridge is opened by President Chester A. […]
1618: Second Defenestration of Prague: Two Catholic Lords Regent and their secretary are thrown out of a window and amazingly are not seriously injured by the 70-foot (21 m) fall; event triggers the Thirty Years’ War 1785: Benjamin Franklin describes his invention of bifocals in a letter to his friend George Whatley 1813: South American […]
334 BC: Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus 1570: First atlas “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum” (Theatre of the World) is published by Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp with 70 maps 1843: First wagon train departs Independence, Missouri, for Oregon with 700 to 1,000 migrants 1939: Germany’s […]
1792: Mount Unzen on Japan’s Shimabara Peninsula erupts, creating a tsunami and killing about 15,000 people in the country’s deadliest volcanic eruption 1832: First US Democratic National Convention is held in Baltimore 1871: French Army attacks Paris, starting the Semaine Sanglante (Bloody Week), a weeklong battle that kills 10,000-15,000 and ends the Paris Commune 1927: […]
526: Possible date of the Antioch earthquake in the Byzantine Empire (present-day Syria), which kills 200,000 people 1498: Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives in Calicut, India, becoming the first European to reach India by sea 1609: William Shakespeare’s Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by publisher Thomas Thorpe 1862: US President Abraham […]
1536: Anne Boleyn, second wife of English King Henry VIII, is beheaded at the Tower of London on charges of adultery, incest and treason 1643: Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven form the United Colonies of New England 1649: England is declared a Commonwealth by an act of the Rump Parliament, making England a […]
