1478: Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill Giuliano de’ Medici in Florence 1920: Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold “great debate” on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. 1945: Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France’s Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II, arrested for […]
1660: English Convention Parliament meets and votes to restore Charles II 1792: Guillotine first used in France, executes highwayman Nicolas Pelletier 1846: Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War 1915: First landings at Gaba Tepe and Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula by ANZAC forces during WWI 1920: San Remo conference establishes three League of […]
The Armenian Genocide, the systematic mass murder and expulsion of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians carried out in Turkey and adjoining regions by the Ottoman government between 1914 and 1923, is commemorated on April 24th every year.
1479 BC: Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty) 1184 BC: The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date) 1877: Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire 1898: Spanish–American War: Spain declares war after rejecting US ultimatum to […]
215 BC: A temple, built on the Capitoline Hill, is dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene 1014: King Brian Boru of Ireland defeats Viking forces at Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from foreign control 1597: William Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance 1861: Robert […]
1500: Pedro Álvares Cabral is the first european to discover Brazil, landing near Monte Pascoal, claims it for Portugal 1915: 1st military use of poison gas (chlorine, by Germany) in WW I 1993: Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Washington, D.C. 1994: 7,000 Tutsi slaughtered by Hutus in the stadium at Kibuye, Rwanda 2006: 243 people are injured in pro-democracy protest in Nepal […]
Cleopatra VII Philopator is one of the most famous figures of antiquity, but few people are familiar with the fascinating history of her ancestors.
753 BC: Romulus and Remus found Rome (traditional date) 1526: First Battle of Panipat: Central Asian conqueror Babur defeats Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, establishing the Mughal Empire in India 1792: Brazilian revolutionary Tiradentes, is hanged, drawn and quartered in Rio de Janeiro 1863: Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith, enters garden of Rivden near Baghdad. He makes his declaration as a Messenger of […]
1862: First pasteurization test is completed by Frenchmen Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard 1902: Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the radioactive compound radium chloride 1968: British politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial “Rivers of Blood” speech 1974: ‘The Troubles’, the Northern Ireland conflict between republican and loyalist paramilitaries, British security forces, and civil rights groups, claims its 1000th victim 1980: Climax of the Berber Spring […]
1770: British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia. Writes in his log book that “what we have as yet seen of this land appears rather low, and not very hilly, the face of the Country green and Woody, but the Sea shore is all a white Sand.” 1775: American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts. The “Shot Heard Round the […]
