218 BC: Battle of the Trebia: Hannibal’s Carthaginian army heavily defeats Roman forces on Italian soil during the Second Punic War 1271: Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan renames his empire “Yuan” (元 yuán), marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China 1603: First fleet of the Dutch East India Company under Admiral Steven van der […]
1398: Tamerlane captures and sacks Delhi, defeating Sultan Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud’s armies by setting camels loaded with hay alight and charging them at the Sultan’s armored elephants 1531: Pope Clement VII publishes papal bull “Cum ad nihil magis”, authorizing the Inquisition into Portugal at Evora, Coimbra and Lisbon; rescinded in 1535 1788: Russian army led by […]
755: An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Lushan Rebellion during the Chinese Tang dynasty 1598: Battle of Noryang Point: In the final naval battle of the Imjin War, the allied Korean and Chinese fleets decisively defeat the Japanese 1653: Parliamentarian General Oliver Cromwell appointed as Lord Protector of England, […]
533: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals led by King Gelimer at the Battle of Tricamarum 1256: Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive in Southwest Asia 1488: Bartolomeu Dias returns to Portugal after becoming the first known European to sail around the […]
644: Uthman ibn Affan, a companion of Muhammad, is appointed the third caliph of Islam (644-656) 1287: During St. Lucia’s Flood in northwest Netherlands, the Zuiderzee seawall collapses with the loss of over 50,000 lives, the fifth largest recorded flood in history 1542: Princess Mary Stuart succeeds her father James V and becomes Queen Mary […]
1577: Francis Drake sets sail from England on an epic three-year circumnavigation of the world aboard the “Pelican,” later renamed the “Golden Hind” 1636: The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. Recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard. 1642: Dutch explorer Abel […]
627: Battle of Nineveh: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defeats Sassanid forces during the Byzantine-Sassanid War 1925: Constituent Assembly of Iran votes 257 to 3 to amend the constitution, officially overthrowing the Qajar dynasty and bestowing the crown upon Reza Shah Pahlavi 1946: United Nations accepts six Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr. […]
1282: Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last native and independent Prince of Wales, is killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge near Cilmeri, close to Builth Wells in mid Wales, by forces of Edward I of England. Gruffydd reigned from 1259 and is known as Llywelyn the Last. 1620: Mayflower Pilgrims come ashore in Plymouth Bay, […]
1520: Martin Luther publicly burns Pope Leo X’s papal bull ‘Exsurge Domine’ which demanded that Luther recant his writings 1684: Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper “De motu corporum in gyrum” (On the motion of bodies in an orbit), is read to the Royal Society by […]
536: Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire 1212: Frederick II (later also Holy Roman Emperor) crowned King of Germany in Mainz 1968: Douglas Engelbart demonstrates in “The Mother of All Demos” the computer system NLS (oN-Line System) to a live audience […]
