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 1945: “Elbe Day” – US and Soviet forces meet at Torgau, Germany on the Elbe River during the invasion of Germany in WWII […]
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 […]
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 completed by Frenchmen Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard 1902: Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the radioactive compound radium chloride 1920: Balfour Declaration recognized, makes Palestine a British Mandate 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 […]
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 […]
1025: Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland 1506: The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid in the Vatican by Pope Julius II 1775: Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Charlestown to Lexington warning the “regulars are coming!” 1783: American Revolution: George Washington issues General Order announcing the end of hostilities with Britain, giving […]
1387: Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” characters begin their pilgrimage to Canterbury (according to scholars) 1492: Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the “Indies” with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10% of all riches found, and the governorship of any lands encountered. 1895: Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed ending […]
1457 BC: Battle of Megiddo: Egyptian forces of Thutmose III defeat a large Canaanite coalition under King of Kadesh. First battle recorded with a reliable account. 1705: Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge 1746: Jacobite Rising 1745: Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under the Duke of Cumberland defeat the Jacobite […]
