1570: Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England for heresy and persecution of English Catholics during her reign. Also absolves her subjects from allegiance to the crown. 1862: First Legal Tender Act 1862 is passed by the US Congress, authorizing the United States note (greenback) into circulation, the first fiat paper money that was legal tender in America 1910: Dalai Lama flees […]
303: 1st official Roman edict for persecution of Christians issued by Emperor Diocletian 1525: Battle of Pavia: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V’s troops beat the French. French King Francois I captured, 15,000 killed or wounded 1582: Pope Gregory XIII announces New Style (Gregorian) calendar 1739: Battle of Karnal: Army of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, […]
303: Roman Emperor Diocletian begins his policy of persecuting Christians, razing the church at Nicomedia 1455: Johannes Gutenberg prints his first Bible (estimated date) 1540: Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition sets off from Mexico in search of the 7 cities of Cibola 1836: Alamo besieged for 13 days until March 6 by Mexican army under General Santa Anna; entire garrison eventually killed 1904: United States […]
1632: Galileo’s “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” is published 1774: British House of Lords rules authors do not have perpetual copyright 1797: The Last Invasion of Britain, launched by the French during the Revolutionary Wars, begins near Fishguard, Wales 1825: Russia & Britain establish Alaska-Canada boundary 1967: 25,000 US and South Vietnamese troops launch Operation Junction City against the […]
1173: Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury 1613: Michael Romanov, son of Patriarch of Moscow, elected first Russian Tsar of the house of Romanov 1804: 1st locomotive, Richard Trevithick’s, runs for the 1st time, along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales 1916: World War I: Battle of Verdun begins with a German offensive, […]
1792: US postal service created, postage 6-12 cents depending on distance 1872: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens 1873: British Naval Officer John Moresby discovers the site of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and claims it for Britain 1938: UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns stating Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has appeased Nazi Germany 1947: Earl Mountbatten of Burma appointed as last viceroy of India […]
356: Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples 1600: Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in South American recorded history 1878: Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his gramophone (phonograph) 1942: About 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin 1945: US 5th Fleet launches invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese with 30,000 US Marines Source: […]
1519: Hernán Cortés leaves Cuba for the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico with 11 ships and 500 men 1678: John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” is published in Holborn, London, by Nathaniel Ponder 1861: King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia becomes first King of Italy 1885: Mark Twain publishes the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in the US 1917: 1st major strike of the Russian “February Revolution” starts […]
1568: Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II agrees to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire for peace 1865: Columbia, South Carolina, burns down during American Civil War 1876: Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine 1972: British Parliament votes to join the European Common Market 2017: Discovery of a new mostly underwater continent Zealandia in the South Pacific announced in […]
1659: 1st known cheque written (£400), now on display at Westminster Abbey 1840: American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica 1923: Howard Carter opens the inner burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb and finds the sarcophagus 1959: Fidel Castro becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista 2005: The Kyoto Protocol comes into force following its ratification by Russia. […]
