1649: The English Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial for treason and other “high crimes” 1912: Geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener presents his controversial theory of continental drift in a lecture at the Geological Association (Geologischen Vereinigung) at the Senckenberg-Museum, Frankfurt 1941: US President Franklin Roosevelt makes his “Four Freedoms” speech (freedom of speech and worship; freedom from want and fear) […]
1477: Battle of Nancy, Burgundy vs Switzerland, 7,000 + killed including their leader Charles Duke of Burgundy 1781: British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond, Virginia 1919: German Workers’ Party forms, precursor to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) 1930: Mao Zedong writes “A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire” 1949: US President Harry Truman labels his administration the “Fair Deal” […]
1847: Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government 1865: New York Stock Exchange opens its 1st permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad St, near Wall Street in New York City 1959: Luna 1 (Mechta) becomes 1st craft to leave Earth’s gravity 1961: Longest recorded strike ends as the Danish barbers’ assistants end a 33 year strike […]
1496: Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine 1521: Martin Luther is Excommunicated by Pope Leo X from the Roman Catholic Church for failing to recant parts of his Ninety-five Theses which started the Protestant Reformation 1777: General George Washington’s revolutionary army defeats British forces at Battle of Princeton, New Jersey 1925: Benito Mussolini dissolves the Italian parliament and proclaims himself dictator of Italy, […]
366: The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire 1492: Muhammad XII, the last Emir of Granada, surrenders his city to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile, ending both the Reconquista and centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula 1570: Tsar Ivan the Terrible’s march to Novgorod begins 1905: American anarcho-syndicalist union known as […]
45 BC: The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time 630: Prophet Muhammad sets out with an army 10,000 strong to conquer Mecca 1758: The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature establish the “starting point” for standardized species names across the animal kingdom, based on the binomial nomenclature by Carolus Linnaeus 10th edition of Systema Naturae 1863: Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln to […]
406: 80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning invasion of Gallia 1744: English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion (wobble) 1775: Battle of Quebec in American Revolutionary War; Americans defeated trying to take British stronghold 1861: 22,990mm of rain falls in Cherrapunji Assam in India in 1861, a world record 1958: Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista tells his […]
1460: Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield (Northern England), Duke of York killed and his forces soundly defeated by forces for King Henry VI 1703: Tokyo hit by Earthquake; about 37,000 die 1906: The All India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India Empire, later laid down the foundations of Pakistan 1922: Creation of the […]
1835: Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States 1845: Texas admitted as 28th state of the Union 1903: French Equatorial Africa separates into Gabon, Chad and Ubangi-Shari 1911: Sun Yat-sen elected 1st President of […]
1065: Westminster Abbey Consecrated in London 1612: First observation of Neptune – Galileo observes and records a “fixed star” without realising it is a planet 1767: King Taksin crowned King of Thailand and establishes Thonburi as his capital 1836: Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico 1860: Harriet Tubman arrives in Auburn, New York, on her last mission to free slaves, having evaded capture for […]
