1602 United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms 1800 Alessandro Volta reports his discovery of the electric battery in a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London 1815 Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule 1900 US Secretary of State John Hay announces that all nations to whom he sent notes calling for an ‘open […]
1279 A Mongolian victory at the naval Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China 1644 200 members of Peking imperial family and court commit suicide in loyalty to the Emperor 1863 Confederate cruiser SS Georgiana destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, and medicines then valued over $1,000,000. Wreck discovered exactly 102 years […]
1123 1st Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opens in Rome, agreements of the Concordat of Worms ratified 1314 Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake by King Philip IV of France 1325 According to legend, Tenochtitlan is founded on this date on an island in what […]
432 Saint Patrick, aged about 16 is captured by Irish pirates from his home in Great Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland (traditional date) 1521 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines 1861 Italy is unified into a single kingdom under Victor Emmanuel II following the campaigns led by Giuseppe Garibaldi 1905 Albert Einstein finishes his scientific paper detailing his Quantum Theory of […]
597 BC Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king 1527 Battle of Khanua: Mughal Emperor Babur defeats Rajput forces led by Rana Sanga consolidating Mughal power 1660 English Long Parliament disbands 1792 King gustav iii of Sweden is shot by Count Jacob Johan Anckarström at a masked ball at the Opera; he dies on March 29 1867 First publication of an article […]
44 BC Julius Caesar is stabbed to death by Brutus, Cassius and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March in Rome 221 Liu Bei, a Chinese warlord and member of the Han royal house, declares himself Emperor of Shu-Han, claiming legitimate succession to the Han Dynasty 1493 Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first voyage to the New World 1783 In […]
1590 Battle of Ivry: French King Henry IV beats Catholic League during French Wars of Religion 1794 Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin machine revolutionizing the cotton industry in the southern US states 1900 Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel’s laws of genetics 1900 US currency goes on gold standard after Congress passes the Currency Act 1943 World War II: Kraków Ghetto […]
624 Battle of Badr: Muhammad’s Muslim forces win significant victory over Meccan army 1591 Battle at Tondibi: Moroccan army under Judar defeats Sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai 1781 William Herschel sees what he thinks is a “comet” but is actually the discovery of the planet Uranus 1884 Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins by Mahdist forces, lasts 10 months 1903 Fall […]
538 Witiges, King of the Ostrogoths, ends his siege of Rome, retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of victorious Byzantine General Belisarius 1455 First record of Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible, letter dated this day by Enea Silvio Piccolomini refers to the bible printed a year before 1642 Abel Tasman is the 1st European to sight New Zealand, viewing […]
843 Icon veneration officially re-instated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople 1502 Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524) 1918 Moscow becomes capital of revolutionary Russia 1966 Military coup led by Indonesian General Suharto breaks out 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader 2011 9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami […]
