533: Byzantine General Belisarius defeats the Vandals, under King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron 1256: Hulagu Khan captures and destroys Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut, in present-day Iran, part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia 1488: Bartolomeu Dias returns to Portugal after becoming 1st known European to sail round the Cape of Good Hope 1612: German Astronomer Simon […]
644: Uthman ibn Affan, companion of Muhammad, appointed 3rd Caliph of Islam 1287: During St. Lucia’s Flood in Northwest Netherlands the Zuiderzee seawall collapses with loss of over 50,000 lives. Fifth largest recorded flood in history 1542: Princess Mary Stuart succeeds her father James V and becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland at 6 days old 1774: First incident of American […]
1577 Francis Drake sets sail from England on a circumnavigation of the world 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 Tasman sights the South Island of present day New Zealand; initially he calls it Staten […]
627: Battle at Nineveh: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius beats Sassanid forces during Byzantine-Sassanid War 1901: Guglielmo Marconi sends the first transatlantic radio signal, from Poldhu in Cornwall to Newfoundland, Canada 1925: Last Qajar Shah of Iran deposed; Rezā Shāh Pahlavi takes over 1946: UN accepts 6 Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr 2000: US Supreme Court releases its decision […]
1620: Mayflower Pilgrims come ashore at in Plymouth Bay, traditionally thought to be at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts [NS, Dec 21] 1792: France’s King Louis XVI goes on trial, accused of high treason and crimes against the state 1913: “Mona Lisa” recovered 2 years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum 1931: Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, […]
1520: Martin Luther publicly burns papal edict demanding he recant 1684: Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley 1799: Metric system first adopted in France 1901: First Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Red Cross founder Jean Henri Dunant and peace activist […]
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: NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco. […]
1863: Abraham Lincoln issues his Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of the South 1941: US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II 1941: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers “Day of Infamy” speech to US Congress a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor 1965: Pope Paul VI signs 2nd Vatican council 1966: US and USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear […]
43 BC: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and politician is assassinated in Formiae 1909: Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermo-setting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry 1941: Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people 1965: Pope Paul VI & Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led […]
1240: Mongols under Batu Khan occupy and destroy Kiev; out of 50,000 people in the city only 2,000 survive 1865: 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed; Ireland receives dominion status; partition creates Northern Ireland 1998: Hugo Chávez is elected President of Venezuela 2006: NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the […]
