588 BC: Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah’s reign. The siege lasts until July 23, 586 BC. 1535: Henry VIII declares himself head of the Church in England 1559 Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey 1759: British Museum opens in Montague House, London 1902: Abdulaziz Ibn Saud leads 40 men over the walls of Riyadh and takes the […]
1526: Charles V and Francis I sign the Treaty of Madrid, forcing Francis to give up claims to Burgundy, Italy and Flanders 1641: United East Indian Company conquers city of Malacca, 7,000 killed 1724: Spanish King Philip V abdicates throne 1761: Third Battle of Panipat: In one of the largest battles of the century, the mostly Muslim Afghani Durrani Empire defeats the […]
532: Nika riots begin in Constantinople, revolt against Emperor Justinian I, prompted by chariot racing 1785: John Walter publishes 1st issue of “The Times” of London 1943: Adolf Hitler declares “Total War” against the Allies 1970: Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu flees Biafra into exile, leaving his deputy Philip Effiong to surrender to the Nigerian army, unofficially ending the Nigerian Civil War 2000: Microsoft […]
1528: Gustav I of Sweden crowned King of Sweden, rules for 37 years and becomes known as the “father of the nation” 1554: Bayinnaung crowned King of Burma, goes on to assemble the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia 1872: Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, 1st imperial coronation in Axum in over […]
1599: Jacob van Neck’s fleet leaves Bantam, Java in modern day Indonesia with 1 million pounds of pepper and cloves and a further half a ship full of nutmeg, mace and cinnamon 1838: First public demonstration of telegraph messages sent using dots and dashes at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail 1879: Anglo-Zulu War begins […]
49 BC: Julius Caesar defies the Roman Senate and crosses the Rubicon, uttering “alea iacta est” (the die is cast), signaling the start of civil war which would lead to his appointment as Roman dictator for life 1430: Catholic Order of the Golden Fleece founded in Bruges in celebration of the prosperous and wealthy domains of Philip the Good, Duke […]
1431: Judges’ investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government 1760: Afghans defeat Marathas in battle of Barari Ghat 1839: Daguerreotype photo process announced at French Academy of Science 1909: Ernest Shackleton as part of the British Nimrod Expedition reaches a record farthest South latitude (88°23′ south) 1941: 6,000 Jews murdered in a […]
1656: Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands) 1790: 1st US President George Washington delivers 1st state of the union address 1835: US national debt is $0 for the first and only time in history 1912: Chiefs, representatives of people’s and church organisations, and other prominent individuals form the African National Congress and declare its aim to bring all Africans together […]
1610: Galileo Galilei discovers the first three moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa & Ganymede 1714: Typewriter patented by Englishman Henry Mill (built years later) 1941: Chinese Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-shek open fire on the surrounded Communist New Fourth Army at Maolin, Anhui Province, killing or capturing 7,000 troops 1953: US President Harry Truman announces American development of the hydrogen bomb 1954: Georgetown-IBM […]
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) […]
