527: Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire 1086: Results of the Domesday inquiry presented to William the Conqueror in Salisbury (the date of compilation and the Great Domesday are historically contestable) 1774: English chemist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen by isolating it in its gaseous state 1834: Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into effect, abolishes slavery throughout the British Empire 1958: US atomic […]
30 BC: Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves minor victory over Octavian, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to Octavian’s invasion of Egypt 1620: Pilgrim Fathers depart Leiden, Netherlands for England on their way to America 1917: World War I: Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) begins, goes on to cause approximately 500,000 casualties 1961: Israel welcomes its one […]
1178: Frederick I (Barbarossa), Holy Roman Emperor, crowned King of Burgundy 1419: First defenestration of Prague: anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, storm Prague town hall and throw the judge, mayor and several city council members out the windows. They die in the fall or killed by crowd outside. 1619: House of Burgesses Virginia forms, 1st elective […]
1588: The Battle of Gravelines – Spanish Armada damaged and scattered by the English fleet 1609: Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years 1848: Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule put down by police 1905: US […]
1794: French Revolutionary figure Maximilien Robespierre and 22 other leaders of “the Terror” guillotined to thunderous cheers in Paris 1914: Austria-Hungary decides against mediation and declares war on Serbia – first declaration of war of WWI 1917: Silent Parade organised by James Weldon Johnson of 10,000 African-Americans who march on 5th Ave in NYC to protest against lynching 1943: Operation Gomorrah: RAF bombing […]
1586: Walter Raleigh brings the 1st tobacco to England from Virginia 1689: Battle of Killicrankie: Jacobite Scottish Highlanders under Viscount Dundee defeat royalist force under General MacKay 1789: US Congress establishes Department of Foreign Affairs now referred to as the State Department 1866: transatlantic telegraph cable successfully in second attempt comes ashore at Heart’s Content, Newfoundland laid out by Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s […]
657: Battle of Siffin during the first Muslim civil war between Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah I beside Euphrates River 1519: Francisco Pizarro receives royal charter for the west coast of South America 1533: Francisco Pizarro orders the death of the last Sapa Inca Emperor, Atahualpa 1803: The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world’s first public railway, opens in south London 1908: United […]
306: Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops 1814: English engineer George Stephenson introduces his first steam locomotive, a travelling engine designed for hauling coal on the Killingworth wagonway named Blücher 1943: Benito Mussolini dismissed as Italian Premier and arrested on the authority of King Victor Emmanuel III 1944: World War II: Operation Spring – one of Canada’s bloodiest days, 18,444 casualties […]
1534: Jacques Cartier lands in Canada, claims it for France 1567: Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate; her 1-year-old son becomes King James VI of Scots 1832: Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by Wyoming’s South Pass 1911: American explorer Hiram Bingham discovers Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas 1943: Operation Gomorrah: RAF begins bombing Hamburg (till 3rd […]
1215: Frederick II crowned King of the Romans (King of the Germans) in Aachen 1829: William Austin Burt patents America’s first “typographer” (typewriter) 1840: Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper & Lower Canada 1944: Conference of Bretton Woods signed; IMF operations begin 1995: Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered and becomes visible to the naked eye nearly a year later […]
