1405: Chinese fleet commander Zheng He sets sail on his first major expedition, to the Spice Islands, leading 208 vessels, including 62 treasure ships with 27,800 sailors 1533: Pope Clement VII excommunicates England’s King Henry VIII 1818: English poet John Keats writes “In the Cottage Where Burns is Born”, “Lines Written in the Highlands”, and “Gadfly” 1877: Kate Edger becomes New Zealand’s […]
1778: American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain 1940: Battle of Britain begins as Nazi forces attack shipping convoys in the English Channel 1985: French foreign intelligence agents blow up the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor, New Zealand to prevent it interfering with French nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Dutch photographer Fernando […]
1401: Turko-Mongol ruler Tamerlane (Timur) destroys Baghdad, killing 20,000 1790: Russo-Swedish War: Second Battle of Svensksund – in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Navy captures one third of the Russian fleet 1868: Louisiana and South Carolina are the last states to ratify the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing civil rights 1893: Daniel Williams repairs the torn pericardium of a […]
1099: First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders look on 1497: Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama departs on his first voyage, becoming the 1st European to reach India by sea 1777: Independent Vermont introduces a new constitution, prohibiting slavery 1800: Dr Benjamin Waterhouse gives 1st cowpox vaccination in the US to his […]
1520: Battle of Otumba, Mexico: Hernán Cortés and the Tlaxcalans defeat a numerically superior Aztec force 1937: Japanese and Chinese troops clash at the Marco Polo Bridge, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War 1947: Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident 2005: Coordinated terrorist bomb blasts strike London’s public transport system during the morning rush hour killing 52 and injuring 700 2005: Influenced by […]
1348: Papal bull of Pope Clement VI issued during the Black Death stating Jews not to blame and urging their protection 1785: US Congress unanimously resolves the name of US currency to the “dollar” and adopts decimal coinage 1885: Louis Pasteur successfully give an anti-rabies vaccine to 9-year-old Joseph Meister, saving his life 1923: The Central Executive Committee accepts the Treaty of […]
1687: Isaac Newton’s great work Principia published by Royal Society in England, outlining his laws of motion and universal gravitation 1811: Venezuelan Declaration of Independence: 7 provinces declare themselves independent of Spain 1852: Frederick Douglass, fugitive slave, delivers his ‘What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?’ speech to the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, condemns the […]
1776: US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Great Britain 1785: James Hutton, geologist, publicly reads an abstract of his theory of uniformitarianism for the first time at the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1803: The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people by President Thomas Jefferson 1838: Huskar Colliery Mining Disaster in Silkstone England: mining pit […]
324: Battle of Adrianople: Roman Emperor Constantine I defeats his co-emperor Licinius, who flees to Byzantium 1187: Battle of Horns of Hattin: Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, destroys Jerusalem’s crusader army 1863: Battle of Gettysburg, largest battle ever fought on the American continent, ends in a major victory for the Union during the US Civil War 1884: Dow Jones publishes its […]
626: Incident at Xuanwu Gate: in fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng 1776: Continental Congress resolves “these United Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States” 1823: Bahia Independence Day: the end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese […]
