1291: After 100 years of Crusader control, Acre is the last Crusader stronghold reconquered and destroyed by the Mamluks under Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil 1804: Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate 1896: Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field, Moscow, during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, results in the deaths of […]
1527: Pánfilo de Narváez departs Spain to explore Florida with 600 men – by 1536 only 4 survive 1792: 24 merchants form New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street 1803: John Hawkins & Richard French patent the Reaping Machine 1973: Senate Watergate Committee begins its hearings 2004: Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage 2014: The center-right […]
1920: Joan of Arc (Jeanne D’arc) canonized a saint 1943: Operation Chastise: No. 617 Squadron RAF begins the famous Dambusters Raid, bombing the Möhne and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley with bouncing bombs 1944: 1st of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz 1989: Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping meet in Beijing and formally end a 30-year rift 2013: Human stem cells are successfully […]
1252: Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition 1618: German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws his “harmonics law” 1869: National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1940: Richard and Maurice McDonald open the […]
1787: Delegates gather in Philadelphia to draw up US Constitution 1796: English country doctor Edward Jenner administers the first inoculation against smallpox, using cowpox pus, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire 1804: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s expedition commissioned by Thomas Jefferson sets out from St Louis for Pacific Coast 1948: Israel declares independence from British administration Source: Onthisday.com
1787 Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of criminals to Botany Bay, Australia 1830 Republic of Ecuador is founded, with Juan Jose Flores as president 1934 Great dustbowl storm sweeps across US prairies 1940 Winston Churchill says “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat” in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons […]
1789: William Wilberforce makes his first major speech on abolition in the UK House of Commons, reasoning the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice 1940: Nazi blitzkrieg and conquest of France begins with the crossing of the Muese River 1943: Axis forces in North Africa surrender 2002: Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel […]
By Iphigenie Moraitini The concept of “friendly fire”—or, when some ally accidentally fires on you—was invented to highlight one of the perhaps most maddening things about war: It is confusing. It is an ugly big mess. In fact, some people have been known to joke that the only reason soldiers wear a uniform is, so […]
330: Constantinople (Byzantium) becomes the capital of the Roman Empire 1189: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and 100,000 crusaders depart Regensburg for the Third Crusade 1751: Pennsylvania Hospital founded by Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin 1924: Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie begin their first joint venture (later merge into Mercedes-Benz) 1995: More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation […]
1497: Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci leaves for his first voyage to the New World (disputed) 1775: Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and issues paper currency for 1st time 1801: First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America (1st US foreign war) 1857: Indian mutiny against rule by the British East India Company […]
