1571: Battle of Lepanto: Holy League of Catholic states formed by Pope Pius V destroys an Ottoman fleet in a significant defeat off Western Greece 1737: A cyclone causes 40-foot waves that are believed to kill 300,000 in Calcutta, India 1763: George III of Great Britain issues the Proclamation of 1763, closing lands in North […]
1917: Third Battle of Ypres: Canadian troops recapture the high ground in the village of Passchendaele from the Germans in West Flanders, Belgium, during World War I; over 200,000 casualties occur on each side, and 24,000 German prisoners are taken 1948: Earthquake in Ashgabat kills 100,000 in Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic 1948: Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey […]
1274: Around 1,000 soldiers of the Mongol army land on the Japanese island of Tsushima in the first attack of Kublai Khan’s Mongol invasion of Japan 1789: Women of Paris march to Versailles in the March on Versailles to confront Louis XVI about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand […]
1537: First printing in England of the complete English-language Bible, the “Matthew’s Bible,” with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale (an update of the earlier “Coverdale Bible”) [exact month/day unclear] [1] 1582: Last Julian calendar day in Spain, Portugal, and the Papal States; to sync to the Gregorian calendar 10 days are skipped, and […]
2333 BC: According to Korean tradition, the state of Gojoseon, in present-day Korea, is founded by Dangun Wanggeom during the reign of the legendary Chinese ruler Yao 52 BC: Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and Battle of Alesia 1283: Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd, […]
1187: Sultan of Egypt Saladin captures Jerusalem from the Crusaders 1492: King Henry VII of England invades France 1789: George Washington transmits the proposed constitutional amendments, known as the United States Bill of Rights, to the states for ratification 1928: “Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God,” known as Opus Dei, is […]
331 BC: Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela 1688: Prince William of Orange accepts invitation to take up the British crown 1814: The Congress of Vienna opens to redraw Europe’s political map after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte 1867: Karl Marx publishes “Das Kapital” in Berlin, describing the […]
1520: Suleiman the Magnificent succeeds his father, Selim I, as Ottoman Sultan and rules until 1566 1846: Anesthetic ether is used for the first time by American dentist Dr. William Morton to extract a tooth 1862: Minister-President of Prussia Otto von Bismarck delivers his famous “Blood and Iron” speech on the unification of German territories […]
1066: William the Conqueror’s troops set sail from Normandy to invade England 1290: Earthquake in the Gulf of Chihli (Bohai Sea) near China reportedly kills 100,000 people 1779: John Adams is appointed to negotiate Revolutionary War peace terms with Great Britain 1821: Mexican revolutionary forces led by Agustín de Iturbide occupy Mexico City as the […]
1580: Francis Drake completes his circumnavigation of the world, sailing into Plymouth, England aboard the Golden Hind 1687: The Acropolis in Athens is attacked by the Venetian army in an attempt to expel the Turks, damaging the Parthenon 1688: City council of Amsterdam votes to support Prince William of Orange’s invasion of England, known as […]
