1788: US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it 1854: First Victoria Cross won during the bombardment of Bomarsund in the Åland Islands during the Crimean War 1948: Columbia Records unveils the 33-1/3 rpm LP phonograph record, invented by Peter Carl Goldmark, allowing up to 20 minutes per […]
451: Battle of the Catalaunian Plains: Roman and Visigoth forces defeat Attila the Hun in northeast France, halting the Hun invasion of Roman Gaul [exact date disputed] 1789: French Revolution: The Third Estate of the French Estates-General swears the Tennis Court Oath at the Palace of Versailles, vowing not to disband until a new constitution […]
1306: The Earl of Pembroke’s army defeats Robert the Bruce’s Scottish army at the Battle of Methven 1829: Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London, the city’s first modern police force 1862: Slavery is outlawed in US territories 1865: Union General Gordon Granger declares […]
618: Coronation of Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China 1812: War of 1812 begins when the US declares war against Britain 1815: Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon Bonaparte and France are defeated by British forces under the Duke of […]
656: Ali ibn Abu Talib elected the 4th Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate 1527: Pánfilo de Narváez departs Spain to explore Florida with five ships and 600 men; by 1536, only four men are still alive 1590: depiction of Francis Drake’s landing in what he called New Albion, now northern CaliforniaFrancis Drake Lands in California […]
763 BC: Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history 1215: King John of England signs the Magna Carta at Runnymede near Windsor in Surrey, limiting royal authority and establishing the principle that the king and his government are not above the law 1219: According to legend, […]
1381: Richard II of England meets with leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt at Blackheath; rebels storm the Tower of London and enter without resistance 1645: Battle of Naseby, Leicestershire: Parliament’s New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax defeats the Royalist forces of English King Charles I 1777: US Continental Congress adopts the Stars […]
1770: Patent for the ‘Spinning Jenny’, the first multiple spinning machine that revolutionizes cotton spinning, is granted to English weaver James Hargreaves [1] 1830: Beginning of French colonization of Algeria: 34,000 French soldiers land 27 kilometers west of Algiers at Sidi Ferruch 1864: Battle of Trevilian Station, the bloodiest and largest all-cavalry battle of the […]
1184 BC: Troy is sacked and burned during the Trojan War, according to calculations by Eratosthenes 631: Emperor Taizong of Tang sends envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk for the release of Chinese prisoners captured on the northern frontier during the transition from the Sui to Tang dynasty and succeeds in freeing 80,000 […]
1190: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa drowns while crossing the Saleph River in modern-day Turkey, leading an army to Jerusalem during the Third Crusade 1786: A landslide dam on the Dadu River, caused by an earthquake ten days earlier, collapses and kills 100,000 in Sichuan province, China 1898: US Marines land in Cuba during […]
