202 BC: Battle of Zama: Hannibal Barca and the Carthaginian army are defeated by Roman legions under Scipio Africanus, ending the Second Punic War 1781: British forces under General Charles Cornwallis sign terms of surrender to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown at 2 p.m., effectively ending the American Revolutionary War 1926: Russian […]
1009: Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the church’s foundations down to the bedrock 1685: French King Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, canceling the rights of French Protestants 1867: US takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia, after paying $7.2 million […]
1854: French and British forces bombard Sevastopol for the first time during the Crimean War 1907: Guglielmo Marconi’s company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland 1943: Burma Railway, built by Allied POWs and Asian laborers, is completed for use by the Japanese army 1973: OPEC […]
1813: Battle of Leipzig, the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I, sees Napoleon’s forces defeated by Prussia, Austria, and Russia 1900: Great Britain and Germany sign the Anglo-German Treaty, agreeing to maintain the territorial integrity of China and support the “Open Door” policy called for by the US Secretary of State 1934: […]
1581: The first ballet “Ballet Comique de la Reine,” commissioned by Catherine de Medici, is staged in Paris 1582: Gregorian calendar is introduced in Spain, Portugal, and the Papal States after skipping 10 days from October 4 to sync the calendar to the solar year and compensate for the drift that has occurred due to […]
1066: Battle of Hastings: William, Duke of Normandy and his Norman army defeat the English forces of Harold II, who is killed in the battle 1322: Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at the Battle of Old Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence 1774: First Continental Congress makes Declaration […]
54: Agrippina the Younger murders her husband, Roman Emperor Claudius, with poison to secure the succession for her son Nero 1307: French King Philip IV has Grand Master Jacques de Molay and the Knights Templar arrested and charged with idolatry and corruption 1884: International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, establishes Greenwich in London, England, as […]
539 BC: Army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon 1279: Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, founder of Nichiren Buddhism, inscribes the Dai-Gohonzon 1492: Christopher Columbus’s expedition makes landfall on a Caribbean island he names San Salvador (likely Watling Island, Bahamas). The explorer believes he has reached East Asia (OS 21 Oct) 1864: Brazilian […]
1138: Earthquake in Aleppo, Syria, kills an estimated 230,000 people 1634: Burchardi flood, known as the second “Grote Mandrenke,” kills about 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark, and Germany 1737: An earthquake is reported to have killed 300,000 and destroyed half of Calcutta in India, now thought to have been an exaggerated account of a hurricane […]
1780: The Great Hurricane of 1780 hits Barbados and goes on to kill 20,000 to 30,000 people in the Caribbean, making it the deadliest recorded hurricane in the Atlantic 1871: The Great Chicago Fire is finally extinguished after three days, leaving approximately 300 dead, 100,000 homeless, and causing $222 million in damage 1911: Chinese revolutionaries […]
