1180: With the death of Manuel I Komnenos, the last Byzantine Emperor of the Komnenian restoration, the Byzantine Empire begins its terminal decline 1493: Christopher Columbus embarks on his second expedition to the New World, setting sail with a fleet of 17 ships 1789: US Federal Judiciary Act passes, creating a six-member Supreme Court 1869: […]
1122: Concordat of Worms is agreed between Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V 1821: Fall of Tripolitsa: Greek forces massacre 30,000 Turks during the Greek War of Independence 1862: Otto von Bismarck is appointed Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Prussia by King Wilhelm I 1884: American Herman Hollerith patents his mechanical […]
1692: The last eight people – Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker – are hanged for allegedly practicing witchcraft as a result of the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts Bay Colony; 19 are hanged overall, with six other deaths caused by the hysteria 1792: […]
1621: King James I of England gives Scottish courtier and poet William Alexander a royal charter to colonize Nova Scotia 1792: French Revolution: The National Convention passes a proclamation announcing the formal abolition of the French monarchy 1898: Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days’ Reform in China, imprisoning the Guangxu Emperor […]
622: Prophet Muhammad arrives in Yathrib (Medina) 1519: Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sets off on the first successful circumnavigation of the globe (Magellan is killed en route) 1604: Siege of Ostend ends after Dutch and English forces surrender the city, allowing Ambrosio Spinola’s Spanish army to recapture the devastated city and […]
1356: English forces under Edward the Black Prince defeat the French at the Battle of Poitiers and capture French King John II during the Hundred Years’ War 1870: Siege of Paris by Prussian forces begins (lasts until January 28, 1871) Women gained the vote in New Zealand in 1893, the summit at last.The First Country […]
1811: British East India Company force led by Baron Minto conquers Java, then part of the Dutch East Indies. Stamford Raffles is appointed lieutenant-governor. 1812: Great Fire of Moscow burns out after five days, destroys 75% of the city and kills 12,000 people 1873: Government bond agent Jay Cooke & Co collapses, causing panic on […]
642: Arab forces under Amr ibn al-‘As conquer Alexandria 1683: Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is the first to report the existence of bacteria 1787: US Constitution is signed by delegates at the Philadelphia Convention 1862: Battle of Antietam [Battle of Sharpsburg]: Bloodiest day in the American Civil War with 22,000 dead, wounded, or missing […]
1620: The Mayflower departs Plymouth, England, with 102 Pilgrims and about 30 crew for the New World [O.S. Sep 6] 1795: British capture Cape Town, South Africa, from the Dutch 1810: Priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rings the church bells in Dolores, Mexico, issuing a call to arms known as the “Grito de Dolores (Cry […]
1616: First non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy 1821: Act of Independence of Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua declare their independence from the Spanish Empire 1835: HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, reaches the Galápagos Islands 1916: First use of tanks in warfare, Britain’s […]
