1609: Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers, including the Doge (ruler) of Venice, Leonardo Donato 1619: Slavery begins in mainland British colonies of North America when the first known African captives (approximately 20) land at Point Comfort, Virginia, before being sold or traded into servitude [1] 1718: Hundreds of French colonists arrive […]
79: Believed until 2018 to be the date of the massive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius which buried the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae, killing untold thousands, latest evidence suggests the eruption occurred after 17 October 410: Rome is overrun by Visigoths under Alaric I for the first time in nearly 800 years, seen […]
1305: Scottish patriot William Wallace is executed for high treason by Edward I of England at Smithfield, London 1542: Rabbi Joseph Caro completes his major work, the “Beit Yosef,” a voluminous commentary on the “Arba’ah Turim” code 1850: First US National Women’s Rights Convention convenes in Worcester, Massachusetts 1942: Battle of Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffe planes […]
1485: Battle of Bosworth Field: Henry Tudor’s forces defeat English King Richard III during the last battle in the Wars of the Roses. Richard is killed, becoming the last English monarch to die in battle. 1639: Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from […]
1703: Edirne Incident: Turkish army ousts Sultan Mustafa II, replacing him with his brother Ahmed III, reducing the power of the Sultan 1772: King Gustav III of Sweden completes a coup d’état by adopting a new constitution and installing himself as an enlightened despot, ending 50 years of parliamentary rule 1888: American inventor William Seward […]
1597: First Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East 1619: Slavery begins in mainland British colonies of North America when the first known African captives (approximately 20) land at Point Comfort, Virginia, before being sold or traded into servitude [1] 1741: Alaska is first sighted by a Russian expedition led by Danish […]
43 BC: Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him consul 1839: Louis Daguerre’s daguerreotype photographic process with complete working instructions is published “free to the world” in Paris as a gift from the French government 1942: World War II: Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers are killed, wounded, or captured during […]
1737: First public admission to the Salon de Paris art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris 1838: United States Exploring Expedition headed by Charles Wilkes departs for the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica 1919: Anti-Cigarette League of America forms in Chicago, Illinois 1920: State Representative Harry T. Burn (24) casts the deciding vote in Tennessee’s and […]
1590: Governor of Roanoke Island colony John White returns from England to find no trace of the colonists he left there three years earlier [or August 18, 1591] 1903: Joseph Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University and begins the Pulitzer Prizes in the United States 1945: Korea is divided into North and South Korea […]
1513: Battle of the Spurs at Guinegate (now Enguinegatte): King Henry VIII of England and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I defeat French forces, capturing the town and routing the French cavalry 1858: Britain’s Queen Victoria telegraphs US President James Buchanan for the first time via transatlantic telegraph cable; he replies, “It is a triumph more […]
