1282: Llywelyn ab Gruffydd the last native and independent Prince of Wales is killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, south Wales by forces of Edward I of England. Reigned from 1259 and is known as Llywelyn the Last. 1620: Mayflower Pilgrims come ashore in Plymouth Bay, traditionally thought to […]
1520: Martin Luther publicly burns papal edict demanding he recant 1684: Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper “De motu corporum in gyrum” (On the motion of bodies in an orbit), is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley. 1799: Metric system is first adopted in […]
536: Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire. 1212: Frederick II (later also Holy Roman Emperor) crowned King of Germany in Mainz. 1968: Douglas Engelbart demonstrates in “The Mother of All Demos” the computer system NLS (oN-Line System) to a live audience […]
1863: Abraham Lincoln issues his Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of the South 1941: US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II President Roosevelt delivers the “Day of Infamy” speech to a joint session of CongressFDR’s Day of Infamy Speech 1941: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his famous “Day […]
43 BC: Roman orator and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated in Formiae by soldiers under the command of Mark Antony 1909: Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermosetting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry 1941: Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attacks the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, […]
1240: Mongols led by Batu Khan occupy and destroy Kyiv after an eight-day siege; out of 50,000 people in the city, only 2,000 survive 1865: 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery except as a punishment for crime where the party has been duly convicted 1877: Thomas Edison enters the offices […]
771: Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman 1349: 500 Jews of the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg are massacred during Black Death riots, part of a wave of pogroms across Western Europe 1456: Earthquake strikes Naples, killing an estimated 35,000 people 1848: US President James K. […]
1534: Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent occupies Baghdad 1563: Council of Trent holds its last session after 18 years, the last ecumenical council for more than 300 years Famous and historically inaccurate painting of the English Pilgrims and Native American Wampanoag gathering and sharing a mealThe First Thanksgiving 1619: Thirty-eight colonists from Berkeley Parish, England, […]
1586: Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England from Colombia 1854: Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences 1967: First human heart transplant performed in South Africa by Dr. […]
1804: General Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of the French at the Notre Dame de Paris in a ceremony officiated by Pope Pius VII 1823: US President James Monroe declares the “Monroe Doctrine” opposing European colonialism in the Americas, arguing any European political intervention in the New World would be a hostile act against the […]
