1864: Battle of Gate Pā (Pukehinahina): 1,700 British troops suffer their worst defeat of the New Zealand Wars at the hands of 230 entrenched Māori warriors in Tauranga 1872: Jesse James’ gang robs a bank of $1,500 in Columbia, Kentucky, killing bank employee Robert A.C. Martin during the crime 1916: Irish republicans abandon the post […]
Bactria, a huge area in what is today Afghanistan, was the eastern edge of the ancient Greek empire, established by Alexander the Great. After Alexander’s death, amid the constant wars and squabbling of his generals, Bactria eventually rose to become an independent Hellenistic successor state.
1611: Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, oldest existing university in Asia and largest Catholic university in the world 1770: British Captain James Cook, aboard HMS Endeavour, first lands in Australia at Botany Bay 1789: Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on HMS Bounty against its […]
1565: First Spanish settlement in the Philippines founded at Cebu City 1865: Steamboat “SS Sultana” explodes in the Mississippi River, killing up to 1,800 of the 2,427 passengers in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Most were paroled Union POWs on their way home. 1904: The Australian Labor Party under Prime Minister Chris […]
1478: Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill Giuliano de’ Medici in Florence 1920: Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold the “Great Debate” on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. 1945: Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France’s Vichy collaborationist regime during […]
1660: English Convention Parliament meets and votes to restore Charles II 1792: Guillotine first used in France, executes highwayman Nicolas Pelletier 1846: Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War 1915: First landings at Gaba Tepe and Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula by ANZAC forces during World […]
1479 BC: Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty) 1184 BC: The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date) 1877: Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire 1898: Spanish–American War: Spain declares war after […]
215 BC: A temple dedicated to Venus Erycina is built on Capitoline Hill to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene 1014: King Brian Boru of Ireland defeats Viking forces at the Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from foreign control 1597: William Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I […]
1500: Pedro Álvares Cabral is the first European to discover Brazil, landing near Monte Pascoal, claims it for Portugal 1915: First military use of poison gas occurs when Germany uses chlorine gas against the Allies at Ypres in World War I [1] 1993: Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Washington, D.C. 1994: 7,000 Tutsi slaughtered by […]
753 BC: Romulus and Remus found Rome (traditional date) 1526: First Battle of Panipat: Central Asian conqueror Babur defeats Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, establishing the Mughal Empire in India 1792: Brazilian revolutionary Tiradentes, is hanged, drawn and quartered in Rio de Janeiro 1863: Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith, enters the garden of Rivden near Baghdad. […]
