1097: The first Crusaders arrive in Antioch, Ancient Syria, during the First Crusade 1603: Chinese uprising in the Philippines fails after 23,000 are killed 1803: US Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase 1917: US suffragette Alice Paul begins a seven-month jail sentence for peacefully picketing in support of the Women’s Suffrage (right to vote) Amendment at […]
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 The check used by the United States to purchase Alaska from RussiaAlaska Purchase […]
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: Commissioned by Catherine de’ Medici, the first ballet “Ballet Comique de la Reine” is staged in Paris Pope Gregory XIII with the calendar that was to make his nameGregory Conquers Julius Caesar 1582: Gregorian calendar is introduced in Spain, Portugal and the Papal States, after skipping 10 days from October 4 to sync the […]
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 Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence 1774: 1st Continental Congress makes Declaration of Colonial Rights in […]
54: Nero succeeds Claudius as Roman Emperor 1307: French King Philip IV has Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Knights Templar arrested and charged with idolatry and corruption 1884: International Meridian Conference in Washington DC establishes Greenwich in London, England as the universal time meridian of longitude 1924: Mecca falls without struggle to Saudi forces […]
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 troops […]
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 […]
