1792: US postal service created, postage 6-12 cents depending on distance 1872: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens 1873: British Naval Officer John Moresby is the first European to discover Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, claims it for the United Kingdom 1938: UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns, stating Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has […]
356: Roman Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples 1600: Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in South American recorded history 1878: Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his cylinder phonograph 1942: An estimated 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin 1945: US 5th Fleet launches invasion of Iwo […]
1519: Hernán Cortés leaves Cuba for the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico with 11 ships and 500 men 1678: John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” is published in London, by Nathaniel Ponder 1885: Mark Twain publishes the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in the US 1917: First major strike of the Russian “February Revolution” starts at the giant Putilov factory […]
While the history of the alphabet of a particular language may not be of interest to many, it was quite significant to the Greeks. Lots of ancient Greek records contain stories about how they got their alphabet. It was the subject of myth and legend. What exactly did these legends claim about the origin of the alphabet, […]
1568: Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II agrees to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire in exchange for peace 1865: Columbia in South Carolina burns down during the American Civil War 1876: Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine 1972: British Parliament votes to join the European Common Market 2017: Discovery of a new […]
1659: First known cheque written (£400), now on display at Westminster Abbey 1840: American Charles Wilkes discovers the Shackleton Ice Shelf in Antarctica 1923: Howard Carter opens the inner burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb and finds the sarcophagus 1959: Fidel Castro becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista 2005: […]
399: BC Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death by the city of Athens for corrupting the minds of the youth of the city and for impiety 590: Khosrau II, the last great Sasanian king is crowned King of Persia 1763: Austria, Prussia and Saxony sign the Treaty of Hubertusburg, marking the end of the French and […]
1014: Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II Holy Roman Emperor 1076: Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (for the 1st time) 1797: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. Captain […]
1258: Baghdad, then a city of 1 million, falls to the Mongols as the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, tens of thousands slaughtered, ending the Islamic Golden Age 1601: Fleet of five British East India Company vessels departs on their 1st voyage from London, led by Sir James John Lancaster commanding the “Red Dragon”; journey takes […]
1700: The Great Northern War begins in Northern Europe between Denmark–Norway, Saxony and Russia and the Swedish Empire. 1912: The last Qing Emperor of China, Puyi (age 6) abdicates after losing the support of the Chinese people and thus the “mandate of heaven” 1947: French fashion designer Christian Dior presents his first influential collection, named […]
