1520: Suleiman the Magnificent succeeds his father Selam I as Ottoman Sultan (rules till 1566) 1846: Anesthetic ether is used for the 1st time, by American dentist Dr William Morton who extracts a tooth 1862: Minister-President of Prussia Otto von Bismarck delivers his famous “Blood and Iron” speech on the unification of German territories 1938: Treaty of Munich signed by Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, […]
522 BC: Darius I of Persia kills Magian usurper Gaumâta, securing his hold as king of the Persian Empire 480 BC: Battle of Salamis: The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I 1567: War of Religion breaks out in France – Huguenots try to kidnap King Charles IX 1829: The first units of the London Metropolitan Police appear […]
935: Saint Wenceslas is murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I of Bohemia 1066: William the Conqueror, then Duke of Normandy, lands at Pevensey Bay in Sussex, beginning the Norman conquest of England 1781: 9,000 American and 7,000 French troops begin the siege of Yorktown 1887: Yellow River or Huáng Hé floods in China, killing between 900,000 and 2 million people, one […]
1066: William the Conqueror’s troops set sail from Normandy to conquer England 1290: Earthquake in the Gulf of Chihli (Bohai Sea) near China, reportedly kills 100,000 people 1779: John Adams appointed to negotiate Revolutionary War peace terms with Great Britain 1821: Mexican revolutionary forces led by Agustín de Iturbide occupy Mexico City as Spanish withdraw, bringing an end to the Mexican War […]
1580: Francis Drake completes circumnavigation of the world, sailing into Plymouth aboard the ‘Golden Hind’ 1687: Acropolis in Athens attacked by Venetian army trying to eject Turks, damaging the Parthenon 1688: City council of Amsterdam votes to support Prince William of Orange’s invasion of England, which became known as ‘The Glorious Revolution’ in the Netherlands 1815: Russia, Prussia and Austria sign the Holy […]
1066: Battle of Stamford Bridge: English army under King Harold II defeat invading Norwegians led by King Harald Hardrada and Harold’s brother Tostig, who were both killed 1237: Treaty of York signed between kings Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland which establishes a boundary between the two countries (mostly unchanged in modern times) 1513: Spanish explorer Vasco […]
1180: Manuel I Komnenos, last Emperor of the Komnenian restoration dies. The Byzantine Empire slips into terminal decline. 1493: Christopher Columbus embarks on his second expedition to the New World, setting sail with a fleet of 17 ships 1789: US Federal Judiciary Act passes, creating a six-person Supreme Court 1869: Black Friday; Wall St panic after Gould & Fisk attempt […]
1122: Concordat of Worms agreed between Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V 1821: Fall of Tripolitsa, Greek forces massacre 30,000 Turks during Greek War of Independence 1862: Otto von Bismarck appointed Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Prussia by King Wilhelm I 1884: American Herman Hollerith patents his mechanical tabulating machine, the beginning of data processing 1957: President Dwight D. […]
1692: Last people hanged for witchcraft (8) in the US, 19 hanged overall, with six other deaths during Salem Witch Trials 1792: French First Republic formed by the National Convention, stripping the French king of his powers 1862: US President Abraham Lincoln issues preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, threatening to free all enslaved people in the rebel southern states if those states fail […]
1621: King James I of England gives Sir William Alexander a royal charter for colonisation of Nova Scotia 1792: French Revolution: The National Convention passes a proclamation announcing the formal abolition of the French monarchy 1898: Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days’ Reform in China, imprisoning the Guangxu Emperor 1915: Cecil Chubb buys English prehistoric monument Stonehenge for […]
