1571: Battle of Lepanto: Holy League of southern European nations formed by Pope Pius V destroy an Ottoman fleet in a significant loss off Western Greece 1737: A cyclone causes 40 foot waves that are believed to have killed 300,000 in Calcutta, India 1763: George III of Great Britain issues Proclamation of 1763, closing lands in North America north and west […]
The legendary cutting of the Gordian Knot by Alexander the Great became a metaphor for solving difficult problems by employing simple, drastic solutions.
1917: Battle of Passchendaele: Canadian troops capture the village of Passchendaele in the Third Battle of Ypres, after 250,000 casualties on both sides 1939: Adolf Hitler announces plans to regulate Jewish problem 1948: Earthquake in Ashgabat kills 100,000 in the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic 1948: Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey finds the first partial fossil skull of Proconsul africanus, an ancestor of apes and […]
1274: Around 1,000 soldiers of the Mongol army land on the Japanese island of Tsushima, the first attack of Kublai Khan’s Mongol invasion of Japan 1789: French Revolution: Women of Paris march to Versailles in the March on Versailles to confront Louis XVI about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, and have the King and his court […]
1537: 1st printing in England of complete English-language Bible, the “Matthew’s Bible”, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale (an update of the earlier “Coverdale Bible”) [exact month/day unclear] 1582: Last Julian calendar day in Spain, Portugal and pontifical states. To sync to the Gregorian calendar, 10 days are skipped and the next date is Oct 15. […]
2333 BC: State of Gojoseon (Modern-day Korea) founded by Dangun Wanggeom during the reign of the Chinese Emperor Yao 52 BC: Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and battle of Alesia 1283: Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd, Wales, becomes the first person executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered […]
1187: Sultan Saladin captures Jerusalem from Crusaders 1492: King Henry VII of England invades France 1789: George Washington transmits the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification 1928: “Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God”, known as Opus Dei, founded by Catholic priest Josemaría Escrivá in Madrid, Spain 1944: Polish resistance fighters capitulate in […]
331 BC: Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela 1688: Prince William of Orange accepts invitation of take up the British crown 1814: Opening of the Congress of Vienna, redraws Europe’s political map after the defeat of Napoléon Bonaparte 1867: Karl Marx publishes “Das Kapital” in Berlin, a description of the capitalist system, its instability and tendency […]
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 […]
