1770: British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia. Writes in his log book that “what we have as yet seen of this land appears rather low, and not very hilly, the face of the Country green and Woody, but the Sea shore is all a white Sand.” 1775: American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts. The “Shot Heard Round the […]
1025: Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland 1506: The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid in the Vatican by Pope Julius II 1775: Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Charlestown to Lexington warning “the regulars are coming!” 1783: American Revolution: George Washington issues General Order announcing the end of hostilities with Britain, giving […]
1387: Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” characters begin their pilgrimage to Canterbury (according to scholars) 1492: Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the “Indies” with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10% of all riches found, and the governorship of any lands encountered. 1895: Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed ending […]
1457 BC: Battle of Megiddo: Egyptian forces of Thutmose III defeat a large Canaanite coalition under King of Kadesh. First battle recorded with a reliable account. 1705: Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge 1746: Jacobite Rising 1745: Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under the Duke of Cumberland defeat the Jacobite […]
1755: Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” published in London 1861: Federal army (75,000 volunteers) mobilized by US President Abraham Lincoln (US Civil War) 1874: First ‘Impressionist’ exhibition opens in Paris, features Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot 1877: Boston-Somerville installs the world’s 1st telephone in Massachusetts 1912: RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as the band plays on, […]
1865: US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington; he dies a day later 1912: RMS Titanic, the world’s largest ocean liner, hits an iceberg at 11.40pm off Newfoundland, sinks in the early hours of 15 April 1914: Dr. Harry Plotz isolates the bacteria that causes Typhus Fever (Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York City) 1935: Black […]
1250: The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France captured 1598: Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots 1860: 1st Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California 1868: Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala and Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II commits suicide Source: Onthisday.com
1204: 4th Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople 1811: 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington 1861: Fort Sumter in South Carolina is attacked by the Confederacy, beginning the American Civil War 1872: Jesse James’ gang robs a bank of $1,500 in Columbia, Kentucky, 1 dead 1927: Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek begins counter revolution in Shanghai 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the […]
1512: Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Holy League in a major battle of the Italian Wars 1783: Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War 1814: Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates unconditionally and he is exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean 1868: The Shogunate is abolished in Japan 1955: Chartered Air India plane the […]
1407: Lama Deshin Shekpa visits the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma 1516: 1st Jewish ghetto established: Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area 1815: Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies experiences a cataclysmic eruption, one of the most powerful in history, killing around 71,000 people, causes global […]
