1471: Battle of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, final battle between the Houses of Lancaster and York: Prince of Wales, Edward of Westminster killed and King Edward IV returns to his throne, restoring political stability to England until his death in 1483 1814: King Ferdinand VII of Spain signs the Decree of the 4th of May, returning Spain to absolutism 1904: Construction begins by the […]
1791: Constitution of May 3 is proclaimed by the Great Sejm (Parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, becoming the 1st modern constitution in Europe 1926: Britain’s Trade Union Congress calls for the country’s first ever general strike, begins at 1 minute to midnight in support striking coal miners, lasts 9 days 1937: Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for “Gone With […]
1945: More than 1,000,000 German soldiers officially surrender to the Western Allies in Italy and Austria 1945: World War II: Battle of Berlin ends as Soviet army takes Berlin forcing German commander of the city general Helmuth Weidling to surrender 1949: Arthur Miller wins Pulitzer Prize for “Death of a Salesman” 1982: Falklands War: Argentine cruiser General Belgrano sunk by British submarine […]
1707: Acts of Union comes into force, uniting England and Scotland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain 1753: Publication of “Species Plantarum” by Carl Linnaeus – the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature 1840: “Penny Black”, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp issued by Great Britain 1886: US general strike for […]
311: Roman Emperor Galerius issues Edict of Toleration, ending persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire 711: Islamic conquest of Iberia: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) 1562: Jean Ribault and colonists arrive in Florida, the first French colonists in North America 1789: George Washington is inaugurated as the […]
1862: New Orleans falls to Union forces during US Civil War 1864: Battle of Gate Pa (Pukehinahina): 1,700 British troops suffer their worst defeat of the New Zealand Wars at the hands of 230 entrenched Maori warriors in Tauranga 1916: Irish republicans abandon the post office in Dublin and surrender unconditionally, marking the end of the Easter Rising 1945: US […]
1611: Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, oldest existing university in Asia and largest Catholic university in the world 1770: British Captain James Cook, aboard the Endeavour, lands at Botany Bay in Australia 1789: Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on HMS Bounty against its captain William Bligh in the South Pacific 1910: First night air flight by Claude […]
1565: 1st Spanish settlement in the Philippines forms at Cebu City 1865: Steamboat “SS Sultana” explodes in the Mississippi River, killing up to 1,800 of the 2,427 passengers in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Most were paroled Union POWs on their way home. 1904: The Australian Labor Party under Prime Minister Chris Watson becomes the first […]
1478: Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill Giuliano de’ Medici in Florence 1920: Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold “great debate” on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. 1945: Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France’s Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II, arrested for […]
1660: English Convention Parliament meets and votes to restore Charles II 1792: Guillotine first used in France, executes highwayman Nicolas Pelletier 1846: Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War 1915: First landings at Gaba Tepe and Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula by ANZAC forces during WWI 1920: San Remo conference establishes three League of […]
