624: Battle of Badr: Muhammad’s Muslim forces win significant victory over Meccan army 1591: Battle at Tondibi: Moroccan army under Judar [Jawdar] defeats Sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai 1781: William Herschel sees what he thinks is a “comet” but is actually the discovery of the planet Uranus 1884: Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins by Mahdist forces, lasts 10 months […]
538: Witiges, King of the Ostrogoths, ends his siege of Rome, retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of victorious Byzantine General Belisarius 1455: First record of Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible, letter dated this day by Enea Silvio Piccolomini refers to the bible printed a year before 1642: Abel Tasman is the 1st European to sight New Zealand, viewing […]
843: Icon veneration officially re-instated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople 1502: Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524) 1966: Military coup led by Indonesian General Suharto breaks out 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader 2011: 9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people and […]
241 BC: First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands – The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing the First Punic War to an end 1783: USS Alliance under Captain Barry fights and wins last naval battle of US Revolutionary War off Cape Canaveral 1861: West African political leader El Hadj Umar Tall seizes the city of Segou, […]
141 BC: Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne of the Han Dynasty in China and rules for 54 years 1522: Martin Luther begins preaching his “Invocavit Sermons” in the German city of Wittenberg, reminding citizens to trust God’s word rather than violence and thus helping bring to a close the revolutionary stage […]
1531: Henry VIII recognised as supreme head of Church in England by the Convocation of Canterbury 1817: The New York Stock Exchange is founded 1867: British North America Act is passed in the House of Commons, serves as Canada’s constitution for more than 100 years 1917: Russian “February Revolution” begins in earnest with protests celebrating International Woman’s Day and riots […]
161: Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, an unprecedented political arrangement in the Roman Empire 1530: English King Henry VIII’s divorce request is denied by the Pope 1876: Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for the telephone in the US 1912: Roald Amundsen announces his discovery of the South Pole (located 14 December 1911) 1936: Adolf Hitler breaks the Treaty of […]
1479: Treaty of Alcaçovas: Portugal gives the Canary Islands to Castile in exchange for claims in West Africa 1836: Battle of the Alamo: After 13 days of fighting 1,500-3,000 Mexican soldiers overwhelm the Texan defenders, killing 182-257 Texans including William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett 1857: Dred Scott Decision: US Supreme Court rules Africans cannot be US citizens 1869: Dmitri […]
363: Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a campaign that brings about his own death 1046: Persian scholar Naser Khosrow begins the 7 year Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama 1496: English King Henry VII grants John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) a commission to […]
1238: Battle of the Sit River: Mongol forces of Batu Khan overcome Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal near Yaroslavl in Russia, ending Russian resistance 1801: Thomas Jefferson is the first US President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. 1861: Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th US President 1902: American Automobile Association (AAA) founded in Chicago 1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as 32nd US […]
