1577: Francis Drake sets sail from England on an epic three year circumnavigation of the world aboard the Golden Hind 1636: The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. Recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard. 1642: Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sights the South Island of present day New Zealand; […]
627: Battle at Nineveh: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius beats Sassanid forces during Byzantine-Sassanid War 1901: Guglielmo Marconi sends the first transatlantic radio signal, from Poldhu in Cornwall to Newfoundland, Canada 1925: Last Qajar Shah of Iran deposed; Rezā Shāh Pahlavi takes over 1946: UN accepts 6 Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr. 2000: US Supreme Court releases its decision in […]
1620: Mayflower Pilgrims come ashore in Plymouth Bay, traditionally thought to be at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts [NS: Dec 21] 1792: France’s King Louis XVI goes on trial, accused of high treason and crimes against the state 1913: “Mona Lisa” recovered two years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum 1931: Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New […]
1520: Martin Luther publicly burns papal edict demanding he recant 1684: Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley 1799: Metric system first adopted in France 1901: First Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Red Cross founder Jean Henri Dunant and […]
536: Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire 1212: Frederick II (later also Holy Roman Emperor) crowned King of Germany in Mainz 1968: In “The Mother of All Demos” Douglas Engelbart demonstrates the computer system NLS (oN-Line System) to a live audience in San Francisco. Shows […]
1863: Abraham Lincoln issues his Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of the South 1941: US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II 1941: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers “Day of Infamy” speech to US Congress a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor 1965: Pope Paul VI signs 2nd Vatican council 1966: US and USSR sign treaty to prohibit […]
43 BC: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and politician is assassinated in Formiae 1909: Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermo-setting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry 1941: Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people 1965: Pope Paul VI & Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led […]
1240: Mongols led by Batu Khan occupy and destroy Kyiv after an 8 day siege; out of 50,000 people in the city only 2,000 survive 1865: 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery (except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,) 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed; Ireland receives dominion status; partition creates […]
771: Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman 1349: 500 Jews of Nuremberg massacred during Black Death riots 1456: Earthquake strikes Naples; about 35,000 die 1848: US President James K. Polk triggers gold rush of 1849 by confirming a gold discovery in California 1933: Prohibition ends in the US when 21st Amendment to the US Constitution ratified, 18th Amendment repealed […]
1534: Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent occupies Baghdad 1563: Council of Trent holds its last session, after 18 years. Last ecumenical council for more than 300 years. 1619: 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish, England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God. Considered by many The First Thanksgiving in the Americas. 1791: Britain’s “The Observer” is first published, the oldest Sunday newspaper in […]
