1616: First non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy 1821: Act of Independence of Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua declare their independence from the Spanish Empire 1835: HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board reaches the Galapagos Islands 1916: first use of tanks in warfare, “Little Willies” at Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of […]
1752: Britain and the British Empire (including the American colonies) adopt the Gregorian calendar (no Sept 3 – Sept 13) 1936: 1st prefrontal lobotomy in America performed by Walter Freeman and James W. Watts at George Washington University Hospital in Washington D.C. 1939: World’s 1st practical helicopter, the VS-300 designed by Igor Sikorsky takes (tethered) flight in Stratford, Connecticut 1949: India’s Constituent Assembly […]
509 BC: The temple of Jupiter on Rome’s Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September 335: Church of Holy Sepulchre consecrated in Jerusalem 1224: Francis of Assisi is afflicted with stigmata after a vision praying on Mount Verna 1501: Michelangelo begins work on his Statue of David, a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture 1845: English chemist Michael Faraday discovers the ‘Faraday effect’, the influence […]
1758: French astronomer Charles Messier mistakenly identifies the Crab Nebula so begins his Messier Catalogue 1909: World’s first patent for synthetic rubber granted to German chemist Fritz Hofmann 1933: Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives idea of a nuclear chain reaction 1940: Four teens, following their dog down a hole near Lascaux, France discover […]
1297: Battle at Stirling Bridge, Scottish rebel William Wallace defeats the English 1609: Expulsion order announced against the Moriscos of Valencia; beginning of the expulsion of all Spain’s Moriscos 1697: Battle of Zenta: forces of Prince Eugen of Savoye defeat the Turks, ending Ottoman control of large parts of Central Europe 1708: Great Northern war: Charles XII of Sweden stops his march to […]
1776: George Washington asks for a spy volunteer, Nathan Hale volunteers 1813: American Naval Commander Oliver Hazard Perry defeats the British in Battle of Lake Erie 1846: Elias Howe takes out a US patent for a lockstitch sewing machine 1924: Leopold and Loeb found guilty of the murder of Robert Franks in Chicago in the “the crime of the century” 1977: Hamida Djandoubi, convicted […]
1380: Battle on Kulikovo: Moscow’s great monarch Dimitri defeats the Mongols beginning the decline of the Tatars 1504: Michelangelo’s Statue of David is unveiled in Florence 1522: Spanish navigator Juan de Elcano returns to Spain, completing 1st circumnavigation of the globe (expedition began under Ferdinand Magellan) 1565: 1st permanent European settlement in the US founded at St. Augustine, Florida 1664: Dutch surrender colony […]
70: Roman army under General Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem 1714: Treaty of Baden signed by the Holy Roman Empire and France, ending the War of the Spanish Succession; French retain Alsace and Landau, Austria gets east bank of Rhine 1812: Battle of Borodino: Napoleon Bonapartre wins a pyrrhic victory against Russian General Mikhail Kutuzov in the most ferocious battle of the […]
3114 BC: Date Maya/Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar starts dating from (as corresponds to the Julian Calendar). 1522: Ferdinand Magellan’s Spanish expedition aboard the Vitoria returns to Spain without their captain. First to circumnavigate the earth. 1666: After St Paul’s Cathedral and much of the city had been burned down over four days, The Great Fire of London is finally extinguished. […]
1666: Great Fire of London ends, leaving 13,200 houses destroyed and 8 dead 1774: Twelve of the thirteen American colonies adopt a trade embargo against Great Britain at the first Continental Congress at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1839: The First Opium War begins in China 2017: Hurricane Irma becomes the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin region […]
