240 BC: 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet 1856: The Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Paris ending the Crimean War 1867: Alaska Purchase: US buys Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 ($109 million in 2018), roughly 2 cents an acre 1870: 15th Amendment to the US constitution is adopted, […]
845: Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving 1549: The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded 1901: Edmund Barton is elected Prime Minister in Australia’s first parliamentary election 1912: Captain Robert Falcon Scott, storm-bound in a tent near South Pole, makes last entry […]
364: Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor 1854: Britain and France declare war on Russia during the Crimean War 1939: Spanish Civil War ends, Madrid falls to the Nationalists headed by Francisco Franco 1946: Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power. […]
1513: Spaniard Juan Ponce de León and his expedition first sight Florida 1625: Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland ascends the English throne 1914: 1st successful non-direct blood transfusion is performed by Dr. Albert Hustin in Brussels 1958: Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet Premier as well as First Secretary of the Communist Party 1977: 583 die in aviation’s worst ever disaster when […]
1027: Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II Holy Roman Emperor, founder of the Salian dynasty 1812: Earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale destroys 90% of Caracas, Venezuela and kills an estimated 15,000–20,000 people 1871: Municipal elections bring revolutionaries to power in Paris to form Commune government 1909: In support of Mohammed Ali Shah’s coup d’etat against the constitutional government […]
31: 1st Easter, according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus 1436: Florentine cathedral Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore with then the largest dome in the world by Filippo Brunelleschi, consecrated by Pope Eugene IV (begun 1296) 1807: British Parliament abolishes slave trade throughout the British Empire; penalty of £120 per slave introduced for ship captains 1895: Italian troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia) 1960: 1st […]
1603: Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns 1837: Canada gives its black citizens the right to vote 1882: German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and establishes germ theory 1976: Argentine President Isabel Martínez […]
1490: 1st dated edition of Maimonides “Mishneh Torah”, a code of Jewish religious law is published 1775: Patrick Henry proclaims “Give me liberty or give me death” in speech in favour of Virginian troops joining US Revolutionary war 1919: 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party re-establishes a five-member Politburo which becomes the center of political power in the […]
1622: First American Indian (Powhatan) massacre of Europeans in Jamestown Virginia, 347 killed 1765: Stamp Act passed; 1st direct British tax on American colonists, organized by Prime Minister George Grenville 1784: The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand 1832: British Parliament, led by Charles Grey, passes the Reform Act, introducing wide-ranging changes to […]
1349: Between 100 and 3,000 Jews are killed in Black Death riots in Erfurt, Germany 1804: Napoleonic Code adopted in France, stresses clearly written and accessible law 1871: Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous expedition to Africa 1975: Ethiopia abolishes its monarchy after 3,000 years 2014: Russia formally annexes Crimea amid international condemnation Source: Onthisday.com
