1477: First English dated printed book “Dictes & Sayengis of the Phylosophers” by William Caxton 1626: St. Peter’s Basilica is consecrated, replacing an earlier basilica on the same site and becoming the world’s largest Christian basilica 1916: British General Douglas Haig finally calls off the 1st Battle of the Somme in World War I after more than 1 million soldiers had been killed or wounded […]
1558: Elizabeth I aged 25, ascends the English throne upon death of her half sister, Queen “Bloody” Mary 1800: Congress holds its 1st session in Washington, D.C. in an incomplete Capitol Building 1831: Ecuador and Venezuela separated from Greater Colombia 1855: David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls, in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe 1869: Suez Canal in […]
534: Second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus published 1532: Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro captures Inca Emperor Atahualpa after a surprise ambush at Cajamarca in the Peruvian Andes 1776: British troops capture Fort Washington during American Revolution 1945: Founding of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Source: Onthisday.com
1492: Christopher Columbus notes 1st recorded reference to tobacco 1884: European Colonization and trade in Africa is officially regulated at the international Berlin Conference, formalizing European powers “Scramble for Africa” 1904: King C. Gillette patents the Gillette razor blade 1948: Mackenzie King retires after 22 years as Prime Minister of Canada 1969: An estimated 2 million people take part in the Vietnam War Moratorium […]
1680: Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680 (Kirch’s Comet/Newton’s Comet) 1896: Power plant at Niagara Falls begins operation 1908: Albert Einstein presents his quantum theory of light 1920: The Russian Bolshevik army occupies Sebastopol, ending anti-communist attempts to regain the government of Russia Source: Onthisday.com
1789: Benjamin Franklin writes “Nothing . . . certain but death & taxes” 1933: 1st modern sit-down strike by Hormel meat packers in Austin, Minnesota 1956: US Supreme court rules race separation on buses in Alabama unconstitutional 1980: US spacecraft Voyager 1 sends back 1st close-up pictures of Saturn 1985: Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts in Colombia, killing 25,000 in the […]
764: Tibetan troops occupy Chang’an for 15 days, capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty 1927: Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, paving the way for Joseph Stalin to consolidate complete power 1942: WWII Naval Battle of Guadalcanal begins between Allied and Japanese forces in Solomon Islands 1968: US Supreme Court: Epperson v. Arkansas, court declares unconstitutional Arkansas law banning […]
1620: Mayflower Compact signed by Pilgrims at Cape Cod, the 1st framework of government in the territory that is now the USA [N.S. Nov 21] 1675: German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz demonstrates integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of y = f(x) function 1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army enters England 1918: WWI armistice signed by […]
1619: René Descartes has the dream that inspires his “Meditations on First Philosophy” 1674: Dutch formally cede New Netherlands (New York) to the English 1885: German engineer Gottlieb Daimler unveils the world’s first motorcycle 1918: Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia receives a top-secret coded message from Europe stating on November 11, 1918 all fighting would cease on land, […]
1494: Piero the Unfortunate of the de’ Medici family, ruler of Florence, loses his power and flees the state 1799: Napoleon Bonaparte pulls off a coup and becomes the dictator of France under the title of First Consul 1980: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declares holy war against Iran 1994: Darmstadtium, Chemical element 110, discovered at GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near […]
