1588: The Battle of Gravelines – Spanish Armada damaged and scattered by the English fleet 1609: Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years 1848: Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule put down by police 1905: US […]
1794: French Revolutionary figure Maximilien Robespierre and 22 other leaders of “the Terror” guillotined to thunderous cheers in Paris 1914: Austria-Hungary decides against mediation and declares war on Serbia – first declaration of war of WWI 1917: Silent Parade organised by James Weldon Johnson of 10,000 African-Americans who march on 5th Ave in NYC to protest against lynching 1943: Operation Gomorrah: RAF bombing […]
1586: Walter Raleigh brings the 1st tobacco to England from Virginia 1689: Battle of Killicrankie: Jacobite Scottish Highlanders under Viscount Dundee defeat royalist force under General MacKay 1789: US Congress establishes Department of Foreign Affairs now referred to as the State Department 1866: transatlantic telegraph cable successfully in second attempt comes ashore at Heart’s Content, Newfoundland laid out by Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s […]
657: Battle of Siffin during the first Muslim civil war between Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah I beside Euphrates River 1519: Francisco Pizarro receives royal charter for the west coast of South America 1533: Francisco Pizarro orders the death of the last Sapa Inca Emperor, Atahualpa 1803: The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world’s first public railway, opens in south London 1908: United […]
306: Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops 1814: English engineer George Stephenson introduces his first steam locomotive, a travelling engine designed for hauling coal on the Killingworth wagonway named Blücher 1943: Benito Mussolini dismissed as Italian Premier and arrested on the authority of King Victor Emmanuel III 1944: World War II: Operation Spring – one of Canada’s bloodiest days, 18,444 casualties […]
1534: Jacques Cartier lands in Canada, claims it for France 1567: Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate; her 1-year-old son becomes King James VI of Scots 1832: Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by Wyoming’s South Pass 1911: American explorer Hiram Bingham discovers Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas 1943: Operation Gomorrah: RAF begins bombing Hamburg (till 3rd […]
1215: Frederick II crowned King of the Romans (King of the Germans) in Aachen 1829: William Austin Burt patents America’s first “typographer” (typewriter) 1840: Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper & Lower Canada 1944: Conference of Bretton Woods signed; IMF operations begin 1995: Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered and becomes visible to the naked eye nearly a year later […]
1099: First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem 1456: Battle at Nandorfehervar (Belgrade): Hungarian army under Janos Hunyadi beats Sultan Murad II 1515: First Congress of Vienna settles issues between Poland and Holy Roman Empire – rise of the Habsburgs influence 1942: Warsaw Ghetto Jews (300,000) are sent […]
356 BC: Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World 365: Crete Earthquake followed by tsunami around the Eastern Mediterranean allegedly destroys Alexandria 1861: First Battle of Bull Run [Battle of First Manassas], 1st major battle of the US Civil War is fought near Manassas, Virginia, Confederate victory […]
1881: Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull, surrenders to US federal troops 1921: Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson becomes the first woman to preside over the floor of US House of Representatives 1969: Apollo 11 lunar module carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin lands on the surface of the Moon; Aldrin and Armstrong walk on the moon seven hours later; Michael Collins remains in orbit in the lunar […]
