1204: 4th Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople 1811: 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington 1872: Jesse James gang robs bank in Columbia, Kentucky (1 dead/$1,500) 1927: Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek begins counter revolution in Shanghai 1961: Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth (Vostok 1) Source: Onthisday.com
1512: Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Holy League in a major battle of the Italian Wars 1783: Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War 1814: Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates unconditionally and he is exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean 1868: The Shogunate is abolished in Japan 1955: Chartered Air India plane the […]
1407: Lama Deshin Shekpa visits the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma 1516: 1st Jewish ghetto established: Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area 1815: Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies experiences a cataclysmic eruption, one of the most powerful in history, killing around 71,000 people, causes global […]
1483: Edward V (aged 12) succeeds his father Edward IV as king of England. He is never crowned, and disappears presumed murdered, after incarceration in the Tower of London with his younger brother Richard (the “Princes in the Tower”) 1731: British mariner Robert Jenkins’ ear cut off by Spanish Guarde Costa in the Caribbean, later catalyst for war between […]
1767: Ayutthaya kingdom falls to Burmese invaders 1886: William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons. 1898: Battle of Atbara River, Anglo-Egyptian forces crush 6,000 Sudanese 1913: Opening of China’s 1st parliament takes place in Peking (now Beijing) 2004: Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two […]
30: Scholars’ estimate for Jesus’ crucifixion by Roman troops in Jerusalem [or April 3] 529: First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis (fundamental work in jurisprudence) issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I 1948: World Health Organization formed by the United Nations 1954: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower in news conference is first to voice fear of a “domino-effect” of communism in Indo-China […]
46 BC: Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus. 1652: Cape Colony, the 1st European settlement in South Africa, established by Dutch East India Company under Jan van Riebeeck 1917: US declares war on Germany, enters World War I 1994: Plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira is […]
1242: Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod defeats Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice 1722: Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the southeastern Pacific 1818: In the Battle of Maipú, Chile’s independence movement – led by Bernardo O’Higgins and José de San Martín – win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead. […]
1581: Francis Drake knighted by Queen Elizabeth I aboard Golden Hind at Deptford 1655: Battle at Postage Farina, Tunis: English fleet beats Barbary pirates 1789: 1st US Congress begins regular sessions during George Washington‘s presidency at Federal Hall, NYC (ending 1791) 1949: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) treaty signed in Washington, D.C. 1968: US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at […]
1645: English Long Parliament passes the Self-Denying Ordinance, limiting regional armies, significant step toward New Model Army 1922: Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party by an ailing Vladimir Lenin 1948: US President Harry Truman signs Marshall Plan ($5B aid to 16 European countries) 1973: 1st mobile phone call is made in downtown Manhattan, NYC by Motorola employee Martin […]
