1478: Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de’Medici and kill Giuliano de’Medici in Florence 1920: Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold “great debate” on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. 1945: Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France’s Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II, arrested for treason 1956: First modern […]
1660: English Convention Parliament meets and votes to restore Charles II 1792: Guillotine first used in France, executes highwayman Nicolas Pelletier 1846: Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War 1945: “Elbe Day” – US and Soviet forces meet at Torgau, Germany on the Elbe River during the invasion of Germany in WWII […]
1479 BC: Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty) 1184 BC: The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date) 1877: Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire 1898: Spanish–American War: Spain declares war after rejecting US ultimatum to […]
215 BC: A temple, built on the Capitoline Hill, is dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene 1014: King Brian Boru of Ireland defeats Viking forces at Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from foreign control 1597: William Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance 1861: Robert […]
1500: Pedro Álvares Cabral is the first european to discover Brazil, landing near Monte Pascoal, claims it for Portugal 1915: 1st military use of poison gas (chlorine, by Germany) in WW I 1993: Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Washington, D.C. 1994: 7,000 Tutsi slaughtered by Hutus in the stadium at Kibuye, Rwanda 2006: 243 people are injured in pro-democracy protest in […]
753: BC Romulus and Remus found Rome (traditional date) 1526: First Battle of Panipat: Central Asian conqueror Babur defeats Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, establishing the Mughal Empire in India 1792: Brazilian revolutionary Tiradentes, is hanged, drawn and quartered in Rio de Janeiro 1863: Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith, enters garden of Rivden near Baghdad. He makes his declaration as a Messenger of […]
1770: British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia 1775: American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts. The “Shot Heard Round the World” took place in Concord later that day 1909: Joan of Arc receives beatification by the Roman Catholic Church 1995: Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh sets a truck bomb at Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 and injuring 500 2011: Fidel Castro resigns from the […]
1025: Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland 1506: The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid in the Vatican by Pope Julius II 1775: Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Charlestown to Lexington warning the “regulars are coming!” 1783: Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day when it began 1906: San […]
1387: Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” characters begin their pilgrimage to Canterbury (according to scholars) 1492: Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the “Indies” with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10% of all riches found, and the governorship of any lands encountered. 1895: Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed ending […]
1457 BC: Battle of Megiddo: Egyptian forces of Thutmose III defeat a large Canaanite coalition under King of Kadesh. First battle recorded with a reliable account. 1705: Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge 1746: Jacobite Rising 1745: Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under the Duke of Cumberland defeat the Jacobite […]
