1497: John Cabot claims Eastern Canada for England (believes he has found Asia in Nova Scotia) 1509: Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, London 1793: 1st republican constitution in France adopted 1812: Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armée numbering half a million begin their invasion of Russia by crossing the Nieman River 1853: US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 […]
930: World’s oldest parliament, the Icelandic Parliament, the Alþingi (anglicised as Althing or Althingi), established 1868: Christopher Latham Sholes patents the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful of its kind 1960: 1st contraceptive pill is made available for purchase in the U.S. 1972: Hurricane Agnes becomes America’s costliest natural disaster, affecting 15 states, with 119 deaths and $3 billion in […]
1633: Galileo Galilei forced to recant his Copernican views that the Earth orbits the Sun by the Pope (Vatican only admits it was wrong on Oct 31, 1992!) 1675: Royal Greenwich Observatory established in England by Charles II 1772: Somerset v Stewart court case finds slavery unsupported by English common law, encouraging the abolitionist movement 1848: Beginning of the June Days […]
1788: US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it 1854: First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands (Crimean War) 1948: Lord Mountbatten resigns as Governor General of India (formerly the last Viceroy) 1990: 7.7 Manjil-Rudbar Earthquake with hundreds of aftershocks hits Iran; killing about 50,000 1993: English mathematician Andrew Wiles […]
451: Battle of the Catalaunian Plains: Roman and Visigoths forces defeat Attila the Hun in north east France 1214: The University of Oxford receives its charter 1789: French Revolution: The Third Estate of the French Estates-General swears the Tennis Court Oath at the Palace of Versailles, swearing not to disband until a new constitution is formed 1840: Samuel Morse patents his telegraph […]
1306: The Earl of Pembroke’s army defeats Robert the Bruce’s Scottish army at the Battle of Methven 1829: Sir Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London 1862: Slavery outlawed in US territories 1865: Union General Gordon Granger declares slaves are free in Texas, now the date the end of slavery is celebrated across […]
618: Coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty’s rule over China 1812: War of 1812 begins as US declares war against Britain 1815: Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon and France defeated by British forces under Wellington and Prussian troops under Blucher 1928: American aviator Amelia Earhart becomes […]
656: Ali ibn Abu Talib elected the 4th Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate 1579: English navigator Francis Drake lands on the coast of California at Drakes Bay, names it “New Albion” 1631: Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal 1789: French Revolution: During the meeting […]
1858: Abraham Lincoln says “A house divided against itself cannot stand” accepting Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the Senate 1904: Bloomsday (date of events in James Joyce’s Ulysses) 2000: Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 after 22 years, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel withdraws from all of Lebanon, except the disputed Sheba Farms […]
763 BC Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history 1215 King John signs Magna Carta at Runnymede, near Windsor, England 1775 George Washington appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, the day after Congress establishes the force 1896 Tsunami strikes Shinto festival on beach at Sanriku, Japan; 27,000 are killed, 9,000 injured and 13,000 houses […]
