• HISTORY
    13 August 2023: This day in history

    1521: Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan marking the end of the Aztec Empire 1536: Buddhist monks from Kyōto’s Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536). 1642: Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovers Mars’ southern polar cap 1788: Prussia joins Anglo-Dutch alliance to form Triple Alliance to […]

  • HISTORY
    12 August 2023: This day in history

    1121: Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David the Builder wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi 1480: Battle of Otranto – Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam 1851: American inventor Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine 1908: Henry Ford’s company builds the first Model T car 1981: IBM introduces its first […]

  • HISTORY
    11 August 2023: This day in history

    3114: BC The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins 1945: Allies refuse Japan’s offer to surrender on the condition that Emperor Hirohito retains his status 1954: Formal peace treaty ends over 7 yrs of fighting in Indochina between the French and the Communist Viet Minh 1988: Al-Qaeda formed at a meeting between Osama bin […]

  • HISTORY
    10 August 2023: This day in history

    612 BC: Killing of Sinsharishkun, King of Assyrian Empire. Destruction of Nineveh. 610: In Islam, the traditional date of the Laylat al-Qadr, when Muhammad began to receive the Qur’an 1497: John Cabot tells King Henry VII of his trip to “Asia” 1675: King Charles II and John Flamsteed lay the foundation stone of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London 1846: US Act of Congress passes […]

  • HISTORY
    9 August 2023: This day in history

    48 BC: Caesar’s civil war: Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt. 378: Battle of Adrianople: Goth army defeats Roman forces under Emperor Valens, who is killed 1790: Robert Gray’s Columbia Rediviva returns to Boston after 3 year journey, 1st American ship to circumnavigate the Globe 1898: Rudolf Diesel of Germany obtains patent […]

  • HISTORY
    8 August 2023: This day in history

    1509: Emperor Krishnadeva Raya is crowned, marking the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire in Southern India 1609: Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei’s telescope 1786: US Congress unanimously chooses the dollar as the monetary unit for the United States of America 1945: USSR establishes a communist government in North Korea 1974: US President Richard Nixon announces he will resign at 12pm the next […]

  • HISTORY
    7 August 2023: This day in history

    1461: Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor 1714: The Battle of Gangut: the first important victory of the Russian Navy during the Great Northern War against Sweden 1933: The Iraqi Government slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Sumail. The day becomes known as Assyrian Martyrs Day. 1955: Tokyo Telecommunications […]

  • HISTORY
    6 August 2023: This day in history

    1661: The Treaty of The Hague is signed whereby the Dutch Republic sells New Holland (Brazil) for 63 tonnes of gold to Portugal 1890: At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the 1st person to be executed by electric chair 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay” […]

  • HISTORY
    5 August 2023: This day in history

    910: The last major Viking army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward and Earl Aethelred 1305: William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution. 1583: Humphrey Gilbert […]

  • HISTORY
    4 August 2023: This day in history

    1558: 1st printing of Zohar in Spain – popularizes Jewish study of Kabbalah 1821: Russian Antarctic Expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen returns to Kronshtadt after becoming the 1st to circumnavigate Antarctica 1942: 1st train with Jews departs Mechelen Belgium to Auschwitz 1944: Anne Frank arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was […]