1477: Battle of Nancy: Swiss Confederacy led by René II decisively defeats the Duchy of Burgundy, 7,000+ killed including the Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold 1781: British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond, Virginia 1919: German Workers’ Party forms, precursor to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) 1930: Mao Zedong writes […]
1847: Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government 1865: New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad Street, near Wall Street, in New York City 1959: USSR’s Luna 1 (Mechta) becomes the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity 1961: Longest recorded strike ends as Danish barbers’ […]
1496: Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine 1521: Martin Luther is excommunicated by Pope Leo X from the Roman Catholic Church for refusing to recant parts of his Ninety-Five Theses, which started the Protestant Reformation 1777: General George Washington’s Revolutionary Army defeats British forces at the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey 1925: Benito […]
366: The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers and invade the Roman Empire 1492: Muhammad XII, the last Emir of Granada, surrenders the city to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, ending the Reconquista and centuries of Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula 1570: Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible […]
406: “The Great Invasion” sees a vast horde of Vandals, Alans, and Suebi cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning the invasion of Gaul 1703: Genroku earthquake off the coast of Japan near Edo (modern-day Tokyo) kills thousands and triggers a large tsunami that kills thousands more 1744: English astronomer James Bradley announces the discovery of […]
1460: Battle of Wakefield: Duke of York is killed and his forces are soundly defeated by those of King Henry VI in northern England during the Wars of the Roses 1906: All-India Muslim League is founded in Dacca in East Bengal, British India, later lays the foundations for Pakistan 1922: Creation of the USSR is […]
1835: Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States 1845: Texas is admitted as the 28th state of the Union 1903: French Equatorial Africa separates into Gabon, Chad and […]
1065: A new church devoted to St Peter the Apostle is founded and consecrated by Edward the Confessor in London, later called Westminster Abbey. It is rebuilt in the Gothic style during the mid-13th century. [1] 1612: First observation of Neptune – Galileo observes and records a “fixed star” without realizing it is a planet […]
1512: Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regard to native Indians in the New World 1657: Flushing Remonstrance petition is signed in the Dutch colony of New Netherland, protesting the ban on Quaker worship and asserting the right to religious freedom 1939: Between 20,000 and 40,000 people die […]
1492: First Spanish settlement in the New World, La Navidad, is founded by Christopher Columbus at the site of modern Môle-Saint-Nicolas in Haiti after the Santa María runs aground and is wrecked 1792: Trial of French King Louis XVI, court hears the king’s defense presented by Raymond Desèze 1825: Decembrist uprising in Russia against Tsar […]
