1258: Baghdad, then a city of 1 million, falls to the Mongols as the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, with tens of thousands slaughtered, ending the Islamic Golden Age 1601: A fleet of five British East India Company vessels departs on its first voyage from London, led by James Lancaster commanding the “Red Dragon”; the journey […]
1700: Great Northern War begins in Northern Europe between Denmark–Norway, Saxony, Russia, and the Swedish Empire 1912: The last Qing Emperor of China, Puyi (age 6), abdicates after losing the support of the Chinese people and thus the “mandate of heaven” 1947: French fashion designer Christian Dior presents his first influential collection, named the “New […]
660 BC: Traditional date for the founding of Japan by Emperor Jimmu 1858: First vision of the Virgin Mary to 14-year-old Bernadette of Lourdes, France 1929: Vatican City, the world’s smallest country, becomes an enclave of Rome 1945: Declaration of Liberated Europe is signed at the Yalta Conference by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and […]
60: St. Paul is thought to have been shipwrecked at Malta 1720: Edmond Halley is appointed as the second Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory 1763: Treaty of Paris ends the French-Indian War, France agrees to surrender Canada to Great Britain 1824: Simón Bolívar is named dictator by the Congress of Peru 1906: British battleship […]
1775: British Parliament declares Massachusetts Colony in rebellio 1897: Invasion of Benin City by British Expeditionary Force; the city is burned and looted, ending the Nigerian Kingdom of Benin formed in the 11th century 1904: Japanese torpedo boats launch a surprise attack on Russian ships at the Port Arthur naval base in Manchuria, beginning the […]
1587: Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle at age 44 after being convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I in the Babington Plot 1672: Isaac Newton reads his first optics paper before the Royal Society in London 1807: Battle of Eylau ends inconclusively between Napoleon’s forces and the Russian Empire, first battle […]
1301: Edward of Caernarfon (later Edward II) becomes the first English Prince of Wales 1842: Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia, defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien 1856: Colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the first piece of legislation, the Electoral Act of 1856, anywhere in the world providing […]
1508: Maximilian I is proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor, the first emperor in centuries not crowned by the Pope 1778: Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance are signed in Paris between the United States and France, the first treaties negotiated by the United States. The first treaty establishes formal diplomatic and commercial […]
1576: Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France) abjures Catholicism at Tours 1597: A group of early Japanese Christians, known as the 26 Martyrs, are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society 1885: King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as his personal colonial […]
211 Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies in Eboracum (York) in England, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta 960 Coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of the Song initiates three centuries of Song Dynasty dominance in southern China 1789 First US Electoral College chooses George Washington […]
