1478: Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill Giuliano de’ Medici in Florence 1920: Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold the “Great Debate” on the nature of nebulae, galaxies, and the size of the universe at the US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. 1945: Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France’s Vichy collaborationist […]
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 1915: First landings at Gaba Tepe and Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula by ANZAC forces during World […]
1184: BC The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date) 1877: Russo-Turkish War: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire 1898: Spanish–A merican War: Spain declares war after rejecting US ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba 1916: Easter Rising of Irish republicans against British occupation begins in Dublin 1967: American General William Westmoreland says […]
215 BC: A temple dedicated to Venus Erycina is built on Capitoline Hill to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene 1014: King Brian Boru of Ireland defeats Viking forces at the Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from foreign control 1597: William Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is first performed with Queen Elizabeth I […]
1290: Round Table tournament held near Winchester, England, in imitation of King Arthur, to commemorate betrothal of daughter of Edward I, and attended by the king 1862: First pasteurization test is completed by Frenchmen Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard 1902: Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the radioactive compound radium chloride 1968: British politician Enoch Powell […]
1770: British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia. Writes in his log book that “what we have as yet seen of this land appears rather low, and not very hilly, the face of the Country green and Woody, but the Sea shore is all a white Sand.” 1775: American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts, […]
1025: Bolesław I the Brave 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, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride from Charlestown to Lexington warning “the regulars are coming!” 1783: American Revolution: George […]
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 the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) 1917: Vladimir Lenin issues his […]
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 scientist Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge 1746: Jacobite Rising 1745: Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under […]
1755: Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” is published in London 1861: Federal army of 75,000 volunteers is mobilized by President Abraham Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War 1874: First Impressionist art exhibition opens in Paris, features Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot 1877: World’s […]
