31: The first Easter, according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus 1436: Florence Cathedral, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, consecrated by Pope Eugene IV, the largest dome in the world (then) by Filippo Brunelleschi with support from Cosimo de’ Medici (begun 1296) 1807: British Parliament abolishes the slave trade throughout the British Empire; penalty of £120 […]
1603: Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns 1837: Canada gives its black citizens the right to vote 1882: German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and […]
1490: First dated edition of Maimonides’ “Mishneh Torah” is published, a code of Jewish religious law 1775: Patrick Henry proclaims “Give me liberty or give me death” in a speech encouraging Virginia troops to join the American Revolutionary War 1919: 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party re-establishes a five-member Politburo, which becomes the center […]
1622: First American Indian (Powhatan) massacre of Europeans around Jamestown, Virginia, 347 killed 1765: First direct British tax on American colonists, the Stamp Act, is passed by the British Parliament led by Prime Minister George Grenville 1784: The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand 1832: […]
1349: Black Death Massacre: Between 100 and 3,000 Jews are killed in Black Death riots in Erfurt, Germany; part of a wave of pogroms across Western Europe 1804: Napoleonic Code is adopted in France, stressing clearly written and accessible law Welsh journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley with Kalulu who he later adoptedHenry Morton Stanley’s […]
1602: United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms granted a monopoly in all Dutch sea-borne trade with Asia 1800: Alessandro Volta reports his discovery of the electric battery in a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London 1815: Napoléon Bonaparte enters Paris after his escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule 1854: […]
1279: Mongolian victory at the naval Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China 1644: Two hundred members of the Peking imperial family and court commit suicide out of loyalty to the last Ming Emperor, Chongzhen 1863: Confederate cruiser SS Georgiana is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions and medicines […]
1123: First Council of the Lateran (9th ecumenical council) opens in Rome, agreements of the Concordat of Worms are ratified 1314: Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake by King Philip IV of France 1325: According to legend, Tenochtitlan is founded on this date […]
432: Saint Patrick, aged about 16 is captured by Irish pirates from his home in Great Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland (traditional date) 1861: Italy is unified into a single kingdom under Victor Emmanuel II following the campaigns led by Giuseppe Garibaldi 1905: Albert Einstein finishes his scientific paper detailing his Quantum […]
597 BC: Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king 1521: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines, landing on Homonhon Island after crossing the Pacific Ocean 1660: English Long Parliament disbands 1792: King Gustav III of Sweden is shot by Count Jacob Johan Anckarström at a masked ball at the opera and dies […]
