455: King Gaiseric and the Vandals sack Rome, looting continues for 14 days 1862: Robert E. Lee takes command of Confederate armies of North Virginia during the American Civil War 1896: Italian engineer and inventor Guglielmo Marconi applies for the first ever patent for a system of wireless telegraphy in the United Kingdom 1953: Coronation […]
4000 BC: Approximate domestication of the horse in the Eurasian steppes near Dereivka, central Ukraine (hypothesis only) 1215: Peking, then a city of over one million under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, falls to the Mongols under Genghis Khan and is looted for a month 1543: Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius […]
1279 BC: Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great becomes Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt’s 19th Dynasty 1578: Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England, to Frobisher Bay, Canada. Eventually mines fools gold, famously used to pave the streets of London. 1902: Treaty of Vereeniging is signed, ending the Second Boer War and making Transvaal and […]
1431: Hundred Years’ War: 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal in Rouen, France 1539: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto’s expedition of 10 ships and 700 men lands in Florida 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between the United States and Mexico comes into force, giving California, Nevada, Utah, and […]
1453: Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, falls to the Ottoman Turks under Mehmed the Conqueror, ending the Byzantine Empire after 1,100 years 1592: The Korean navy, led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, repels a Japanese fleet in the Battle of Sacheon, the first use of a Korean Turtle Ship 1660: On his 30th birthday, […]
585 BC: Solar eclipse, as predicted by Greek philosopher Thales, occurs while Lydians are at war with the Medes and leads to a truce. It is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates are calculated. 1431: Joan of Arc is accused of relapsing into heresy by donning male clothing again, providing justification for […]
1679: Habeas Corpus Act passes in England, strengthening a person’s right to challenge unlawful arrest and imprisonment 1703: Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) is founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great 1873: Heinrich Schliemann discovers “Priam’s Treasure” a cache of gold and other objects in Hisarlik (Troy) in Anatolia 1905: Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea […]
1896: Dow Jones Industrial Average begins with an average of 12 industrial stocks, the daily closing value is 40.9 1908: At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom 1927: Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce […]
1720: The ship Grand-Saint Antoine reaches Marseille, bringing Europe’s last major outbreak of bubonic plague, which kills around 100,000 people 1810: In the May Revolution, citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Spanish Viceroy Cisneros during Semana de Mayo 1914: British House of Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill 1942: First commercial fluid catalytic cracking […]
1595: Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library 1738: John Wesley is converted, launching the Methodist movement, celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day 1844: Samuel Morse taps out “What hath God wrought” in the world’s first telegraph message 1883: Brooklyn Bridge is opened by President Chester A. […]
