1496: Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine 1521: Martin Luther is excommunicated by Pope Leo X from the Roman Catholic Church for failing to recant parts of his Ninety-five Theses which started the Protestant Reformation 1777: General George Washington’s revolutionary army defeats British forces at Battle of Princeton, New Jersey 1925: Benito Mussolini […]
366: The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire 1492: Muhammad XII, the last Emir of Granada, surrenders his city to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile, ending both the Reconquista and centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula 1570: Tsar Ivan the Terrible’s march […]
45 BC: Julian calendar takes effect for the first time by edict of Roman dictator Julius Caesar 630: Prophet Muhammad sets out with an army 10,000 strong to conquer Mecca 1758: International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature establishes the “starting point” for standardized species names across the animal kingdom based on the binomial nomenclature in the […]
406: “The Great Invasion” sees a vast horde of Vandals, Alans, and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning the invasion of Gallia 1703: Genroku earthquake off the coast of Japan, near Edo (modern-day Tokyo), kills thousands and triggers a large tsunami, killing thousands more 1744: English astronomer James Bradley announces the discovery of Earth’s […]
1460: Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield (Northern England), Duke of York is killed and his forces are soundly defeated by the forces of King Henry VI 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 formally proclaimed […]
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: New church devoted to St. Peter the Apostle is built by Edward the Confessor, later called the ‘west minster,’ consecrated in London (rebuilt mid-13th century) 1612: First observation of Neptune – Galileo observes and records a “fixed star” without realizing it is a planet 1767: King Taksin is crowned King of Thailand and establishes […]
1512: Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regards to native Indians in the New World 1657: “Flushing Remonstrance” petition signed in the Dutch colony of New Netherland, protesting the ban on Quaker worship 1939: Between 20,000 and 40,000 die in magnitude 8 earthquake in Erzincam, Turkey 1945: International […]
1492: First Spanish settlement in the New World, La Navidad, is founded by Christopher Columbus (modern Môle-Saint-Nicolas in Haiti) 1792: Trial of French King Louis XVI, court hears the kings defense brought by Raymond Desèze 1825: Decembrist uprising in Russia against Tsar Nicholas I begins [O.S. 14 December] 1944: Battle of Bastogne: US General George […]
1: The first Christmas according to calendar-maker and Eastern Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus 800: Pope Leo III crowns Charles the Great (Charlemagne), Roman Emperor 1066: William the Conqueror is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, completing the Norman conquest of England 1741: Astronomer Anders Celsius introduces Centigrade temperature scale 1868: Despite bitter opposition, US […]
