356: Roman Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples 1600: Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in South American recorded history 1878: Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his cylinder phonograph [1] 1942: An estimated 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin 1945: US 5th Fleet launches invasion of […]
1519: Hernán Cortés leaves Cuba for the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, with 11 ships and 500 men 1678: John Bunyan’s Christian novel “The Pilgrim’s Progress” is published in London by Nathaniel Ponder 1685: Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay, forming the basis for France’s claim to Texas 1885: Mark Twain publishes […]
1568: Treaty of Adrianople: Representatives of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and Ottoman Sultan Selim II agree to a peace plan ending the war between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire; Maximilian agrees to provide a cash “present” and ruling authority is granted to the Ottomans in Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia Columbia, South Carolina […]
1659: First known cheque written (£400), now on display at Westminster Abbey 1840: American Charles Wilkes discovers the Shackleton Ice Shelf in Antarctica 1923: Howard Carter opens the inner burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb and finds the sarcophagus 1959: Fidel Castro becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista 2005: […]
399 BC: Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death by the city of Athens for corrupting the minds of the youth of the city and for impiety 590: Khosrau II, the last great Sasanian king, is crowned King of Persia 1763: Austria, Prussia and Saxony sign the Treaty of Hubertusburg, marking the end of the French […]
1014: Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II Holy Roman Emperor 1076: Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV for the first time 1797: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. Captain […]
1258: Baghdad, then a city of 1 million, falls to the Mongols as the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, tens of thousands slaughtered, ending the Islamic Golden Age 1601: Fleet of five British East India Company vessels departs on their 1st voyage from London, led by Sir James John Lancaster commanding the “Red Dragon”; journey takes […]
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 foundation 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, is made an enclave of Rome 1975: Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for leadership of the British Conservative Party 1990: Nelson Mandela is […]
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 […]
