42 BC: Roman Republican civil wars: Second Battle of Philippi – Brutus’s army is decisively defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian. Brutus commits suicide. 1911: First aerial reconnaissance mission is flown by an Italian pilot over Turkish lines during the Italo-Turkish War 1942: During WWII, Britain launches major offensive at El Alamein, Egypt 1977: Paleontologist […]
1633: Battle of Liaoluo Bay: Dutch East India Company defeated by Chinese Ming naval forces in southern Fujian sea 1721: Tsar Peter the Great titles himself “Emperor of All Russia” 1879: Thomas Edison perfects the carbonized cotton filament light bulb 1884: International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) worldwide and creates […]
1805: Battle of Trafalgar: British Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats the combined French and Spanish fleet. Nelson is shot and killed during the battle. 1854: Florence Nightingale, with a staff of 38 nurses, is sent to the Crimean War 1944: US troops capture Aachen, the first large German city to fall in World War II 1948: […]
1097: The first Crusaders arrive in Antioch, Ancient Syria, during the First Crusade 1603: Chinese uprising in the Philippines fails after 23,000 are killed 1803: US Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase 1917: US suffragette Alice Paul begins a seven-month jail sentence for peacefully picketing in support of the Women’s Suffrage (right to vote) Amendment at […]
202 BC: Battle of Zama: Hannibal Barca and the Carthaginian army are defeated by Roman legions under Scipio Africanus, ending the Second Punic War 1781: British forces under General Charles Cornwallis sign terms of surrender to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown at 2 p.m., effectively ending the American Revolutionary War 1926: Russian […]
1009: Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the church’s foundations down to the bedrock 1685: French King Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, canceling the rights of French Protestants The check used by the United States to purchase Alaska from RussiaAlaska Purchase […]
1854: French and British forces bombard Sevastopol for the first time during the Crimean War 1907: Guglielmo Marconi’s company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland 1943: Burma Railway built by Allied POWs and Asian laborers is completed for use by the Japanese army 1973: OPEC […]
1813: Battle of Leipzig, the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I, sees Napoleon’s forces defeated by Prussia, Austria, and Russia 1900: Great Britain and Germany sign the Anglo-German Treaty, agreeing to maintain the territorial integrity of China and support the ‘open door’ policy called for by the US Secretary of State 1934: […]
1581: Commissioned by Catherine de’ Medici, the first ballet “Ballet Comique de la Reine” is staged in Paris Pope Gregory XIII with the calendar that was to make his nameGregory Conquers Julius Caesar 1582: Gregorian calendar is introduced in Spain, Portugal and the Papal States, after skipping 10 days from October 4 to sync the […]
1066: Battle of Hastings: William, Duke of Normandy and his Norman army defeat the English forces of Harold II who is killed in the battle 1322: Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence 1774: 1st Continental Congress makes Declaration of Colonial Rights in […]
