1661: The Treaty of The Hague is signed whereby the Dutch Republic sells New Holland (Brazil) for 63 tonnes of gold to Portugal 1890: At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the 1st person to be executed by electric chair 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay” […]
910: The last major Viking army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward and Earl Aethelred 1305: William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution. 1583: Humphrey Gilbert […]
1558: 1st printing of Zohar in Spain – popularizes Jewish study of Kabbalah 1821: Russian Antarctic Expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen returns to Kronshtadt after becoming the 1st to circumnavigate Antarctica 1942: 1st train with Jews departs Mechelen Belgium to Auschwitz 1944: Anne Frank arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was […]
1492: Christopher Columbus with Juan de la Cosa second-in-command sets sail on his first voyage with three ships, Santa María, Pinta and Niña from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the “Indies” 1596: David Fabricius discovers light variation of Mira (1st variable star) 1914: Germany invades Belgium and declares war on France, beginning World War I 1934: Adolf Hitler merges the offices of German […]
338 BC: Macedonian army led by Philip II defeats combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean 216 BC: Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – Carthaginian army lead by Hannibal defeats numerically superior Roman army under command consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro […]
527: Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire after the death of his uncle Justin I 1086: Results of the Domesday inquiry presented to William the Conqueror in Salisbury (the date of compilation and the Great Domesday are historically contestable) 1774: English chemist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen by isolating it in its gaseous state 1834: Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into effect, […]
30 BC: Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves minor victory over Octavian, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to Octavian’s invasion of Egypt 1620: Pilgrim Fathers depart Leiden, Netherlands for England on their way to America 1917: World War I: Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) begins, goes on to cause approximately 500,000 casualties 1961: Israel welcomes its one […]
1178: Frederick I Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, crowned King of Burgundy 1419: First defenestration of Prague: anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, storm Prague town hall and throw the judge, mayor and several city council members out the windows. They die in the fall or killed by crowd outside. 1619: House of Burgesses Virginia forms, 1st elective […]
1588: The “Invincible” Spanish Armada is sighted approaching England, several skirmishes follow forcing the invading fleet to make a long and costly retreat around Scotland and Ireland 1609: Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years 1848: Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – […]
1794: French Revolutionary figure Maximilien Robespierre and 22 other leaders of “the Terror” guillotined to thunderous cheers in Paris 1914: Austria-Hungary decides against mediation and declares war on Serbia – first declaration of war of WWI 1917: Silent Parade organised by James Weldon Johnson of 10,000 African-Americans who march on 5th Ave in NYC to protest against lynching 1943: Operation Gomorrah: RAF bombing over Hamburg […]
