1492: Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the “Indies” with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10% of all riches found, and the governorship of any lands encountered. 1895: Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed ending the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) 1917: Vladimir Lenin issues his […]
1457 BC: Battle of Megiddo: Egyptian forces of Thutmose III defeat a large Canaanite coalition under King of Kadesh. First battle recorded with a reliable account. 1705: Queen Anne of England knights scientist Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge 1746: Jacobite Rising 1745: Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under […]
1755: Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” is published in London 1861: Federal army of 75,000 volunteers is mobilized by President Abraham Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War 1874: First Impressionist art exhibition opens in Paris, features Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot 1877: World’s […]
1865: US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington; he dies a day later 1912: RMS Titanic, the world’s largest ocean liner, hits an iceberg at 11:40pm off Newfoundland and sinks in the early hours of April 15 1914: Dr. Harry Plotz isolates the bacteria […]
1250: The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, and Louis IX of France is captured 1598: Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots 1860: First Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California 1868: Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala and Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II commits suicide 1970: Apollo 13 announces, […]
1204: The Fourth Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople 1811: First US colonists on the Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington 1861: Fort Sumter in South Carolina is attacked by the Confederacy, beginning the American Civil War 1927: Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek begins a counter-revolution by violently suppressing Communist groups 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin […]
1512: Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Holy League in a major battle of the Italian Wars 1783: Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War after the Continental Congress proclaims the “Cessation of Arms” against His Britannic Majesty [1] 1814: Napoléon Bonaparte abdicates unconditionally and is exiled to the […]
1407: Lama Deshin Shekpa visits the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma 1516: Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area, establishing the first Jewish ghetto The massive Mount Tambora volcanic eruptionEruption of Mount Tambora 1815: Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies experiences a […]
1483: Edward V (aged 12) succeeds his father Edward IV as king of England. He is never crowned, and disappears presumed murdered, after incarceration in the Tower of London with his younger brother Richard (the “Princes in the Tower”) 1731: British mariner Robert Jenkins’ ear is cut off by Spanish Guarde Costa in the Caribbean, […]
1767: Ayutthaya kingdom in present-day Thailand falls to Burmese invaders 1820: The famous ancient Greek statue, Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos 1886: William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons. 1898: Battle of Atbara River: Anglo-Egyptian forces defeat 15,000 Sudanese during […]
