1492: Christopher Columbus, with Juan de la Cosa as 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: German astronomer and priest David Fabricius discovers the light variation of Mira, the first variable star 1914: Germany invades Belgium and […]
338 BC: Macedonian army led by Philip II defeats the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony over Greece and the Aegean Sea 216 BC: Second Punic War, Battle of Cannae: Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army under the command of consuls Lucius […]
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 are 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 […]
1620: Pilgrim Fathers depart Leiden, Netherlands, for England on their way to America British Royal Field Artillery gunners hauling an 18-pounder field gun out of the mudBattle of Passchendaele 1917: World War I’s Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) begins and lasts until November 6, 1917, causing approximately 500,000 casualties 1961: Israel welcomes its […]
1588: The “Invincible” Spanish Armada is sighted approaching England, and 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 […]
1794: French Revolutionary figure Maximilien Robespierre and 22 other leaders of “the Terror” are guillotined to thunderous cheers in Paris 1914: Austria-Hungary decides against mediation and declares war on Serbia, the first declaration of war of World War I 1917: Silent Parade organized by James Weldon Johnson, 10,000 African Americans march on Fifth Avenue in […]
1586: Walter Raleigh brings the first tobacco to England from Virginia 1689: Battle of Killiecrankie: Jacobite Scottish Highlanders under Viscount Dundee defeat royalist forces under General Hugh Mackay 1789: US Congress establishes the Department of Foreign Affairs, now referred to as the State Department 1866: First transatlantic telegraph cable comes ashore at Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, […]
657: Battle of Siffin occurs during the first Muslim civil war between Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah I beside the Euphrates River 1519: Francisco Pizarro receives a royal charter for the west coast of South America 1533: Francisco Pizarro orders the death of the last Sapa Inca Emperor, Atahualpa 1803: The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably […]
306: Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops 1814: English engineer George Stephenson introduces his first steam locomotive, a traveling engine designed for hauling coal on the Killingworth wagonway, named Blücher 1943: Benito Mussolini is dismissed as Italian Prime Minister and arrested on the authority of King Victor Emmanuel III 1944: World War […]
1534: French explorer Jacques Cartier claims for France the lands around Gaspé by erecting a 30-foot cross at Pointe-Penouille [1] 1567: Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate, and her one-year-old son becomes King James VI of Scotland 1832: Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains through Wyoming’s South Pass […]
