1945: More than 1,000,000 German soldiers officially surrender to the Western Allies in Italy and Austria 1945: World War II: Battle of Berlin ends as Soviet army takes Berlin forcing German commander of the city general Helmuth Weidling to surrender 1949: Arthur Miller wins Pulitzer Prize for “Death of a Salesman” 1982: Falklands War: Argentine cruiser General Belgrano sunk by British submarine […]
1707: Acts of Union comes into force, uniting England and Scotland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain 1753: Publication of “Species Plantarum” by Carl Linnaeus – the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature 1840: “Penny Black”, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp issued by Great Britain 1886: US general strike for […]
311: Roman Emperor Galerius issues Edict of Toleration, ending persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire 711: Islamic conquest of Iberia: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) 1562: Jean Ribault and colonists arrive in Florida, the first French colonists in North America 1789: George Washington is inaugurated as the […]
1862: New Orleans falls to Union forces during US Civil War 1864: Battle of Gate Pa (Pukehinahina): 1,700 British troops suffer their worst defeat of the New Zealand Wars at the hands of 230 entrenched Maori warriors in Tauranga 1916: Irish republicans abandon the post office in Dublin and surrender unconditionally, marking the end of the Easter Rising 1945: US […]
1611: Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, oldest existing university in Asia and largest Catholic university in the world 1770: British Captain James Cook, aboard the Endeavour, lands at Botany Bay in Australia 1789: Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on HMS Bounty against its captain William Bligh in the South Pacific 1910: First night air flight by Claude […]
1565: 1st Spanish settlement in the Philippines forms at Cebu City 1865: Steamboat “SS Sultana” explodes in the Mississippi River, killing up to 1,800 of the 2,427 passengers in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Most were paroled Union POWs on their way home. 1904: The Australian Labor Party under Prime Minister Chris Watson becomes the first […]
1478: Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill Giuliano de’ Medici in Florence 1920: Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold “great debate” on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. 1945: Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France’s Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II, arrested for […]
1660: English Convention Parliament meets and votes to restore Charles II 1792: Guillotine first used in France, executes highwayman Nicolas Pelletier 1846: Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War 1915: First landings at Gaba Tepe and Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula by ANZAC forces during WWI 1920: San Remo conference establishes three League of […]
1479 BC: Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty) 1184 BC: The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date) 1877: Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire 1898: Spanish–American War: Spain declares war after rejecting US ultimatum to […]
215 BC: A temple, built on the Capitoline Hill, is dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene 1014: King Brian Boru of Ireland defeats Viking forces at Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from foreign control 1597: William Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance 1861: Robert […]
