539 BC: King Cyrus “the Great” of Persia marches into Babylon, freeing Jewish captives and allowing them to return home 1268: Conradin, the last legitimate male heir of the German Hohenstaufen dynasty of Kings and Holy Roman Emperors, is executed with Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily 1665: Battle of Mbwila [Ambuila]: Portuguese defeat […]
1492: Christopher Columbus sights Cuba and claims it for Spain under the name “Juana” 1538: The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is established on Hispaniola 1746: Peruvian cities of Lima and Callao demolished by earthquake, 18,000 die 1904: St Louis police try a new investigation method – fingerprints 1919: Volstead Act passed by US […]
312: Roman Emperor Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross 1795: Pinckney’s Treaty [Treaty of San Lorenzo] signed by Spain and US, establishing the southern boundary of the US and giving Americans right to navigate the Mississippi River 1962: Black Saturday during the Cuban Missile Crisis: An American spy plane is shot down over Cuba […]
1850: Robert McClure sights the fabled Northwest Passage for the first time (from Banks Island towards Melville Island) 1861: Pony Express (Missouri to California) ends after 19 months 1863: International conference begins in Geneva aimed at improving medical conditions on battlefields – beginning of the Red Cross 1977: Last natural case of smallpox discovered in Merca district, Somalia. Considered […]
1415: Battle of Agincourt: Henry V’s forces defeat larger French army and the longbow defeats the armoured knight 1854: The infamous “Charge of the Light Brigade” during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War results in over 100 killed 1962: US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson demands USSR UN rep Valerian Zorin answer regarding Cuban missile bases saying “I […]
1260: Qutuz, Mamluk Sultans of Egypt (1259-60), is assassinated by Baibars, a fellow Mamluk leader, who seizes power for himself 1648: Treaty of Westphalia ends The Thirty Years’ War in the Holy Roman Empire; Switzerland’s independence recognized 1929: “Black Thursday”, start of stock market crash, Dow Jones down 12.8% 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet ships approach but stop short […]
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: 1st 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 Elso Barghoorn announces discovery of a 3.4-billion year old one-celled fossil, […]
1633: Battle of Liaoluo Bay: Dutch East India Company defeated by Chinese Ming naval forces in southern Fujian sea 1721: Tsar Peter the Great becomes “All-Russian Imperator” 1879: Thomas Edison perfects carbonized cotton filament light bulb 1884: International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) worldwide, creating 24 international time zones with longitude zero at the Greenwich meridian 1907: Panic […]
1805: Battle of Trafalgar: British Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats combined French and Spanish fleet. Nelson shot and killed during battle. 1854: Florence Nightingale with a staff of 38 nurses is sent to the Crimean War 1944: World War II: US troops capture Aachen, 1st large German city to fall 1948: UN rejects Russian proposal to destroy atomic weapons 1950: Chinese forces occupy Tibet […]
1097: 1st Crusaders arrive in Antioch during the First Crusade 1603: Chinese uprising in the Philippines fails after 23,000 killed 1803: US Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase 1917: US suffragette Alice Paul begins a 7 month jail sentence for peacefully picketing in support of the women’s Suffrage (right to vote) Amendment at the White House in Washington, D.C. 1935: Communist forces end […]
