1173: Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury 1613: Michael Romanov, son of Patriarch of Moscow, elected first Russian Tsar of the house of Romanov 1804: 1st locomotive, Richard Trevithick’s, runs for the 1st time, along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales 1916: World War I: Battle of Verdun begins with a German offensive, […]
1792: US postal service created, postage 6-12 cents depending on distance 1872: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens 1873: British Naval Officer John Moresby discovers the site of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and claims it for Britain 1938: UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns stating Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has appeased Nazi Germany 1947: Earl Mountbatten of Burma appointed as last viceroy of India […]
356: Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples 1600: Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in South American recorded history 1878: Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his gramophone (phonograph) 1942: About 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin 1945: US 5th Fleet launches invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese with 30,000 US Marines Source: […]
1519: Hernán Cortés leaves Cuba for the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico with 11 ships and 500 men 1678: John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” is published in Holborn, London, by Nathaniel Ponder 1861: King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia becomes first King of Italy 1885: Mark Twain publishes the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in the US 1917: 1st major strike of the Russian “February Revolution” starts […]
1568: Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II agrees to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire for peace 1865: Columbia, South Carolina, burns down during American Civil War 1876: Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine 1972: British Parliament votes to join the European Common Market 2017: Discovery of a new mostly underwater continent Zealandia in the South Pacific announced in […]
1659: 1st known cheque written (£400), now on display at Westminster Abbey 1840: American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica 1923: Howard Carter opens the inner burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb and finds the sarcophagus 1959: Fidel Castro becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista 2005: The Kyoto Protocol comes into force following its ratification by Russia. […]
399 BC: Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death by the city of Athens for corrupting the minds of the youth of the city and for impiety 590: Khosrau II, the last great Sasanian king is crowned King of Persia 1763: Austria, Prussia & Saxony sign the Treaty of Hubertusburg, marking the end of the French and Indian War and of […]
1014: Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II Holy Roman Emperor 1076: Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (for the 1st time) 1797: The Battle of Cape St Vincent: British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. Captain Horatio Nelson distinguishes himself. 1876: Alexander G. […]
1258: Baghdad, then a city of 1 million, falls to the Mongols as the abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, tens of thousands slaughtered, ending the Islamic Golden Age 1601: 1st British East India Company voyage departs from London, lead by John Lancaster 1689: Parliament of England adopts the Bill of Rights which establishes the rights of parliament and places limits on […]
1700: The Great Northern War begins in Northern Europe between Denmark–Norway, Saxony and Russia and the Swedish Empire. 1912: The last Qing Emperor of China, Puyi (age 6) abdicates after losing the support of the Chinese people and thus the “mandate of heaven” 1947: French fashion designer Christian Dior presents his first influential collection, named the “New Look” 1999: US President Bill […]
