60: St. Paul is thought to have been shipwrecked at Malta 1720: Edmond Halley is appointed as the second Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory 1763: Treaty of Paris ends the French-Indian War, France agrees to surrender Canada to Great Britain 1824: Simón Bolívar is named dictator by the Congress of Peru 1906: British battleship […]
1775: British Parliament declares Massachusetts Colony in rebellio 1897: Invasion of Benin City by British Expeditionary Force; the city is burned and looted, ending the Nigerian Kingdom of Benin formed in the 11th century 1904: Japanese torpedo boats launch a surprise attack on Russian ships at the Port Arthur naval base in Manchuria, beginning the […]
1587: Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle at age 44 after being convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I in the Babington Plot 1672: Isaac Newton reads his first optics paper before the Royal Society in London 1807: Battle of Eylau ends inconclusively between Napoleon’s forces and the Russian Empire, first battle […]
1301: Edward of Caernarfon (later Edward II) becomes the first English Prince of Wales 1842: Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia, defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien 1856: Colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the first piece of legislation, the Electoral Act of 1856, anywhere in the world providing […]
1508: Maximilian I is proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor, the first emperor in centuries not crowned by the Pope 1778: Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance are signed in Paris between the United States and France, the first treaties negotiated by the United States. The first treaty establishes formal diplomatic and commercial […]
1576: Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France) abjures Catholicism at Tours 1597: A group of early Japanese Christians, known as the 26 Martyrs, are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society 1885: King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as his personal colonial […]
211 Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies in Eboracum (York) in England, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta 960 Coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of the Song initiates three centuries of Song Dynasty dominance in southern China 1789 First US Electoral College chooses George Washington […]
1451: Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire 1509: Battle of Diu: Portuguese Armada defeats a Mamluk Egyptian fleet in a naval battle at the port of Diu, India, establishing Portuguese trading control in the Indian Ocean 1870: Iowa ratifies the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing suffrage for […]
1653: New Amsterdam becomes a city, later renamed New York City 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican–American War. Mexico loses 55 percent of its territory to the US, including California, Nevada and Utah in exchange for $15 million. 1901: Queen Victoria’s funeral takes place in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, England 1922: James […]
1587: Queen Elizabeth I of England signs the death warrant for her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots 1843: Oldest continuous writer of insurance in America opens, the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (MONY) 1884: First volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, is published 1908: King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir, […]
