1789: William Wilberforce makes his first major speech on abolition in the UK House of Commons, reasoning the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice 1940: Nazi blitzkrieg and conquest of France begins with the crossing of the Muese River 1943: Axis forces in North Africa surrender 2002: Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel […]
330: Constantinople (Byzantium) becomes the capital of the Roman Empire 1189: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and 100,000 crusaders depart Regensburg for the Third Crusade 1751: Pennsylvania Hospital founded by Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin 1924: Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie begin their first joint venture (later merge into Mercedes-Benz) 1995: More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation […]
1497: Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci leaves for his first voyage to the New World (disputed) 1775: Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and issues paper currency for 1st time 1801: First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America (1st US foreign war) 1857: Indian mutiny against rule by the British East India Company […]
1386: Treaty of Windsor between Portugal and England (oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in force) 1865: President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation declaring armed resistance in the South is virtually at an end; this is the commonly accepted end date of the American Civil War 1901: The First Australian Parliament opens in Melbourne, though the first working session will not […]
1660: English parliament declares Charles Stuart to be King Charles II of England 1835: 1st installment of Hans Christian Andersen “Fairy Tales” published by C. A. Reitzel in Copenhagen, Denmark 1895: China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki 1902: Mount Pelée on the French overseas island of Martinique erupts, wiping out the city of Saint-Pierre, killing 30,000 and leaving only two […]
1429 English siege of Orleans broken by Joan of Arc and the French army 1867: Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel Patents Dynamite in England, the first of three patents he would receive for the explosive material 1912: Columbia University approves plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories, after established by Joseph Pulitzer 1915: RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off the southern coast […]
1626: Dutch colonist Peter Minuit organizes the purchase of Manhattan Island from Native Americans for 60 guilders worth of goods, believed to have been Canarsee Indians of the Lenape 1840: World’s first adhesive postage stamp, the “Penny Black”, is first used in Great Britain 1889: Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) in Paris opens with the recently completed Eiffel Tower serving as […]
1260: Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire 1941: Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa 1955: West Germany is granted full sovereignty by its three occupying powers 1965: First large-scale US Army ground units arrive in South Vietnam 1980: Siege at Iranian Embassy in London ends as the SAS and police storm the building 1981: After […]
1471: Battle of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, final battle between the Houses of Lancaster and York: Prince of Wales, Edward of Westminster killed and King Edward IV restored to his throne. Re-restores political stability to England until his death in 1483. 1814: King Ferdinand VII of Spain signs the Decree of the 4th of May, returning Spain to absolutism 1904: Construction begins […]
1791: Constitution of May 3 is proclaimed by the Great Sejm (Parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, becoming the 1st modern constitution in Europe 1926: Britain’s Trade Union Congress calls for the country’s first ever general strike, begins at 1 minute to midnight in support striking coal miners, lasts 9 days 1937: Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for “Gone With the […]
