1581: The first ballet “Ballet Comique de la Reine,” commissioned by Catherine de Medici, is staged in Paris 1582: Gregorian calendar is introduced in Spain, Portugal, and the Papal States after skipping 10 days from October 4 to sync the calendar to the solar year and compensate for the drift that has occurred due to […]
1066: Battle of Hastings: William, Duke of Normandy and his Norman army defeat the English forces of Harold II, who is killed in the battle 1322: Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at the Battle of Old Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence 1774: First Continental Congress makes Declaration […]
54: Agrippina the Younger murders her husband, Roman Emperor Claudius, with poison to secure the succession for her son Nero 1307: French King Philip IV has Grand Master Jacques de Molay and the Knights Templar arrested and charged with idolatry and corruption 1884: International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, establishes Greenwich in London, England, as […]
539 BC: Army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon 1279: Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, founder of Nichiren Buddhism, inscribes the Dai-Gohonzon 1492: Christopher Columbus’s expedition makes landfall on a Caribbean island he names San Salvador (likely Watling Island, Bahamas). The explorer believes he has reached East Asia (OS 21 Oct) 1864: Brazilian […]
1138: Earthquake in Aleppo, Syria, kills an estimated 230,000 people 1634: Burchardi flood, known as the second “Grote Mandrenke,” kills about 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark, and Germany 1737: An earthquake is reported to have killed 300,000 and destroyed half of Calcutta in India, now thought to have been an exaggerated account of a hurricane […]
1780: The Great Hurricane of 1780 hits Barbados and goes on to kill 20,000 to 30,000 people in the Caribbean, making it the deadliest recorded hurricane in the Atlantic 1871: The Great Chicago Fire is finally extinguished after three days, leaving approximately 300 dead, 100,000 homeless, and causing $222 million in damage 1911: Chinese revolutionaries […]
768: Charlemagne and his brother Carloman I are both crowned King of the Franks 1000: Leif Erikson reaches “Vinland” (possibly L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada), reputedly becoming the first European to reach North America 1446: Korean Hangul alphabet is first published by King Sejong the Great 1831: Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first Head of State of modern […]
1480: Great Stand on the Ugra River: Standoff between forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde, and Ivan III, Grand Prince of all Rus, ends with a Tatar-Mongol retreat, leading to the disintegration of the Horde 1769: Captain James Cook lands in New Zealand for the first time near present-day Gisborne on the […]
1571: Battle of Lepanto: Holy League of Catholic states formed by Pope Pius V destroys an Ottoman fleet in a significant defeat off Western Greece 1737: A cyclone causes 40-foot waves that are believed to kill 300,000 in Calcutta, India 1763: George III of Great Britain issues the Proclamation of 1763, closing lands in North […]
1917: Third Battle of Ypres: Canadian troops recapture the high ground in the village of Passchendaele from the 1948: Earthquake in Ashgabat kills 100,000 in Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic 1948: Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey finds the first partial fossil skull of Proconsul africanus, an ancestor of apes and humans, on Rusinga Island, Kenya 1949: US President […]
