1513: Battle of the Spurs at Guinegate (now Enguinegatte): King Henry VIII of England and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I defeat French forces, capturing the town and routing the French cavalry 1858: Britain’s Queen Victoria telegraphs US President James Buchanan for the first time via transatlantic telegraph cable; he replies, “It is a triumph more […]
1461: Empire of Trebizond surrenders to forces of Sultan Mehmed II, the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire to fall; Emperor David is exiled and later executed 1620: The Mayflower sets sail from Southampton, England, with 102 Pilgrims bound for the New World 1900: Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi, her family, and court retainers flee Peking […]
1281: During Kublai Khan’s second Mongol invasion of Japan, his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappears in a typhoon near the Japanese coast 1842: US Army Colonel Worth declares the Second Seminole War over after nearly seven years; over 3,000 surviving members of the Seminole Nation are forcibly relocated from Florida to Oklahoma, with […]
1521: Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan, bringing the Aztec Empire to an end 1536: Buddhist monks from Kyoto’s Enryaku-ji Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536) 1642: Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovers Mars’s southern polar […]
1121: Battle of Didgori: Georgian army under King David the Builder wins a decisive victory over the renowned Seljuk commander Ilghazi 1480: Ottoman troops conquer Otranto in southern Italy after a 15-day siege, killing 12,000, enslaving 5,000, and beheading 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam 1851: American inventor Isaac Singer patents his famous […]
3114 BC: 3114-08-11 BCE is traditionally considered the start date of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Maya 1945: Allies refuse Japan’s offer to surrender on the condition that Emperor Hirohito retains his status 1954: Formal peace treaty ends over seven years of fighting in Indochina between the […]
612 BC: Fall of Nineveh to the Babylonians and the forces of Medes, leads to the sack of one of the greatest cities in the world, the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and the death of King Sinsharishkun [date approximate] 610: Traditional date of Laylat al-Qadr / Night of Power when Muslims believe the Quran […]
48 BC: Caesar’s Civil War: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey the Great at the Battle of Pharsalus, forcing Pompey to flee to Egypt 378: Battle of Adrianople: Gothic rebel army defeats Roman forces under Emperor Valens, who is killed 1790: Robert Gray’s Columbia Rediviva returns to Boston after a 3-year journey as the first American […]
1509: Emperor Krishnadeva Raya is crowned, beginning the rejuvenation of the Vijayanagara Empire in southern India 1609: Galileo Galilei presents his telescope to the Venetian Senate in Venice 1786: US Congress unanimously chooses the dollar as the monetary unit for the United States of America 1945: Soviet Union declares war on Japan during World War […]
1461: Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor 1714: Battle of Gangut: Russian Navy wins its first major victory during the Great Northern War against Sweden 1782: Commander of the Continental Army, George Washington, creates two Honorary Badges of Distinction and a Badge of Military Merit (now the […]
