1661: Treaty of The Hague is signed, whereby the Dutch Republic sells New Holland (Brazil) to Portugal for 63 tons of gold 1890: Murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person executed by electric chair at Auburn Prison in New York 1945: Atomic bomb is dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US B-29 […]
910: The last major Viking army to raid England, led by King Edward and Earl Æthelred, is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex 1305: Scottish resistance leader William Wallace is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution 1583: Humphrey Gilbert […]
1558: The first printing of the Zohar in Spain popularizes the Jewish study of Kabbalah The Bellingshausen expedition’s two sloops-of-war, Mirny and VostokRussian Antarctic Expedition 1821: Russian Antarctic expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen returns to Kronstadt after being the first to circumnavigate Antarctica 1914: US President Woodrow Wilson issues his “Proclamation of Neutrality” […]
1492: Christopher Columbus, with Juan de la Cosa as second-in-command, sets sail on his first voyage with three ships: Santa María, Pinta, and Niña from Palos de la Frontera, Spain, for the “Indies” 1596: German astronomer and priest David Fabricius discovers the light variation of Mira, the first variable star 1914: Germany invades Belgium and […]
338 BC: Macedonian army led by Philip II defeats the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony over Greece and the Aegean Sea 216 BC: Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army under the command of consuls […]
527: Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire after the death of his uncle Justin I William the Conqueror and his army land at Pevensey as depicted in the Bayeux TapestryNorman Invasion of England 1086: Results of the Domesday inquiry are presented to William the Conqueror in Salisbury (the date of compilation […]
1620: Pilgrim Fathers depart Leiden, Netherlands, for England on their way to America British Royal Field Artillery gunners hauling an 18-pounder field gun out of the mudBattle of Passchendaele 1917: World War I: Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) begins and lasts until November 6, 1917, causing approximately 500,000 casualties 1961: Israel welcomes its […]
30 BC: Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to Octavian’s invasion of Egypt 1178: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa is crowned King of Burgundy 1419: First Defenestration of Prague: Anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, storm Prague Town Hall […]
1588: The “Invincible” Spanish Armada is sighted approaching England, and several skirmishes follow, forcing the invading fleet to make a long and costly retreat around Scotland and Ireland 1609: Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York, setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years 1848: Irish […]
1794: French Revolutionary figure Maximilien Robespierre and 22 other leaders of “the Terror” are guillotined to thunderous cheers in Paris 1914: Austria-Hungary decides against mediation and declares war on Serbia, the first declaration of war of World War I 1917: Silent Parade organized by James Weldon Johnson, 10,000 African Americans march on Fifth Avenue in […]
