585 BC: Solar eclipse, as predicted by Greek philosopher Thales, while Lydians at war with the Medes leads to a truce. One of the cardinal dates from which other dates calculated. 1431: Joan of Arc is accused of relapsing into heresy by donning male clothing again, providing justification for her execution 1588: King Philip II […]
1679: Habeas Corpus Act passes in England, strengthening a person’s right to challenge unlawful arrest and imprisonment 1703: Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) is founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great 1873: Heinrich Schliemann discovers “Priam’s Treasure” a cache of gold and other objects in Hisarlik (Troy) in Anatolia 1905: Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea […]
1896: Dow Jones Industrial Average begins with an average of 12 industrial stocks, the daily closing value is 40.9 1908: At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom 1927: Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce […]
1720: The Ship “Le Grand St Antoine” reaches Marseille, bringing Europe’s last major plague outbreak. Kills around 100,000. 1810: In the May Revolution, citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Spanish Viceroy Cisneros during Semana de Mayo 1914: British House of Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill 1942: First commercial fluid catalytic cracking facility begins […]
1595: Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library 1738: John Wesley is converted, launching the Methodist movement, celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day 1844: Samuel Morse taps out “What hath God wrought” in the world’s first telegraph message 1883: Brooklyn Bridge is opened by President Chester A. Arthur […]
1618: Second Defenestration of Prague: Two Catholic Lords Regent and their secretary are thrown out of a window and amazingly are not seriously injured by the 70 foot (21m) fall. Triggers the Thirty Years’ War. 1785: Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals 1813: South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion […]
334 BC Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus
1792: Mount Unzen on Japan’s Shimabara Peninsula erupts, creating a tsunami and killing about 15,000 people in the country’s deadliest volcanic eruption 1832: First US Democratic National Convention is held in Baltimore 1871: French Army attacks Paris, starting the Semaine Sanglante (Bloody Week), a weeklong battle that kills 10,000-15,000 and ends the Paris Commune 1927: […]
1498: Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives in Calicut, India, becoming the first European to reach India by sea 1609: William Shakespeare’s Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by publisher Thomas Thorpe 1862: US President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the Homestead Act to provide cheap land for the settlement of the American […]
1536: Anne Boleyn, second wife of English King Henry VIII, is beheaded at the Tower of London on charges of adultery, incest and treason 1643: Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven form the United Colonies of New England 1649: England is declared a Commonwealth by an act of the Rump Parliament, making England a […]
