1621: Dutch West India Company receives charter for The West Indies (The Americas, Caribbean and West Africa) 1929: Chile and Peru sign the Treaty of Lima, finally resolving their border dispute from the War of the Pacific (1879–83). Chile keeps Arica and Peru regains Tacna. 1943: A mob of 60 from the Los Angeles Naval Reserve […]
455: King Gaiseric and the Vandals sack Rome, looting continues for 14 days 1862: Robert E. Lee takes command of Confederate armies of North Virginia during the American Civil War 1896: Italian engineer and inventor Guglielmo Marconi applies for the first ever patent for a system of wireless telegraphy in the United Kingdom 1953: Coronation […]
4000 BC: Approximate domestication of the horse in the Eurasian steppes near Dereivka, central Ukraine (hypothesis only) 1215: Peking [Beijing], then a city of over one million, under the control of Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured and looted for a month by the Mongols under Genghis Khan 1676: Battle of Öland: allied […]
1279 BC: Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great becomes Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt (19th Dynasty) 1578: Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England, to Frobisher Bay, Canada. Eventually mines fools gold, famously used to pave the streets of London. 1902: Boer War Ends; Treaty of Unity signed, Britain annexes Transvaal 1910: Union of South […]
1453: Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire falls to the Ottoman Turks under Mehmed the Conqueror, ending the Byzantine Empire after 1100 years 1592: Korean navy led by Admiral Yi Sun Shin repels a Japanese fleet in the Battle of Sacheon, the first use of a Korean Turtle ship 1660: On his 30th birthday […]
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) 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 fleet […]
642: Arab forces under Amr ibn al-‘As conquer Alexandria 1683: Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is the first to report the existence of bacteria 1787: The US Constitution is signed by delegates at the Philadelphia Convention 1862: Battle of Antietam [Battle of Sharpsburg], bloodiest day in the American Civil War: 22,000 dead, wounded or missing […]
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 1961: JFK announces US goal of putting a […]
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 opened by President Chester A. Arthur […]
