1865: US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington; he dies a day later 1912: RMS Titanic, the world’s largest ocean liner, hits an iceberg at 11.40pm off Newfoundland, sinks in the early hours of April 15 1914: Dr. Harry Plotz isolates the bacteria that […]
1250: The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France captured 1598: Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots 1860: 1st Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California 1868: Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala and Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II commits suicide 1970: Apollo 13 announces “Okay, Houston, […]
1204: The Fourth Crusade occupies and plunders Constantinople 1811: The first US colonists on the Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington 1861: Fort Sumter in South Carolina is attacked by the Confederacy, beginning the American Civil War 1872: Jesse James’ gang robs a bank of $1,500 in Columbia, Kentucky, 1 dead 1927: Kuomintang leader […]
1512: Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Holy League in a major battle of the Italian Wars 1783: Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War after the Continental Congress proclaims the “Cessation of Arms” against and His Britannic Majesty [1] 1814: Napoléon Bonaparte abdicates unconditionally and is exiled to […]
1407: Lama Deshin Shekpa visits the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma 1516: Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area, establishing the first Jewish ghetto 1815: Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies experiences a cataclysmic eruption, one of the most powerful in history, […]
1483: Edward V (aged 12) succeeds his father Edward IV as king of England. He is never crowned, and disappears presumed murdered, after incarceration in the Tower of London with his younger brother Richard (the “Princes in the Tower”) 1731: British mariner Robert Jenkins’ ear is cut off by Spanish Guarde Costa in the Caribbean, […]
1767: Ayutthaya kingdom in present-day Thailand falls to Burmese invaders 1820: The famous ancient Greek statue, Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos 1886: William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons. 1898: Battle of Atbara River: Anglo-Egyptian forces defeat 15,000 Sudanese during […]
30: Scholars’ estimate for Jesus’ crucifixion by Roman troops in Jerusalem [or April 3] 529: First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis or the Justinian Code (a fundamental work in jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I 1948: World Health Organization is formed by the United Nations 1954: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower in […]
46 BC: Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus. 1453: Turkish forces under Sultan Mehmed II begin the siege of the Byzantine Empire capitol of Constantinople (now İstanbul), which falls May 29 1652: Cape Colony, the first European settlement in South Africa, established by […]
1242: Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod defeats the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice 1722: Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen is the first European to discover Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the southeastern Pacific 1818: Battle of Maipú: Chile’s independence movement led by Bernardo O’Higgins and José de San Martín win a decisive victory […]
