History

On This Day…

1590 - Battle of Ivry: French King Henry IV beats Catholic League during French Wars of Religion. 1794 - Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin machine revolutionizing the cotton industry…

Read More Here

On This Day…

624 - Battle of Badr: Muhammad's Muslim forces win significant victory over Meccan army. 1591 - Battle at Tondibi: Moroccan army under Judar defeats Sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai.…

Read More Here

On This Day…

538 - Witiges, King of the Ostrogoths, ends his siege of Rome, retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of victorious Byzantine General Belisarius. 1455 - First record…

Read More Here

On This Day…

843 - Icon veneration officially re-instated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople. 1502 -Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524). 1918 - Moscow…

Read More Here

On This Day…

241 BC - First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands - The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing the First Punic War to an end. 1783 - USS Alliance…

Read More Here

On This Day…

141 BC --Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne of the Han Dynasty in China and rules for 54 years. 1522 - Martin Luther begins…

Read More Here

1531 - Henry VIII recognised as supreme head of Church in England by the Convocation of Canterbury. 1702 - Anne became the last Stuart monarch of Great Britain, having earlier acquiesced to the Act of Settlement of 1701, which designated…

Read More Here

On This Day…

161 - Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, an unprecedented political arrangement in the Roman Empire. 1530 - English King Henry VIII's divorce request is denied by the Pope. 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell receives…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1479 - Treaty of Alcaçovas: Portugal gives the Canary Islands to Castile in exchange for claims in West Africa. 1836 - Battle of the Alamo: After 13 days of fighting 1,500-3,000 Mexican soldiers overwhelm the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a campaign that brings about his own death. 1046 - Persian scholar Naser Khosrow begins…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1238 - Battle of the Sit River: Mongol forces of Batu Khan overcome Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal near Yaroslavl in Russia, ending Russian resistance. 1801 - Thomas Jefferson is the first US President to be…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1575 - Indian Mughal Emperor Akbar defeats Bengali army at the Battle of Tukaroi. 1857 - Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China . 1861 - Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing serfs and…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1791- Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris. 1796 - Napoléon Bonaparte is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the French Army in Italy. 1807 - US Congress bans…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1642 - Georgeana (York) in Maine becomes the 1st incorporated American city. 1780 - Pennsylvania becomes 1st US state to abolish slavery (for newborns only). 1847 - Michigan becomes 1st…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1704 - The town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was razed in the bloodiest battle of Queen Anne's War. 1768 - The Confederation of Bar was organized to defend the privileges of…

Read More Here

On This Day…

202 - BC Coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty's rule over China. 1710 - In the Battle of…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1776 - At the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, North Carolinian revolutionaries defeated loyalists during the American Revolution. 1884 - Paul Kruger, president of the South African Republic, signed a…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1616 - Roman Inquisition delivers injunction to Galileo demanding he abandon his belief in heliocentrism, which states the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun. 1797 - Bank of England…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1570 - Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England for heresy and persecution of English Catholics during her reign. Also absolves her subjects from allegiance to the crown. 1793…

Read More Here

On This Day…

303 - 1st official Roman edict for persecution of Christians issued by Emperor Diocletian. 1525 - Battle of Pavia: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's troops beat the French. French King…

Read More Here

On This Day…

303 - Roman Emperor Diocletian begins his policy of persecuting Christians, razing the church at Nicomedia 1455 - Johannes Gutenberg prints his first Bible (estimated date) 1540 - Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's expedition sets off from Mexico in search…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1632 - Galileo's "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" is published. 1774 - British House of Lords rules authors do not have perpetual copyright. 1797 - The Last Invasion of Britain by the French, begins…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1173 - Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury 1613 - Michael Romanov, son of Patriarch of Moscow, elected first Russian Tsar of the house of Romanov. 1804 - 1st locomotive, Richard Trevithick's, runs for the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1792 - US postal service created, postage 6-12 cents depending on distance. 1872 - New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art opens. 1873 - British Naval Officer John Moresby discovers the site of Port Moresby, Papua New…

Read More Here

On This Day…

356 - Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples. 1600 - Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in South American recorded history. 1878 - Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his gramophone (phonograph) 1942 - About 150 Japanese warplanes…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1519 - Hernán Cortés leaves Cuba for the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico with 11 ships and 500 men. 1678 - John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" is published in Holborn, London, by Nathaniel Ponder. 1861 - King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia becomes…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1568 - Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II agrees to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire for peace. 1865 - Columbia, South Carolina, burns down during American Civil War. 1876 - Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1659 - 1st known cheque (£400) (on display at Westminster Abbey). 1840 - American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica. 1918 - The 20-member Taryba (council) of Lithuanian delegates proclaimed their…

Read More Here

On This Day…

399 BC - Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death by the city of Athens for corrupting the minds of the youth of the city and for impiety. 590 - Khosrau II,…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1014 - Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II Holy Roman Emperor. 1076 - Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (for the 1st time). 1779 - Captain James…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1258 - Baghdad falls to the Mongols as the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed. 1542 - King Henry VIII of England had Catherine Howard, his fifth wife, beheaded on charges of…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1554 - At age 16 Lady Jane Grey, titular queen of England, was executed in London by order of Mary I. 1700 - The Great Northern War begins in Northern…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1858 - First vision of the Virgin Mary to 14-year-old Bernadette of Lourdes, France. 1929 - Vatican City (world's smallest country) made an enclave of Rome. 1929 - A committee…

Read More Here

On This Day…

60 - St Paul thought to have been shipwrecked at Malta. 1720 - Edmond Halley appointed as the second Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory. 1763 - Treaty of Paris…

Read More Here

On This Day…

474 - Zeno crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire together with his son Leo II. 1775 - British Parliament declares Massachusetts colony is in rebellion. 1904 - Japanese land troops at Chemulpo (Inchon), near Seoul, Korea;…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1672 - Isaac Newton reads 1st optics paper before Royal Society in London. 1807 - Battle of Eylau ends inconclusively between Napoleon's forces and Russian Empire - 1st battle Napoleon isn't victorious. 1904 - Following the Russian rejection…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1508 - Maximilian I proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor, 1st Emperor in centuries not to be crowned by the Pope. 1778 - France recognizes USA, signs Treaty of Alliance in Paris, 1st US treaty. 1819 - Stamford…

Read More Here

On This Day…

146BCE - The Third Punic War, the last of three between Rome and Carthage, came to an end this day in 146 , culminating in the final destruction of Carthage, the enslavement of its people, and…

Read More Here

On This Day…

211 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta. 960 - Coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of the Song, initiating three centuries of Song Dynasty dominance…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1451 -Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire. 1509 -The Battle of Diu, naval battle at port of Diu, India between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire, establishes Portugese…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1653 - New Amsterdam becomes a city (later renamed New York). 1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War: US acquires Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona for…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1587 - Queen Elizabeth I of England signs death warrant for her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. 1790 - The first session of the Supreme Court of the United States…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1865 - Congress passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (passes 121-24). 1865 - General Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies during US Civil War. 1943 -…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1661 - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed after having been dead for two years. 1667 - The Truce of Andrusovo ended the Thirteen Years' War…

Read More Here

On This Day…

661 - Rashidun Caliphate, then the largest empire in history, ends with the death of its leader, Ali. Succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphate. 1595 - William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1521 - Emperor Charles V opens the Diet of Worms in Worms, Germany which lasts until May 25th. Produced the "Edict of Worms" which dennouced Martin Luther. 1807 - London's Pall…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1820 - Russian Antarctic Expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev discover the continent of Antarctica. 1825 - US Congress approves Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1482 - "Pentateuch" the Jewish Bible is 1st printed as a book in Bologna, Italy. 1531 - Lisbon hit by Earthquake; about 30,000 die. 1564 - The Council of Trent issued its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1554 - Founding of the city of São Paulo in Brazil. 1565 - Battle at Talikota India: Deccan sultanate destroy Vijayanagar's army and the last Hindu kingdom of Southern India. 1840 - American naval expedition under Charles Wilkes is first…

Read More Here

On This Day…

41 - Claudius succeeds his nephew Caligula as Roman Emperor after the later's assassination by officers of the Praetorian Guard. 1857 - University of Calcutta founded as the first full-fledged university in South Asia. 1899 - Rubber heel for…

Read More Here

On This Day…

971 - War elephant corps of the Southern Han defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops; Southern Han state forced to submit to the Song Dynasty. 1st regular war…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1689 - Prince William of Orange (future King William III of Britain), summons Convention Parliament to discuss ruling jointly with his wife Mary (daughter of exiled King James II). 1840 - Under the leadership…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1525 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1265 - First English Parliament summoned other than by royal command (in this instance by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester) mets in Westminster Hall. 1841 - China cedes Hong Kong to the British during the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

379 - Theodosius installed as co-emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. 1812 - Peninsular War: After a ten-day siege, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, orders British soldiers of the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1734 - Augustus III was crowned king of Poland. 1773 - Captain James Cook becomes 1st to cross Antarctic Circle (66° 33' S). 1873 - A group of Modoc warriors…

Read More Here

On This Day…

588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah's reign. The siege lasts until July 23, 586 BC. 1535 - Henry VIII declares himself head of the…

Read More Here