OnThisDay

On This Day…

1009 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock 1685 - French King Louis XIV revokes…

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733 - Battle at Tours (Poitiers): Charles Martel's Frankish and Burgundian forces beat those of al-Andalus under Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi halting Islamic influence (date disputed) 1854 - French and British forces…

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1813 - Battle of Leipzig, largest battle in Europe prior to WWI, Napoleon's forces defeated by Prussia, Austria and Russia 1847 - English novelist Charlotte Brontë (under the pseudonym Currer Bell) published Jane Eyre, which…

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1066 - Battle of Hastings: William the Conqueror and his Norman army defeat the English forces of Harold II who is killed in the battle 1322 - Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at…

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54 - Nero succeeds Claudius as Roman Emperor 1307 - French King Philip IV has Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Knights Templar arrested and charged of idolatry and corruption 1884 - Greenwich in London established…

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1520 - Suleiman the Magnificent succeeds his father Selam I as Ottoman Sultan (rules till 1566) 1846 - Anesthetic ether used for 1st time by American dentist Dr William Morton who extracts a…

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522 BC - Darius I of Persia kills Magian usurper Gaumâta, securing his hold as king of the Persian Empire 480 BC - Battle of Salamis: The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats…

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935 - Saint Wenceslas is murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I of Bohemia 1066 - William the Conqueror invades England landing at Pevensey Bay, Sussex 1542 - Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, known as the…

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1066 William the Conqueror's troops set sail for England. 1290 Earthquake in the Gulf of Chihli (Bohai Sea) near China, reportedly kills 100,000 people. 1540 Society of Jesus (Jesuits) founded by Ignatius Loyola…

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1580 Frances Drake completes circumnavigation of the world, sailing into Plymouth aboard the Golden Hind. 1687 Acropolis in Athens attacked by Venetian army trying to eject Turks, damaging the Parthenon. 1687 City council of…

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1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge: English army under King Harold II defeat invading Norwegians led by King Harald Hardrada and Harold's brother Tostig, who were both killed. 1513 Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa…

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1356 - English forces under Edward the Black Prince defeat French at Battle of Poitiers and capture the French King during the Hundred Years' War. 1870 - Siege of Paris by Prussian Forces begins (lasts until…

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1620 - English colonists aboard the Mayflower set sail for America, where they founded Plymouth, Massachusetts, after 41 men, including William Bradford and Myles Standish, signed the Mayflower Compact. 1795 - British capture Capetown, South Africa, from the Dutch 1800 - Pope Pius…

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1616 - First non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy 1821 - Act of Independence of Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua declare their independence…

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70 - Roman army under General Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem 1714 - Treaty of Baden: Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI & France, ends War of Spanish Succession, French retain Alsace, Austria gets bank of Rhine 1822 - Pedro I,…

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3114 BC - Date Maya/Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar starts dating from (as corresponds to the Julian Calendar). 1522 - Ferdinand Magellan's Spanish expedition aboard the Vitoria returns to Spain without…

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1666 - Great Fire of London ends, leaving 13,200 houses destroyed and 8 dead 1774 - Twelve of the thirteen American colonies adopt a trade embargo against Great Britain at…

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476 - Romulus Augustulus, last Western Roman Emperor, abdicates after forces led by Odoacer invade Rome. Traditional End of the Western Roman Empire 1609 - Navigator Henry Hudson first European…

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31 BC - Battle of Actium: decisive naval battle that effectively ends the Roman Republic. Octavian's forces defeat those under Mark Antony and Cleopatra off the western coast of Greece. 1192 - Sultan Saladin and King Richard the Lionheart of England…

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1791 - French Revolution: The new French Constitution, declaring France a constitutional monarchy, is passed by the National Assembly 1900 - With a proclamation by General Lord Roberts, Britain annexes the Boer…

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1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192) 1703 - The Edirne Event: Turkish army removes Sultan Mustafa II,…

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1597 - 1st Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East 1619 - 1st known African Americans in English North America (approx. 20) land at Point Comfort (Fort Monroe), Virginia.…

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43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul 1839 - Details of Louis Daguerre's 1st practical photographic process are released in Paris 1942 - World War II:…

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1737 - First public admittance to the Salon de Paris art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris 1838 - United States Exploring Expedition headed by Charles Wilkes departs for the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica…

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1590 - Governor of Roanoke Island colony, John White, returns from England to find no trace of the colonists he had left there 3 years earlier [or Aug 18, 1591] 1903 -…

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1896 - Gold first discovered in Klondike, found at Bonanza Creek in the Yukon, Canada by George Carmack 1930 - I British Empire Games open in Hamilton, Canada 1945 - Puyi, the last…

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1461 - Empire of Trebizond surrenders to forces of Sultan Mehmet II - last Byzantine Empire remnant to fall. Emperor David exiled and later murdered. 1620 - Mayflower sets sail from Southampton,…

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1281 - During Kublai Khan's second Mongol invasion of Japan his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappears in a typhoon near Japan 1842 - Second Seminole War declared over by Colonel Worth; Indians go…

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1521 - Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan marking the end of the Aztec Empire 1536 - Buddhist monks from Kyōto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto…

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1121 - Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David the Builder wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi 1480 - Battle of Otranto - Ottoman troops behead…

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3114 BC - The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins 1945 - Allies refuse Japan's offer to surrender on the condition that Emperor Hirohito retains his…

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1492 - Christopher Columbus sets sail on his first voyage with three ships, Santa María, Pinta and Niña from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the "Indies" 1596 - David Fabricius discovers light variation…

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338 BC - Macedonian army led by Philip II defeats combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean 216 BC -…

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527 - Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire 1086 - Results of the Domesday inquiry presented to William the Conqueror in Salisbury (the date of compilation and the Great Domesday are…

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30 BC - Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves minor victory over Octavian, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to Octavian's invasion of Egypt 1620 - Pilgrim Fathers depart Leiden, Netherlands for England…

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1586 - Walter Raleigh brings the 1st tobacco to England from Virginia 1689 - Battle of Killicrankie: Jacobite Scottish Highlanders under Viscount Dundee defeat royalist force under General MacKay 1789 - US Congress establishes…

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306 - Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops 1814 - English engineer George Stephenson introduces his first steam locomotive, a travelling engine designed for hauling coal on the Killingworth wagonway named Blücher…

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1534 - Jacques Cartier lands in Canada, claims it for France 1567 - Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate; her 1-year-old son becomes King James VI of Scots 1832 - Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon…

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1099 - First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem 1456 - Battle at Nandorfehervar (Belgrade): Hungarian army under Janos Hunyadi…

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1595 - Astronomer Johannes Kepler has an epiphany and develops his theory of the geometrical basis of the universe while teaching in Graz 1843 - The steamship SS Great Britain is launched, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel,…

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64 - Great Fire of Rome begins under the Emperor Nero 1925 - Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf (original title was the catchy "Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and…

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180 - 6 inhabitants of Carthage, North Africa executed for being Christians. Earliest record of Christianity in this part of the world. 1203 - Siege of Constantinople begins during the fourth Crusade,…

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1789 - Bastille Day - the French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille Prison in Paris (now celebrated as France's national day) 1798 - US Sedition Act prohibits "false, scandalous &…

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1772 - Captain James Cook begins 2nd voyage aboard the Resolution to the South Seas to search for Terra Australis (Southern continent) 1832 - Source of Mississippi River discovered by American geographer Henry Schoolcraft…

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1778 - American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain 1940 - Battle of Britain begins as Nazi forces attack shipping convoys in the English Channel 1985 - French…

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1401 - Turko-Mongol ruler Tamerlane (Timur) destroys Baghdad, killing 20,000 1790 - Russo-Swedish War: Second Battle of Svensksund - in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Navy captures one third of the Russian fleet 1868 -…

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1520 - Battle of Otumba, Mexico: Hernán Cortés and the Tlaxcalans defeat a numerically superior Aztec force 1937 - Japanese and Chinese troops clash at the Marco Polo Bridge, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War…

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1689 - Matsuo Basho, zen poet, leaves for 150 days journey on Honshu, Japan 1858 - The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society 1863 - Battle…

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1520 - Spanish conquistadors are expelled from Tenochtitlan following an Aztec revolt against their rule under Hernán Cortés during "La Noche Triste" (the Night of Sadness). Many soldiers drown in the escape, and…

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1389 - Ottomans defeat Serbian army in the bloody Battle of Kosovo, opening the way for the Ottoman conquest of Southeastern Europe 1519 - King Carlos I elected Holy Roman Catholic Emperor Charles…

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1542 - Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sets sail from the Mexican port of Navidad to explore the west coast of North America on behalf of the Spanish Empire 1743 - War of the Austrian…

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363 - Roman Emperor Julian is killed during retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by troops on the battlefield. 1794 - Battle of Fleurus: major victory by forces…

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1678 - Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is awarded a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Padua, 1st woman to receive a university doctoral degree or PhD 1876 - Battle of the Little Bighorn:…

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1497 - John Cabot claims Eastern Canada for England (believes he has found Asia in Nova Scotia) 1509 - Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, London 1793 - 1st republican constitution…

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1788 - US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it 1854 - First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands (Crimean War)…

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451 - Battle of the Catalaunian Plains: Roman and Visigoths forces defeat Attila the Hun in north east France 1214 - The University of Oxford receives its charter 1789 - French Revolution: The…

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1306 - The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Robert the Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven 1829 - Sir Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified…

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