OnThisDay

On This Day…

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…

Read More Here

On This Day…

657 - Battle of Siffin during the first Muslim civil war between Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah I beside Euphrates River 1519 - Francisco Pizarro receives royal charter for the west coast of South America 1533 - Francisco Pizarro orders the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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 1943 - Benito Mussolini dismissed as…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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 train across the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1215 - Frederick II crowned King of the Romans (King of the Germans) in Aachen 1829 - William Austin Burt patents America's first "typographer" (typewriter) 1840 - Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper &…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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 beats Sultan Murad II …

Read More Here

On This Day…

356 BC - Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. 365 - Crete Earthquake followed by tsunami around the Eastern Mediterranean allegedly destroys Alexandria …

Read More Here

On This Day…

1881 - Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull, surrenders to US federal troops 1917 - The Corfu Declaration was issued, calling for the establishment of a unified Yugoslav state following World War I 1921 - Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson becomes the first…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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, is the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

64 - Great Fire of Rome begins under the Emperor Nero 1918 - French General Ferdinand Foch launched a counterstrike that forced the Germans into a hasty retreat during the Second Battle of the Marne, the last…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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, Crusaders aboad a Venetian…

Read More Here

On This Day…

622 - Muslim Era begins - Muhammad begins flight from Mecca to Medina (Hijra) 1054 - Three Roman legates fracture relations between Western and Eastern Christian churches by placing invalid Papal Bull of Excommunication…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1381 - John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hung, drawn and quartered in the presence of Richard II of England 1410 - Battle of Grunwald (First Battle of Tannenburg, Battle of Žalgiris), one of Medieval Europe's largest…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1099 - During the First Crusade, Christian knights from Europe capture Jerusalem after seven weeks of siege and begin massacring the city’s Muslim and Jewish population 1789 - Bastille Day - the French Revolution begins…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1713 -Spain and Britain signed one of the treaties of Utrecht, this one giving Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain. 1772 - Captain James Cook begins 2nd voyage aboard the Resolution to the South Seas to search for Terra Australis (Southern continent) 1832 - Source of…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1543 - King Henry VIII of England wed his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr. 1565 - Senglea is besieged. 1679 - Britain's King Charles II ratifies Habeas Corpus Act allowing prisoners…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1405 - Chinese fleet commander Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time 1533 - Pope Clement VII excommunicates England's King Henry VIII 1798 - The…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1584 - William I, first of the hereditary stadtholders of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, was assassinated. 1778 - American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1401 - Turko-Mongol ruler Tamerlane (Timur) destroys Baghdad, killing 20,000 1540 - The marriage of King Henry VIII of England and his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, was annulled. 1565…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1099 - First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders look on 1497 - Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama departs on his…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1520 - Battle of Otumba, Mexico: Hernán Cortés and the Tlaxcalans defeat a numerically superior Aztec force 1807 - The first of the Treaties of Tilsit was signed between France…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1348 - Papal bull of Pope Clement VI issued during the Black Death stating Jews not to blame and urging their protection 1415 - Czech religious reformer Jan Hus, whose…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1687 - Isaac Newton's great work Principia published by Royal Society in England, outlining his laws of motion and universal gravitation 1811 - Venezuelan Declaration of Independence: 7 provinces declare…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1776 - US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Britain 1785 - James Hutton, geologist, publicly reads an abstract of his theory of uniformitarianism for the first…

Read More Here

On This Day…

324 - Battle of Adrianople: Roman Emperor Constantine I defeats his co-emperor Licinius, who flees to Byzantium 1187 - Battle of Horns of Hattin: Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria,…

Read More Here

On This Day…

626 - Incident at Xuanwu Gate: in fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng 1776 - Continental Congress resolves "these United…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1613 - Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, England, burns down during a performance of "Henry VIII" 1900 - The Imperial Chinese Court issues what is essentially a declaration of war…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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 1693 - 1st women's magazine "Ladies'…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1678 - Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is awarded a doctorate of philosophy, the 1st woman to receive a university doctoral degree or PhD 1876 - Battle of the Little Bighorn: US 7th Cavalry under…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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 1793 - 1st republican constitution in…

Read More Here

On This Day…

930 - World's oldest parliament, the Icelandic Parliament, the Alþingi (anglicised as Althing or Althingi), established 1868 - Christopher Latham Sholes patents the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful of its kind …

Read More Here

On This Day…

1633 - Galileo Galilei forced to recant his Copernican views that the Earth orbits the Sun by the Pope (Vatican only admits it was wrong on Oct 31, 1992!) 1675 - Royal Greenwich Observatory established…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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)…

Read More Here

On This Day…

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 1567 - The Casket Letters—which…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1829 - Sir Robert Peel introduces the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 into Parliament to establish a unified police force for London 1862 - Slavery outlawed in US territories 1934 -The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)…

Read More Here

On This Day…

618 - Coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty's rule over China 1429 -…

Read More Here

On This Day…

656 - Ali ibn Abu Talib elected the 4th Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate 1579 - English navigator Francis Drake lands on the coast of California at Drakes Bay, names it "New Albion" 1631 -Mumtaz…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1858 - Abraham Lincoln says "A house divided against itself cannot stand" accepting Illinois Republican Party's nomination for the Senate 1880 - Salvation Army forms in London 1903 - The Ford Motor Company was founded…

Read More Here

On This Day…

763 BC - Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history 1215 - King John signs Magna Carta at Runnymede, near Windsor, England 1775 - George Washington appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1381 - Richard II in England meets leaders of Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance 1645 - Battle of Naseby,…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1373 - Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of Alliance (world's oldest extant) signed in London 1866 - US House of representatives passes 14th Amendment (Civil rights) 1878 - Congress of Berlin begins, determines…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1381 - Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath 1701 - The Act of Settlement, the law that continues to regulate the succession to the throne of the United…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes 631 - Emperor Taizong of Tang of China, sends envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1190 - Third Crusade: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa drowns while crossing the Saleph River (modern Turkey) leading an army to Jerusalem 1786 - A landslide dam on the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

68 - Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, imploring his secretary Epaphroditos to slit his throat to evade a Senate-imposed death by flogging 721 - Odo of Aquitaine defeats the Moors…

Read More Here

On This Day…

452 - Italy invaded by Attila the Hun 793 - Vikings in long ships from modern-day Norway plunder St Cuthbert's monastery on Lindisfarne Island, off the northeast coast of England…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1494 - Treaty of Tordesillas: Spain and Portugal divide the new world along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa 1628…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1523 - Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden, marking the end of the Kalmar Union 1716 - French transport the 1st African slaves to Louisiana 1916 - The death…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1849 - The absolute monarchy in Denmark was abolished and replaced by a new constitution that established a constitutional monarchy with a parliament, as well as freedom of the press,…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1760 - Great Upheaval: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada taken from the Acadians 1783 - Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier launched an uncrewed hot-air balloon,…

Read More Here

On This Day…

1621 - Dutch West India Company (WIC) receives charter for The West Indies (The Americas, Caribbean and West Africa) 1864 - Considered one of the worst Northern defeats of the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

455 - King Gaiseric and the Vandals sack Rome - Rome looted for 14 days 1862 - Robert E. Lee takes command of Confederate armies of North Virginia during the…

Read More Here

On This Day…

4000 BC - Approximate domestication of the horse in the Eurasian steppes near Dereivka, central Ukraine (hypothesis only) 1215 - Beijing, under control of Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin,…

Read More Here