Posts published in “Today in History”

0362 – Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria. 1789 – The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly,…

0455 – Rome was sacked by the Vandal army. 1487 – The War of the Roses ended with the Battle of Stoke. 1567 – Mary,…

1215 – King John of England put his seal on the Magna Carta. 1381 – The English peasant revolt was crushed in London. 1389 –…

1775 – The Continental Army was founded by the Second Continental Congress for purposes of common defense. This event is considered to be the birth…

1415 – Henry the Navigator, the prince of Portugal, embarked on an expedition to Africa. 1777 – The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in the American…

1442 – Alfonso V of Aragon was crowned King of Naples. 1665 – England installed a municipal government in New York. It was the former…

1346 – Charles IV of Luxembourg was elected Holy Roman Emperor in Germany. 1770 – Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off of…

1776 – The Continental Congress appointed a committee to write a Declaration of Independence. 1801 – The North African State of Tripoli declared war on…

1923 – Bulgaria’s government was overthrown by the military. 1931 – Robert H. Goddard patented a rocket-fueled aircraft design. 1940 – Norway surrendered to the…

0452 – Italy was invaded by Attila the Hun. 0793 – The Vikings raided the Northumbrian coast of England. 1786 – In New York City,…

1494 – Spain and Portugal divided the new lands they had discovered between themselves. 1498 – Christopher Columbus left on his third voyage of exploration.…

1674 – Sivaji crowned himself King of India. 1936 – The first helicopter was tested in a building in Berlin, Germany. 1941 – The U.S.…

1595 – Henry IV’s army defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Fontaine-Francaise. 1752 – Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to…

1615 – The fortress of Osaka, Japan, fell to shogun Ieyasu after a six month siege. 1647 – The British army seized King Charles I…

1098 – Christian Crusaders of the First Crusade seized Antioch, Turkey. 1539 – Hernando De Soto claimed Florida for Spain. 1621 – The Dutch West…

1537 – Pope Paul III banned the enslavement of Indians. 1774 – The Quartering Act, which required American colonists to allow British soldiers into their…

1861 – The first skirmish of the U.S. Civil War took place at the Fairfax Court House, Virginia. 1869 – Thomas Edison received a patent…

1223 – Mongol invasion of the Cumans: Battle of the Kalka River: Mongol armies of Genghis Khan led by Subutai defeat Kievan Rus’ and Cumans.…

1431 – Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at the age of 19. 1539 – Hernando de Soto, the Spanish…

1827 – The first nautical school opened in Nantucket, MA, under the name Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin’s Lancasterian School. 1849 – A patent for lifting…