1327 – The teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. 1662 – The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege. 1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States. 1865 – Abraham […]

1504 – The Treaty of Lyon ends the Italian War, confirming French domination of northern Italy, while Spain receives the Kingdom of Naples. 1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting against Parliament and King James. 1862 – Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through […]

1607 – An estimated 200 square miles along the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary in England are destroyed by massive flooding, resulting in an estimated 2,000 deaths. 1649 – King Charles I of England is beheaded. 1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than […]

757 – An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang dynasty and emperor of Yan, is murdered by his own son, An Qingxu. 1790 – The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne. 1834 – President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute. […]

814 – Charlemagne dies of pleurisy in Aachen as the first Holy Roman Emperor. He is succeeded by his son Louis the Pious as king of the Frankish Empire. 946 – Caliph Al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Emir Mu’izz al-Dawla, ruler of the Buyid Empire. He is succeeded by Al-Muti as caliph of the […]

*AD 41 – After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate. *1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn. *1765 – Port Egmont, the first British settlement in the Falkland Islands at the southern tip of South America, is founded. *1858 – The Wedding […]

AD 41 – Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and sadistic despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula’s uncle Claudius as Emperor 1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento. 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchillconclude […]

393 – Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his eight-year-old son Honorius co-emperor. 971 – Using crossbows, Song dynasty troops soundly defeat a war elephant corps of the Southern Han at Shao. 1556 – The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000. […]

613 – Eight-month-old Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople. 1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican. 1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. 1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution. […]

474 – Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later. 1591 – King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Mingyi Swa of Burma in single combat, for which this date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day. 1778 – James Cook is the first […]