Category: Today In History

1616 – Spanish Inquisition delivers injunction to Galileo 1815 – Napoleon leaves Elba to start 100-day re-conquest of France 1848 – Marx and Engels publish “Communist Manifesto“ 1893 – 2 Clydesdale horses set record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge in Michigan 1907 – Royal Oil & Shell merge to form British Petroleum (BP)...

1570 – Pius V excommunicates Elizabeth I, absolving her subjects from allegiance 1751 – First performing monkey exhibited in America in New York City, admission was 1 cent 1804 – Jefferson nominated for president at Democratic-Republican caucus 1836 – Samuel Colt patents first revolving barrel multishot firearm 1859 – First use of “insanity plea” to...

705 – Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang dynasty. 1371 – Robert II becomes King of Scotland, beginning the Stuart dynasty. 1632 – Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published. 1651 – St. Peter’s Flood: A storm surge floods the Frisian coast, drowning 15,000 people. 1856 – The Republican...

1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery. 1431 – England begins trial against Joan of Arc 1804 – First locomotive, Richard Trevithick’s, runs for first time, in Wales 1862 – Confederate Constitution and presidency are declared permanent 1878 – First telephone book issued,...

1673 – First recorded wine auction held in London 1725 – 10 sleeping Indians scalped by whites in New Hampshire for £100 a scalp bounty 1811 – Austria declares bankruptcy 1839 – Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia 1872 – Hydraulic electric elevator patented by Cyrus Baldwin 1872 – Metropolitan Museum of Art opens...

356 – Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples 1600 – The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America. Johan van Oldenbarnevelt 1619 – Trial against Johan van Oldenbarnevelt begins in The Hague. He was a Dutch statesman who played an important role in the struggle...