Category: What Happened on this DAY?

963 – Pope Leo VIII is appointed to the office of Protonotary and begins his papacy as antipope of Rome. 1060 – Béla I is crowned king of Hungary. 1240 – Mongol invasion of Rus’: Kyiv under Daniel of Galicia and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan. 1534 – The city of Quito in Ecuador is founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar. 1648 – Colonel Thomas Pride of the New Model Army purges the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I of England, in order […]

63 BC – Cicero gives the fourth and final of the Catiline Orations. 633 – Fourth Council of Toledo takes place. 1082 – Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona is assassinated. 1408 – Emir Edigu of Golden Horde reaches Moscow. 1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany. 1492 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). 1496 – […]

771 – Austrasian king Carloman I dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne king of the now complete Frankish Kingdom. 1110 – The Kingdom of Jerusalem captures Sidon. 1259 – Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels. 1563 – The final session of the Council […]

915 – Pope John X crowns Berengar I of Italy as Holy Roman Emperor.[1] 1775 – USS Alfred becomes the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.[2] 1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Wiesloch: Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal Anton Sztáray defeats the French at Wiesloch.[3] 1800 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden: French General Moreau decisively defeats the Archduke John of Austria near Munich. […]

1244 – Pope Innocent IV arrives at Lyon for the First Council of Lyon.[1] 1409 – The University of Leipzig opens.[2] 1697 – St Paul’s Cathedral is consecrated in London. 1763 – Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in what will become the United States. 1766 – Swedish parliament approves the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act and implements it as a ground law, thus being […]

800 – Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican. 1420 – Henry V of England enters Paris. 1577 – Francis Walsingham is knighted. 1640 – End of the Iberian Union: Portugal acclaims as King João IV of Portugal, ending 59 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain and the end of the rule of the Philippine Dynasty. 1662 – Diarist John Evelyn records skating on the frozen lake in St James’s […]

977 – Emperor Otto II lifts the siege at Paris and withdraws. His rearguard is defeated while crossing the Aisne River by Frankish forces under King Lothair III. 1707 – The second Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida. 1718 – King Charles XII of Sweden dies during a siege of the fortress of Fredriksten in Norway. 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris: In Paris, representatives from […]

587 – Treaty of Andelot: King Guntram of Burgundy recognizes Childebert II as his heir. 936 – Shi Jingtang is enthroned as the first emperor of the Later Jin by Emperor Taizong of Liao, following a revolt against Emperor Fei of Later Tang. 1443 – Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in central Albania and raise the Albanian flag. 1470 – Champa–Đại Việt War: Emperor Lê Thánh Tông of Đại Việt formally launches his attack against Champa. 1520 – An expedition under the command of Ferdinand Magellan passes through the Strait […]

AD 25 – Luoyang is declared capital of the Eastern Han dynasty by Emperor Guangwu of Han. 176 – Emperor Marcus Aurelius grants his son Commodus the rank of “Imperator” and makes him Supreme Commander of the Roman legions. 395 – Rufinus, praetorian prefect of the East, is murdered by Gothic mercenaries under Gainas. 511 – King Clovis I dies at Lutetia and is buried in the Abbey of St Genevieve. 602 – Emperor Maurice is forced to watch his five sons be executed […]

783 – The Asturian queen Adosinda is held at a monastery to prevent her kin from retaking the throne from Mauregatus. 1161 – Battle of Caishi: A Song dynasty fleet fights a naval engagement with Jin dynasty ships on the Yangtze river during the Jin–Song Wars. 1476 – Vlad the Impaler defeats Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Báthory and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time. 1778 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes […]