03 MAY: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

  Pre-1600[edit] 752 – Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico, assumes the throne. 1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties. 1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I. 1601-1900[edit] 1616 – Treaty of Loudun ends a French civil war. 1715 – A total solar eclipse is visible across northern Europe and northern Asia, as […]

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02 MAY: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

1194 – King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.[1] 1230 – William de Braose is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great. 1335 – Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia. 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft. 1559 – John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the nascent Scottish Reformation. 1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Loch […]

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01 MAY: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

  Pre-1600[edit] 305 – Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman emperor. 880 – The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches. 1169 – Norman mercenaries land at Bannow Bay in Leinster, marking the beginning of the Norman invasion of Ireland. 1328 – Wars of Scottish Independence end: By the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton, England recognises Scotland as an independent state. 1601-1900[edit] 1707 – The Act of Union joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great […]

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30 APRIL: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

  Pre-20th Century[edit] 311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends. 1315 – Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged at the instigation of Charles, Count of Valois. 1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. 1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is executed on the orders of Henry VIII. 1557 – Mapuche leader Lautaro is killed by Spanish forces at the Battle of Mataquito in Chile. 1598 – Juan de Oñate begins […]

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29 APRIL: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

  311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends. 1315 – Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged at the instigation of Charles, Count of Valois. 1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. 1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is executed on the orders of Henry VIII. 1557 – Mapuche leader Lautaro is killed by Spanish forces at the Battle of Mataquito in Chile. 1598 – Juan de Oñate begins the conquest […]

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28 APRIL: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

  224 – The Battle of Hormozdgan is fought. Ardashir I defeats and kills Artabanus V effectively ending the Parthian Empire. 357 – Emperor Constantius II enters Rome for the first time to celebrate his victory over Magnus Magnentius. 1192 – Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin. 1253 – Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, […]

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27 APRIL: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

  Pre-20th Century[edit] 395 – Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity. 711 – Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus). 1296 – First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol‘s Scottish army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th […]

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26 APRIL: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.[1] 1478 – The Pazzi family attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in Florence Cathedral.[2] 1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of actual birth is unknown). 1607 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia. 1721 – A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.[3] 1777 – Sybil Ludington, aged 16, rode 40 miles (64 km) to alert American colonial forces […]

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25 APRIL: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

404 BC – Admiral Lysander and King Pausanias of Sparta blockade Athens and bring the Peloponnesian War to a successful conclusion. 775 – The Battle of Bagrevand puts an end to an Armenian rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate. Muslim control over Transcaucasia is solidified and its Islamization begins, while several major Armenian nakharar families lose power and their remnants flee to the Byzantine Empire. 799 – After mistreatment and disfigurement by the citizens of Rome, pope Leo […]

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24 APRIL: WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY?

1479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th dynasty). 1183 BC – Traditional reckoning of the Fall of Troy marking the end of the legendary Trojan War, given by chief librarian of the Library of Alexandria Erastothenes, among others.[1] 1547 – Battle of Mühlberg. Duke of Alba, commanding Spanish-Imperial forces of Charles I […]

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