Category: What Happened on this DAY?

654 – Pope Eugene I elected to succeed Martinus I. 955 – Battle of Lechfeld: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor defeats the Magyars, ending 50 years of Magyar invasion of the West. 991 – Battle of Maldon: The English, led by Byrhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex, are defeated by a band of inland-raiding Vikings near Maldon, Essex. 1030 – The Battle of Azaz ends with a humiliating retreat of the Byzantine emperor, Romanos III Argyros, against the Mirdasid rulers […]

48 BC – Caesar’s Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt. 378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed along with over half of his army. 1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete. 1329 – Quilon, […]

870 – Treaty of Meerssen: King Louis the German and his half-brother Charles the Bald partition the Middle Frankish Kingdom into two larger east and west divisions.[1] 1220 – Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula.[2] 1264 – Mudéjar revolt: Muslim rebel forces took the Alcázar of Jerez de la Frontera after defeating the Castilian garrison. 1503 – King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, […]

461 – Roman Emperor Majorian is beheaded near the river Iria in north-west Italy following his arrest and deposition by the magister militum Ricimer.[1] 626 – The Avar and Slav armies leave the siege of Constantinople.[2] 768 – Pope Stephen III is elected to office, and quickly seeks Frankish protection against the Lombard threat, since the Byzantine Empire is no longer able to help.[3] 936 – Coronation of King Otto I of Germany.[4] […]

1284 – The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean.[1] 1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.[2] 1661 – The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix. 1787 – Sixty proof […]

AD 25 – Guangwu claims the throne as Chinese emperor, restoring the Han dynasty after the collapse of the short-lived Xin dynasty. 135 – Roman armies enter Betar, slaughtering thousands and ending the bar Kokhba revolt. 642 – Battle of Maserfield: Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria. 910 – The last major Danish army to raid England for nearly a century is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied […]

367 – Gratian receives the title of Augustus under his father, Valentinian I. 598 – Goguryeo-Sui War: Emperor Wéndi of Sui orders his youngest son, Yang Liang (assisted by the co-prime minister Gao Jiong), to conquer Goguryeo (Korea) during the Manchurian rainy season, with a Chinese army and navy. 1265 – Second Barons’ War: Battle of Evesham: The army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de […]

AD 8 – Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats the Dalmatae on the river Bosna. AD 70 – Fires resulting from the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem are extinguished. 435 – Deposed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, is exiled by Roman Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt. 881 – Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu: Louis III of France defeats the Vikings, an event celebrated in the poem Ludwigslied. 908 – Battle of Eisenach: An invading Hungarian force defeats an East Frankish army […]

338 BC – A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean. 216 BC – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae. 461 – Majorian is arrested near Tortona (northern Italy) and deposed by the Suebian general Ricimer as puppet emperor. 1274 – Edward I of England returns from the Ninth Crusade and is crowned King seventeen days later. 1343 – After the execution […]

30 BC – Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic. AD 69 – Batavian rebellion: The Batavians in Germania Inferior (Netherlands) revolt under the leadership of Gaius Julius Civilis. 527 – Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. 607 – Ono no Imoko is dispatched as envoy to the Sui court in China (Traditional Japanese date: July 3, 607). 902 – Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily, […]