Category: What Happened on this DAY?

AD 65 – The freedman Milichus betrays Piso’s plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested.[1] 531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at Raqqa (northern Syria).[2] 797 – Empress Irene organizes a conspiracy against her son, the Byzantine emperor Constantine VI. He is deposed and blinded. Shortly after, Constantine dies of his wounds; Irene proclaims herself basileus. 1506 – The Lisbon Massacre begins, in which accused Jews are being slaughtered by Portuguese Catholics.[3] 1529 – Beginning of the Protestant […]

796 – King Æthelred I of Northumbria is murdered in Corbridge by a group led by his ealdormen, Ealdred and Wada. The patrician Osbald is crowned, but abdicates within 27 days.[1] 1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid. 1518 – Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland. 1521 – Trial of Martin Luther begins its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. He refuses to recant his teachings despite the […]

1080 – Harald III of Denmark dies and is succeeded by Canute IV, who would later be the first Dane to be canonized. 1349 – The rule of the Bavand dynasty in Mazandaran is brought to an end by the murder of Hasan II. 1362 – Kaunas Castle falls to the Teutonic Order after a month-long siege. 1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices. 1521 – […]

1457 BC – Likely date of the Battle of Megiddo[citation needed] between Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Kadesh, the first battle to have been recorded in what is accepted as relatively reliable detail. AD 73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Great Jewish Revolt.[1] 1346 – Stefan Dušan, “the Mighty”, is crowned Emperor of the […]

769 – The Lateran Council condemned the Council of Hieria and anathematized its iconoclastic rulings. 1071 – Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to Robert Guiscard. 1395 – Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde at the Battle of the Terek River. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, is razed to the ground and Timur installs a puppet ruler on the throne. 1450 – Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years’ War, the French […]

43 BC – Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Caesar‘s assassin Decimus Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, but is then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Aulus Hirtius.[1] AD 69 – Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum to take power over Rome.[2] AD 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital with four Roman legions. […]

1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.[1] 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.[2] 1612 – Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō at Funajima island. 1613 – Samuel Argall, having captured Native American princess Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia, sets off with her to Jamestown with the intention of exchanging her for English prisoners held by her father.[3] 1742 – George Frideric Handel‘s oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland. 1777 – American Revolutionary […]

240 – Shapur I becomes co-emperor of the Sasanian Empire with his father Ardashir I.[1] 467 – Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.[2] 627 – King Edwin of Northumbria is converted to Christianity by Paulinus, bishop of York.[3] 1012 – Duke Oldřich of Bohemia deposes and blinds his brother Jaromír who flees to Poland. 1204 – The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day. 1606 – The Union […]

491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine emperor, with the name of Anastasius I. 1079 – Bishop Stanislaus of Kraków is executed by order of Bolesław II of Poland. 1241 – Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi. 1512 – War of the League of Cambrai: French forces led by Gaston de Foix win the Battle of Ravenna. 1544 – Italian War of 1542–46: A French army defeats Habsburg forces at the Battle of Ceresole, […]