Events in History Relating to History
August 3, 8
Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus.
September 9, 9
Arminius' alliance of six Germanic tribes ambushed and annihilated three Roman legions of Publius Quinctilius Varus in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
March 16, 37
Caligula becomes Roman Emperor after the death of his great uncle, Tiberius.
March 18, 37
The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
March 28, 37
Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate.
January 24, 41
Gaius Caesar (Caligula), known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew.
March 4, 51
Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).
June 9, 53
Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia
February 11, 55
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman Emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome. This clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.
June 8, 68
The Roman Senate accepts emperor Galba.
June 9, 68
Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer's Iliad.
January 15, 69
Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but rules for only three months before committing suicide.
April 17, 69
After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor.
December 20, 69
Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of emperor.
December 21, 69
The end of the Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian becomes the fourth Emperor of Rome within a year.
June 5, 70
Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem in the Siege of Jerusalem.
April 16, 73
Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt.
September 14, 81
Domitian becomes Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his brother Titus.
September 18, 96
Nerva is proclaimed Roman Emperor after Domitian is assassinated.
February 25, 138
The Emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius, effectively making him his successor.
March 17, 180
Marcus Aurelius dies leaving Commodus as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.
March 28, 193
Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
April 9, 193
Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans).
June 1, 193
Roman Emperor Didius Julianus is assassinated.
February 19, 197
Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
February 4, 211
Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta.
April 8, 217
Roman Emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.
March 15, 221
Liu Bei, a Chinese warlord and member of the Han royal house, declares himself emperor of Shu-Han and claims his legitimate succession to the Han Dynasty.
March 22, 238
Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperor.
December 25, 274
Roman Emperor Aurelian dedicates a temple to Sol Invictus on the supposed day of the winter solstice and day of rebirth of the Sun.
March 1, 286
Roman Emperor Diocletian raises Maximian to the rank of Caesar.
March 1, 293
Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as Caesares, thus beginning the Tetrarchy.
September 3, 301
San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, is founded by Saint Marinus.
February 24, 303
Galerius, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Empire.
September 25, 303
On a voyage preaching the gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, France.
May 1, 305
Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor.
July 25, 306
Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
March 31, 307
After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.
April 30, 313
Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule.
October 8, 314
Roman Emperor Licinius is defeated by his colleague Constantine I at the Battle of Cibalae, and loses his European territories.
March 1, 317
Crispus and Constantine II, sons of Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius Iunior, son of Emperor Licinius, are made Caesares
March 7, 321
Roman Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire.
September 18, 324
Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire.
May 9, 328
Athanasius is elected Patriarch bishop of Alexandria.
May 11, 330
Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople.
September 19, 335
Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle Constantine I.
January 18, 350
Generallus Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor.
June 3, 350
Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.
June 30, 350
Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, is defeated and killed by troops of the usurper Magnentius, in Rome.
March 15, 351
Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and puts him in charge of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.
November 6, 355
Roman Emperor Constantius II promotes his cousin Julian to the rank of Caesar, entrusting him with the government of the Prefecture of the Gauls.
December 11, 359
Honoratus, the first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople, takes office.
October 22, 362
The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire.
June 26, 363
Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield.
March 28, 364
Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor.
September 28, 365
Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself Roman emperor.
August 4, 367
Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-August by his father and associated to the throne aged eight
November 24, 380
Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal entry, into Constantinople.
January 23, 393
Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor.
December 31, 406
Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul.
October 13, 409
Vandals and Alans cross the Pyrenees and appear in Hispania.
August 24, 410
The Visigoths under Alaric begin to pillage Rome for three days.
February 8, 421
Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
October 23, 425
Valentinian III is elevated as Roman Emperor, at the age of 6.
October 29, 437
Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius
October 19, 439
The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.
June 20, 451
Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.
June 2, 455
The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks
October 16, 456
Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.
April 12, 467
Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
June 21, 524
Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeats the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce.
April 7, 529
First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.
November 16, 534
A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published.
January 16, 550
Gothic War (535–552): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.
January 22, 565
Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus.
May 8, 589
Reccared summons the Third Council of Toledo
June 18, 618
Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China.
September 4, 626
Li Shimin, posthumously known as Emperor Taizong of Tang, assumes the throne over the Tang Dynasty of China.
October 30, 637
Antioch surrenders to the Muslim forces under Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of Iron bridge.
November 3, 644
Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim caliph, is killed by a Persian slave in Medina.
May 20, 685
The Battle of Dunnichen or Nechtansmere is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.
November 9, 694
Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery.
April 29, 711
conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
June 9, 721
Odo of Aquitaine defeats the Moors in the Battle of Toulouse.
December 16, 755
An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China.
June 11, 758
Abbasid Arabs and Uyghur Turks arrive simultaneously at Chang'an, the Tang Chinese capital, in order to offer tribute to the imperial court. They quarrel over diplomatic prominence at the gate and a settlement is reached when both are allowed to enter at the same time, but through two different gates to the palace.
November 20, 762
During An Shi Rebellion, Tang Dynasty, with the help of Huihe tribe, recaptured Luoyang from the rebels.
October 9, 768
Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks.
December 4, 771
Austrasian King Carloman dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne King of the now complete Frankish Kingdom.
December 5, 771
Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman.
July 31, 781
The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781).
November 26, 783
The Asturian queen Adosinda is put up in a monastery to prevent her kin from retaking the throne from Mauregatus.
September 14, 786
Harun al-Rashid becomes the Abbasid caliph upon the death of his brother al-Hadi.
October 22, 794
Emperor Kanmu relocates Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto).
February 14, 842
Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
March 28, 845
Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
November 22, 845
The first King of all Brittany, Nominoe defeats the Frankish king Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon near Redon.
March 4, 852
Croatian Duke Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources.
October 5, 869
The Fourth Council of Constantinople is convened to decide about what to do about Patriarch Photius of Constantinople.
January 4, 871
Battle of Reading: Ethelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army.
May 1, 880
The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches.
December 17, 920
Romanos I is crowned co-emperor of the underage Emperor Constantine VII.
May 27, 927
Battle of the Bosnian Highlands: Croatian army, led by King Tomislav, defeats the Bulgarian Army.
March 4, 932
Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of the Czechs.
September 28, 935
Saint Wenceslas is murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I of Bohemia.
September 28, 995
Members of Slavník's dynasty – Spytimír, Pobraslav, Pořej and Čáslav are murdered by Boleslaus's son, Boleslaus II the Pious.
May 21, 996
Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
November 1, 996
Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi (Austria in Old High German).
December 25, 1000
The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
November 13, 1002
English king Ethelred orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St. Brice's Day massacre.
October 9, 1003
Leif Erikson lands in L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada, becoming the first known European to reach North America.
February 14, 1009
First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
April 18, 1025
Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.
April 14, 1028
Henry III, son of Conrad, is elected king of the Germans.
November 25, 1034
Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots dies. Donnchad, the son of his daughter Bethóc and Crínán of Dunkeld, inherits the throne.
December 10, 1041
Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
March 5, 1046
Naser Khosrow begins the seven-year Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama.
October 28, 1061
Empress Agnes, acting as Regent for her son, brings about the election of Bishop Cadalus, the antipope Honorius II
December 25, 1066
Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
December 30, 1066
Granada massacre: A Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city.
January 28, 1077
Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted.
April 8, 1093
The new Winchester Cathedral is dedicated by Walkelin.
October 21, 1096
Turkish army annihilates the People's Army of the West, People's Crusade
June 28, 1098
Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul.
June 7, 1099
The First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins.
February 3, 1112
Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
January 16, 1120
The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
May 27, 1120
Richard III of Capua is anointed as prince two weeks before his untimely death.
January 18, 1126
Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.
March 8, 1126
Alfonso VII is proclaimed king of Castile and Leon, after the death of his mother Urraca.
March 2, 1127
Assassination of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders.
June 24, 1128
Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães:Portuguese forces led by Alfonso I defeat his mother D. Teresa and D. Fernão Peres de Trava. After this battle, the future king calls himself "Prince of Portugal", the first step towards "official independence" in 1139, after the Battle of Ourique.
January 14, 1129
Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes.
June 3, 1140
French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy.
January 27, 1142
Execution, believed wrongful, of noted Song Dynasty General Yue Fei.
October 5, 1143
The king Alfonso VII of Leon recognises Portugal as a Kingdom.
March 31, 1146
Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade.
June 29, 1149
Raymond of Antioch is defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din.
March 4, 1152
Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.
December 15, 1167
Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
March 23, 1174
Jocelin, abbot of Melrose, is elected bishop of Glasgow.
June 18, 1178
Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the moon's distance from the earth (on the order of metres) are a result of this collision.
August 15, 1185
The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia.
January 27, 1186
Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, marries Constance of Sicily.
August 28, 1189
Third Crusade: the Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan
October 1, 1189
Gerard de Ridefort, grandmaster of the Knights Templar since 1184, is killed in the Siege of Acre.
June 10, 1190
Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph while leading an army to Jerusalem.
November 24, 1190
Isabella of Jerusalem marries Conrad of Montferrat at Acre, making him de jure King.
June 8, 1191
Richard I arrives in Acre thus beginning his crusade.
April 28, 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.
August 21, 1192
Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
March 25, 1199
Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France, leading to his death on April 6.
August 24, 1200
John of England, famous for issuing the first Magna Carta, married Isabella of Angouleme at the Bordeaux Cathedral.
May 16, 1204
Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
July 10, 1212
The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground.
September 26, 1212
Golden Bull of Sicily is certified as an hereditary royal title in Bohemia for the Přemyslid dynasty.
June 1, 1215
Beijing, then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing.
May 20, 1217
The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.
November 23, 1227
Polish Prince Leszek I the White is assassinated at an assembly of Piast dukes at Gąsawa.
February 18, 1229
The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
March 18, 1229
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor declares himself King of Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade.
September 12, 1229
The Aragonese army under the command of James I of Aragon disembarks at Santa Ponça, Majorca, with the purpose of conquering the island.
December 31, 1229
James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian conquest of the island of Majorca.
May 2, 1230
William de Braose, 10th Baron Abergavenny is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great.
March 4, 1238
The Battle of the Sit River is fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol Hordes of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Russia.
July 15, 1240
A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.
December 6, 1240
Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev under Danylo of Halych and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.
April 11, 1241
Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Muhi.
April 5, 1242
During a battle on the ice of Lake Peipus, Russian forces, led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
February 21, 1245
Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery.
June 15, 1246
With the death of Duke Frederick II, the Babenberg dynasty ends in Austria.
February 16, 1249
Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with Mongol Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
April 13, 1250
The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France is captured.
July 4, 1253
Battle of West-Capelle: John I of Avesnes defeats Guy of Dampierre.
December 15, 1256
Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
February 10, 1258
Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed.
January 1, 1259
Michael VIII Palaiologos is proclaimed co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea with his ward John IV Laskaris.
May 5, 1260
Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
September 4, 1260
The Senese Ghibellines, supported by the forces of King Manfred of Sicily, defeat the Florentine Guelphs at Montaperti.
October 24, 1260
Saif ad-Din Qutuz, Mamluk sultan of Egypt, is assassinated by Baibars, who seizes power for himself.
December 25, 1261
John IV Lascaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaeologus.
September 8, 1264
The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews safety and personal liberties and giving battei din jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Boleslaus the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland.
February 18, 1268
The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakovor.
June 19, 1269
King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver.
August 10, 1270
Yekuno Amlak takes the imperial throne of Ethiopia, restoring the Solomonic dynasty to power after a 100-year interregnum.
October 30, 1270
The Eighth Crusade and siege of Tunis end by an agreement between Charles I of Sicily (brother to King Louis IX of France, who had died months earlier) and the sultan of Tunis.
April 8, 1271
In Syria, sultan Baybars conquers the Krak of Chevaliers.
December 18, 1271
Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia and China.
November 21, 1272
Following Henry III of England's death on November 16, his son Prince Edward becomes King of England.
May 7, 1274
In France, the Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the Pope.
May 24, 1276
Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.
June 14, 1276
While taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China, away from the advancing Mongol invaders, the remnants of the Song Dynasty court hold the coronation ceremony for the young prince Zhao Shi, making him Emperor Duanzong of Song.
March 7, 1277
Stephen Tempier, bishop of Paris, condemns 219 philosophical and theological theses.
March 30, 1282
The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.
December 11, 1282
Llywelyn the Last, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, south Wales.
October 3, 1283
Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, becomes the first person executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.
March 3, 1284
The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England
January 21, 1287
The treaty of San Agayz is signed. Minorca is conquered by King Alfons III of Aragon.
May 10, 1291
Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England.
May 20, 1293
King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá.
April 14, 1294
Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong.
April 27, 1296
Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
September 11, 1297
Battle of Stirling Bridge: Scots jointly-led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray defeat the English.
January 14, 1301
Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Arpad dynasty in Hungary.
February 7, 1301
Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.
May 18, 1302
Bruges Matins, the nocturnal massacre of the French garrison in Bruges by members of the local Flemish militia.
June 21, 1307
Külüg Khan enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan.
October 13, 1307
Hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into "admitting" heresy.
March 18, 1314
Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.
April 30, 1315
Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged on the public gallows at Montfaucon.
April 6, 1320
The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.
September 28, 1322
Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor defeats Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.
August 12, 1323
Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time.
June 3, 1326
Treaty of Novgorod delineates borders between Russia and Norway in Finnmark.
February 1, 1327
Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
April 6, 1327
The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.
February 18, 1332
Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
October 13, 1332
Rinchinbal Khan, Emperor Ningzong of Yuan became the Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, reigning for only 53 days.
May 2, 1335
Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia.
April 26, 1336
Francesco Petrarca's (aka Petrarch) ascent of Mt. Ventoux.
March 17, 1337
Edward, the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy made in England.
April 1, 1340
Niels Ebbesen kills Gerhard III of Holstein in his bedroom, ending the 1332-1340 interregnum in Denmark.
April 16, 1346
The Serbian Empire is proclaimed in Skopje by Dusan Silni, occupying much of the Balkans.
April 23, 1348
The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is announced on St George's Day.
May 7, 1348
Charles University in Prague (Universitas Carolina/Univerzita Karlova) is established as the first university in Central Europe.
November 1, 1348
The anti-royalist Union of Valencia attacks the Jews of Murviedro on the pretext that they are serfs of the King of Valencia and thus "royalists".
February 14, 1349
Approximately 2,000 Jews are burned to death by mobs or forcibly removed from the city of Strasbourg.
February 10, 1355
The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.
September 1, 1355
Tvrtko I writes in castro nostro Vizoka vocatum from old town Visoki.
July 9, 1357
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor assists in laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague.
August 30, 1363
Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders— Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang—are pitted against each other in what is one of the largest naval battles in history, during the last decade of the ailing, Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.
May 12, 1364
Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland, is founded in Kraków, Poland.
September 9, 1379
Treaty of Neuberg, splitting the Austrian Habsburg lands between the Habsburg Dukes Albert III and Leopold III.
June 12, 1381
Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath.
July 15, 1381
John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of Richard II of England.
October 22, 1383
The 1383-1385 Crisis in Portugal: A period of civil war and disorder began when King Fernando died without a male heir to the Portuguese throne.
April 6, 1385
John, Master of the Order of Aviz, is made king John I of Portugal.
March 4, 1386
Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) is crowned King of Poland.
June 15, 1389
Battle of Kosovo: The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbs and Bosnians.
December 16, 1392
Nanboku-chō – Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.
April 17, 1397
Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) the start of the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury.
October 12, 1398
The Treaty of Salynas is signed between Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great and the Teutonic Knights, who received Samogitia.
July 17, 1402
Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming Dynasty of China.
December 12, 1408
Order of the Dragon: The Order of the Dragon was first created on December 12, 1408 by Emperor Sigismund, then King of Hungary, and his wife Queen Barbara of Celje following the battle for possession of Bosnia.
November 2, 1410
The Peace of Bicêtre between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions is signed.
February 1, 1411
The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn, Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (Prussia).
September 10, 1419
John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy is assassinated by adherents of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France.
May 25, 1420
Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ.
June 7, 1420
Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.
October 29, 1422
Charles VII of France becomes king in succession to his father Charles VI of France
May 7, 1429
Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning, wounded, to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.
June 18, 1429
French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
May 23, 1430
Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.
January 9, 1431
Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.
May 30, 1434
Hussite Wars (Bohemian Wars): Battle of Lipany – effectively ending the war, Utraquist forces led by Diviš Bořek of Miletínek defeat and almost annihilate Taborite forces led by Prokop the Great.
November 12, 1439
Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.
April 9, 1440
Christopher of Bavaria is appointed King of Denmark.
September 13, 1440
Gilles de Rais is finally taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by the Bishop of Nantes.
May 8, 1450
Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
May 9, 1450
'Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated.
April 2, 1453
Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul), which falls on May 29.
October 19, 1453
The French recapture of Bordeaux brings the Hundred Years' War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.
February 4, 1454
In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
February 23, 1455
Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
July 4, 1456
The Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) begins. (Part of the Ottoman wars in Europe)
October 17, 1456
The University of Greifswald is established, making it the second oldest university in northern Europe (also for a period the oldest in Sweden, and Prussia)
July 10, 1460
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick defeats the king's Lancastrian forces and takes King Henry VI prisoner in the Battle of Northampton.
August 7, 1461
the Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor.
June 17, 1462
Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.
December 15, 1467
Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.
October 19, 1469
Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella I of Castile, a marriage that paves the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain.
August 29, 1475
The Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England.
April 26, 1478
The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.
August 12, 1480
Battle of Otranto – Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.
October 8, 1480
Great standing on the Ugra river, a standoff between the forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, which results in the retreat of the Tataro-Mongols and the eventual disintegration of the Horde.
May 14, 1483
Coronation of Charles VIII of France (Charles l'Affable).
March 26, 1484
William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop's Fables.
June 16, 1487
Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses.
February 3, 1488
Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.
March 14, 1489
The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.
January 4, 1490
Anna of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France will be considered guilty of the crime of lese-majesty.
December 19, 1490
Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
May 3, 1491
Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.
November 16, 1491
An auto de fe, held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside of Ávila, concludes the case of the Holy Child of La Guardia with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects.
January 2, 1492
Reconquista: the emirate of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders.
March 31, 1492
Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
April 17, 1492
Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.
April 30, 1492
Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
August 3, 1492
Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.
September 6, 1492
Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic for the first time.
October 12, 1492
Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached South Asia
December 5, 1492
Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and then Dominican Republic.
January 4, 1493
Christopher Columbus leaves the New World, ending his first journey.
March 4, 1493
Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
November 3, 1493
Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea.
November 19, 1493
Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island he first saw the day before. He names it San Juan Bautista (later renamed Puerto Rico).
December 23, 1493
Georg Alt's German translation of Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle is published.
January 6, 1494
The first Mass in the New World is celebrated at La Isabela, Hispaniola.
May 3, 1494
Christopher Columbus first sights land that will be called Jamaica.
May 5, 1494
Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.
June 7, 1494
Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries.
July 2, 1494
The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed by Portugal and Spain.
February 22, 1495
King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne.
June 1, 1495
Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
December 5, 1496
King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree of expulsion of "heretics" from the country.
May 10, 1497
Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.
May 20, 1497
John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date).
June 24, 1497
Cornish traitors Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London.
December 16, 1497
Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
May 18, 1498
Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut, India.
May 20, 1498
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.
January 26, 1500
Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.
March 9, 1500
The fleet of Pedro Alvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet will discover Brazil which lies within boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas.
April 10, 1500
Ludovico Sforza is captured by the Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French.
April 22, 1500
Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil.
November 11, 1500
Treaty of Granada – Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.
November 4, 1501
Catherine of Aragon (later Henry VIII's wife) meets Arthur Tudor, Henry VIII's older brother – they would later marry.
February 12, 1502
Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.
May 11, 1502
Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.
May 21, 1502
The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova.
September 18, 1502
Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his fourth, and final, voyage.
May 10, 1503
Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.
February 29, 1504
Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.
September 13, 1504
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand issue a Royal Warrant for the construction of a Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) to be built.
January 22, 1506
The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.
February 3, 1509
The Battle of Diu, between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.
June 24, 1509
Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England.
August 8, 1509
The Emperor Krishnadeva Raya is crowned, marking the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire.
January 23, 1510
Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.
October 21, 1512
Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.
March 27, 1513
1512 as often cited) – Explorer Juan Ponce de León sights North America (specifically Florida) for the first time, mistaking it for another island.
April 2, 1513
Juan Ponce de Leon sets foot on Florida becoming the first European known to do so.
April 8, 1513
Explorer Juan Ponce de León declares Florida a territory of Spain.
April 30, 1513
Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is executed on the orders of Henry VIII.
May 13, 1515
Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk are officially married at Greenwich.
August 15, 1517
Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernão Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.
October 31, 1517
Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther posts his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.
March 4, 1519
Hernan Cortes arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and their wealth.
June 28, 1519
Charles V elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
September 20, 1519
Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
November 8, 1519
Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration.
January 19, 1520
Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.
October 21, 1520
Ferdinand Magellan discovers a strait now known as Strait of Magellan.
November 1, 1520
The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first navigated by Ferdinand Magellan during his global circumnavigation voyage.
November 10, 1520
Danish King Christian II executes dozens of people in the Stockholm Bloodbath after a successful invasion of Sweden.
November 28, 1520
After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.
April 16, 1521
Martin Luther's first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the other estates of the empire.
April 27, 1521
Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
August 13, 1521
Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés.
September 6, 1522
The Victoria, one of the surviving ships of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.
December 20, 1522
Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
January 20, 1523
Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
June 6, 1523
Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden, marking the end of the Kalmar Union.
January 17, 1524
Beginning of Giovanni da Verrazzano's voyage to find a passage to China.
January 1, 1527
Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I of Austria as king of Croatia in the Parliament on Cetin.
January 5, 1527
Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, is executed by drowning.
May 16, 1527
The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.
April 19, 1529
At the Second Diet of Speyer, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities (German: Reichsstadt) protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms, beginning the Protestant Reformation.
May 16, 1532
Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
June 23, 1532
Henry VIII and François I sign a secret treaty against Emperor Charles V.
September 1, 1532
Lady Anne Boleyn is made Marchioness of Pembroke by her fiancé, King Henry VIII of England.
January 23, 1533
Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
May 23, 1533
The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
November 15, 1533
Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire.
June 9, 1534
Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the Saint Lawrence River.
June 29, 1534
Jacques Cartier makes the European discovery of Prince Edward Island.
July 24, 1534
French explorer Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and takes possession of the territory in the name of the Francis I of France.
May 19, 1535
French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier had kidnapped during his first voyage).
June 24, 1535
The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.
October 28, 1538
The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is established.
January 12, 1539
Treaty of Toledo signed by King Francis I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
April 27, 1539
Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
May 30, 1539
In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.
May 8, 1541
Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River and names it Río de Espíritu Santo.
June 26, 1541
Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego Almagro the younger. Almagro is later caught and executed.
August 23, 1541
French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
September 11, 1541
Santiago, Chile, is destroyed by indigenous warriors, lead by Michimalonko.
February 2, 1542
Portuguese under Christovão da Gama capture a Moslem-occupied hill fort in northern Ethiopia in the Battle of Baçente.
February 13, 1542
Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
May 6, 1542
Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.
September 28, 1542
Navigator João Rodrigues Cabrilho of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California, United States.
October 7, 1542
Explorer Cabrillo discovers Santa Catalina Island off the California coast.
February 27, 1543
Jane Shin of Korea. is born. This event has been recorded as a historical moment for the people of south Korea.
January 23, 1546
Having published nothing for eleven years, Francois Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.
January 16, 1547
Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.
January 28, 1547
Henry VIII dies. His nine year old son, Edward VI becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler of England.
March 29, 1549
The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded.
May 12, 1551
National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, is founded in Lima, Peru.
October 27, 1553
Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus is burned at the stake just outside Geneva.
May 21, 1554
A royal Charter is granted to Derby School in Derby, England.
April 17, 1555
After 18 months of siege, Siena surrenders to the Florentine-Imperial army. The Republic of Siena is incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
September 15, 1556
Departing from Vlissingen, ex-Holy Roman Emperor Charles V returns to Spain.
April 24, 1558
Mary Queen of Scots marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.
June 30, 1559
King Henry II of France is seriously injured in a jousting match against Gabriel de Montgomery.
October 18, 1561
Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima – Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.
January 17, 1562
France recognizes the Huguenots under the Edict of Saint-Germain.
June 17, 1565
Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
June 23, 1565
Turgut Reis (Dragut), commander of the Ottoman navy, dies during the Siege of Malta.
August 28, 1565
St. Augustine, Florida, is established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
May 15, 1567
Mary Queen of Scots marries James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, her third husband.
July 25, 1567
Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.
March 23, 1568
Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. Again Catherine de' Medici and Charles IX of France make substantial concessions to the Huguenots.
May 23, 1568
The Netherlands declare their independence from Spain.
May 20, 1570
Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
August 18, 1572
Marriage in Paris of the future Huguenot King Henry IV of Navarre to Marguerite de Valois, in a supposed attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics.
February 8, 1575
Universiteit Leiden founded, and given the motto "Praesidium Libertatis".
January 20, 1576
The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almansa.
February 5, 1576
Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France.
May 1, 1576
Stefan Batory, the reigning Prince of Transylvania, marries Anna Jagiellon and they become the co-rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
September 17, 1577
The Peace of Bergerac is signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenots.
December 13, 1577
Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
December 17, 1577
Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas for English Queen Elizabeth I.
April 27, 1578
Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
January 23, 1579
The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
June 17, 1579
Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
April 4, 1581
Francis Drake is knighted for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
June 21, 1582
The Incident at Honnō-ji takes place in Kyoto, Japan.
November 28, 1582
In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license.
March 25, 1584
Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia.
June 19, 1586
English colonists leave Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America.
August 18, 1587
Virginia Dare, granddaughter of governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first English child born in the Americas.
October 31, 1587
Leiden University Library opens its doors after its founding in 1575.
May 12, 1588
French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry of Guise enters the city.
September 5, 1590
Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris.
January 18, 1591
King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat, for which this date is now observed marked as Royal Thai Armed Forces day.
May 18, 1593
Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe.
February 19, 1594
Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III of Sweden.
May 24, 1595
Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.
February 5, 1597
A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
April 23, 1597
William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I in attendance.
April 13, 1598
Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. (Edict repealed in 1685.)
March 20, 1600
The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden.
May 15, 1602
Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to see Cape Cod.
November 8, 1602
The Bodleian Library at Oxford University is opened to the public.
June 24, 1604
Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
January 16, 1605
The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid.
November 5, 1605
Gunpowder Plot: A conspiracy led by Robert Catesby to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is thwarted when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the House of Lords.
January 27, 1606
Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.
January 31, 1606
Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for his plotting against Parliament and James I of England.
April 12, 1606
The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of Great Britain.
December 20, 1606
The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
April 26, 1607
English colonists of the Jamestown settlement make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
May 14, 1607
Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.
June 3, 1608
Samuel de Champlain completes his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.
April 5, 1609
Daimyo (Lord) of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Okinawa.
May 20, 1609
Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
May 23, 1609
Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place.
September 11, 1609
Expulsion order announced against the Moriscos of Valencia; beginning of the expulsion of all Spain's Moriscos.
September 13, 1609
Henry Hudson reached the river that would later be named after him – the Hudson River.
December 8, 1609
The Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room, the second public library in Europe.
May 14, 1610
Henri IV of France is assassinated bringing Louis XIII to the throne.
June 23, 1611
The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again.
November 1, 1612
(22 October O.S.) Time of Troubles in Russia: Moscow, Kitai-gorod, is captured by Russian troops under command of Dmitry Pozharsky
December 28, 1612
Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.
February 21, 1613
Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
December 26, 1613
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, marries Frances Howard, occasioning John Donne's
April 5, 1614
In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
June 2, 1615
First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
June 4, 1615
Siege of Osaka: Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan.
March 20, 1616
Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
October 25, 1616
Dutch sea-captain Dirk Hartog makes second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, at the later-named Dirk Hartog Island off the Western Australian coast.
February 27, 1617
Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
May 23, 1618
The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.
October 29, 1618
English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.
November 10, 1619
René Descartes has the dreams that inspire his Meditations on First Philosophy.
September 6, 1620
The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America. (Old Style date; September 16 per New Style date.)
November 9, 1620
Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
November 21, 1620
Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact (November 11, O.S.).
December 18, 1620
The Mayflower lands in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts with 102 Pilgrims on board.
December 21, 1620
Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
December 26, 1620
Pilgrim Fathers land at what becomes New Plymouth in Massachusetts.
March 16, 1621
Samoset, a Mohegan, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."
March 22, 1621
The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.
April 5, 1621
The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to Great Britain.
June 3, 1621
The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherlands.
June 21, 1621
Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain.
March 22, 1622
Jamestown massacre: Algonquian Indians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population.
February 27, 1626
Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after he led the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci.
June 7, 1628
The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document, is granted the Royal Assent by Charles I and becomes law.
September 6, 1628
Puritans settle Salem, which will later become part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
October 28, 1628
The Siege of La Rochelle, which had been lasted for 14 months, ends with the surrender of the Huguenots.
March 4, 1629
Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter.
March 22, 1630
Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
May 18, 1631
In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
June 20, 1631
The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
February 22, 1632
Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
March 29, 1632
Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629.
April 15, 1632
Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
November 6, 1632
Death of King Gustavus Adolphus the Great of Sweden in the Battle of Lützen during the Thirty Years War.
February 13, 1633
Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
March 1, 1633
Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu.
April 12, 1633
The formal inquest of Galileo Galilei by the Inquisition begins.
April 23, 1635
The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
August 3, 1635
The third of the Tokugawa shoguns, Iemitsu, establishes the system of alternate attendance (sankin kotai) by which the feudal daimyō are required to spend one year at Edo Castle in Tokyo and one year back home at their feudal manor, while their families remained in Tokyo as virtual political hostages. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 21, 1635).
August 18, 1636
The Covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts is first signed.
October 28, 1636
A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.
December 13, 1636
The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.
February 3, 1637
Tulip mania collapses in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) by government order.
December 17, 1637
Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu.
March 22, 1638
Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
March 29, 1638
Swedish colonists establish the first settlement in Delaware, naming it New Sweden.
January 14, 1639
The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut.
September 23, 1641
The Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure worth over a billion USD, is lost at sea off Land's End.
October 23, 1641
Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 – anniversary commemorated by Irish Protestants for over 200 years.
March 1, 1642
Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first incorporated city in the USA.
March 27, 1642
The sixth Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Joseph takes office.
May 17, 1642
Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve (1612-1676) founds the Ville Marie de Montréal.
May 30, 1642
From this date all honours granted by Charles I are retrospectively annulled by Parliament
October 23, 1642
Battle of Edgehill: First major battle of the First English Civil War.
November 13, 1642
First English Civil War: Battle of Turnham Green – the Royalist forces withdraw in the face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London.
November 24, 1642
Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
May 14, 1643
Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
December 25, 1643
Christmas Island founded and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company vessel, the Royal Mary.
May 28, 1644
Bolton Massacre by Royalist troops under the command of the Earl of Derby.
May 26, 1647
Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut.
January 17, 1648
England's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Addresses, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
October 24, 1648
The Peace of Westphalia is signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years' War.
December 6, 1648
Colonel Pride of the New Model Army purges the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I of England, in order for the King's trial to go ahead; came to be known as "Pride's Purge".
March 11, 1649
The Frondeurs and the French government sign the Peace of Rueil.
June 9, 1650
The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established. It is the first legal corporation in the Americas.
April 6, 1652
At the Cape of Good Hope, Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp that eventually becomes Cape Town .
May 18, 1652
Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
June 20, 1652
Tarhoncu Ahmet Paşa appointed grand vezir of the Ottoman Empire, served until 21 March 1653.
February 2, 1653
New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
June 12, 1653
First Anglo-Dutch War: the Battle of the Gabbard begins and lasts until June 13.
June 6, 1654
Charles X succeeds his abdicated cousin Queen Christina to the Swedish throne.
November 23, 1654
French mathematician, scientist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal experiences an intense, mystical vision that marks him for life.
March 8, 1655
John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in what will be the United States.
April 4, 1655
The miraculous statue entitled the Infant of Prague is solemnly crowned by command of Cardinal Harrach.
May 10, 1655
England, with troops under the command of Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables, annexes Jamaica from Spain.
August 29, 1655
Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge.
February 26, 1658
Treaty of Roskilde: After a devastating defeat in the Northern Wars (1655-1661), the King of Denmark-Norway is forced to give up nearly half his territory to Sweden to save the rest.
February 11, 1659
The assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back with heavy losses.
April 4, 1660
Declaration of Breda by King Charles II of England.
April 23, 1660
Treaty of Oliwa is established between Sweden and Poland.
May 29, 1660
English Restoration: Charles II (on his birthday – see below) is restored to the throne of Great Britain.
June 1, 1660
Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
October 17, 1660
Nine Regicides, the men who signed the death warrant of Charles I, are hanged, drawn and quartered, another is hanged.
November 28, 1660
At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society.
January 6, 1661
English Restoration: The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London.
September 5, 1661
Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers.
May 7, 1664
Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles.
June 3, 1665
James Stuart, Duke of York (later to become King James II of England) defeats the Dutch Fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.
September 4, 1666
In London, England, the most destructive damage from a Great Fire occurs.
April 27, 1667
The blind and impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
June 9, 1667
The Raid on the Medway by the Dutch fleet begins. It lasts for five days and results in a decisive victory by the Dutch over the English in the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
May 31, 1669
Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary.
April 30, 1671
Petar Zrinski, the Croatian Ban from the Zrinski family, is executed.
May 9, 1671
Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
April 29, 1672
Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
May 2, 1672
John Maitland becomes Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March.
March 18, 1673
John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sells his part of New Jersey to the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.
May 17, 1673
Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.
February 19, 1674
England and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
November 2, 1675
A combined attack by the Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies attacks the Great Swamp Fort, owned by the Narragansetts during King Philip's War.
September 19, 1676
Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion.
December 4, 1676
Battle of Lund: A Danish army under the command of King Christian V of Denmark engages the Swedish army commanded by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfelt.
May 29, 1677
Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Natives.
June 25, 1678
Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy.
April 9, 1682
Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
May 6, 1682
Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
June 6, 1683
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.
June 23, 1683
William Penn signs friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.
October 6, 1683
William Penn brings 13 German immigrant families to the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first immigration of German people to America.
December 10, 1684
Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
February 18, 1685
Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
October 18, 1685
Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, which has protected French Protestants.
May 4, 1686
The municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines.
November 18, 1686
Charles Francois Felix operates on King Louis XIV of France's anal fistula after practicing the surgery on several peasants.
March 19, 1687
Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
September 26, 1687
The Parthenon in Athens is partially destroyed by an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morosini who are besieging the Ottoman Turks stationed in Athens.
November 5, 1688
Glorious Revolution begins: William of Orange lands at Brixham.
March 5, 1689
Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham is named Secretary of State for the Northern Department.
March 16, 1689
The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers is founded.
April 11, 1689
William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain.
April 20, 1689
The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.
December 16, 1689
Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.
January 6, 1690
Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.
February 3, 1690
The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
July 1, 1690
Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne as reckoned under Julian calendar.
February 8, 1692
A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony suggests that two girls in the family of the village minister may be suffering from bewitchment, leading to the Salem witch trials.
March 1, 1692
Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
June 2, 1692
Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Found guilty, she is hanged on June 10.
June 10, 1692
Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries".
July 19, 1692
Salem Witch Trials: Five women are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
September 19, 1692
Giles Corey is pressed to death after refusing to plead in the Salem witch trials.
October 12, 1692
The Salem Witch Trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.
February 8, 1693
The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.
August 4, 1693
Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of Champagne.
January 27, 1695
Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his abdication in 1703.
November 20, 1695
Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed.
December 31, 1695
A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
December 7, 1696
Connecticut Route 108, third oldest highway in Connecticut laid out to Trumbull.
May 7, 1697
Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed by fire. It is replaced by the current Royal Palace in the eighteenth century.
January 4, 1698
Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London, the main residence of the English monarchs, is destroyed by fire.
September 5, 1698
In an effort to move his people away from archaic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards.
April 14, 1699
Khalsa: Birth of Khalsa, the brotherhood of the Sikh religion, in Northern India in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.
February 28, 1700
Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
March 1, 1700
Sweden introduces its own Swedish calendar, in an attempt to gradually merge into the Gregorian calendar, reverts to the Julian calendar on this date in 1712, and introduces the Gregorian Calendar on this date in 1753.
May 23, 1701
After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
October 9, 1701
The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
March 11, 1702
The Daily Courant, the UK's first national daily newspaper is published for the first time.
December 14, 1702
to the old calendar; January 30, 1703 by the new calendar) – The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master.
February 4, 1703
In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.
May 27, 1703
Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
February 29, 1704
Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 100 men, women, and children.
February 3, 1706
During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
March 23, 1708
James Francis Edward Stuart lands at the Firth of Forth.
February 2, 1709
Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
June 27, 1709
Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava.
August 8, 1709
Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrates the lifting power of hot air in an audience before the King of Portugal in Lisbon
February 28, 1710
In the Battle of Helsingborg, 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock.
April 10, 1710
The first law regulating copyright is issued in Great Britain.
February 29, 1712
February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Old style.
October 3, 1712
The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor.
February 1, 1713
The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
April 19, 1713
With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa of Austria (not actually born until 1717).
January 4, 1717
The Netherlands, England, and France sign the Triple Alliance.
June 24, 1717
The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London, England.
May 7, 1718
The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville.
June 26, 1718
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia, Peter the Great's son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.
July 21, 1718
The Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.
November 30, 1718
Swedish king Charles XII dies during a siege of the fortress Fredriksten in Norway.
January 23, 1719
The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
February 12, 1719
The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded.
February 29, 1720
Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I.
July 27, 1720
The second important victory of the Russian Navy – the Battle of Grengam.
January 6, 1721
The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings.
March 8, 1722
The Safavid Empire, ruling the once powerful Persian Empire, is defeated by an army from Afghanistan in The Battle of Gulnabad, pushing Persia into anarchy.
April 5, 1722
The Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island.
June 26, 1723
After a siege and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians.
January 28, 1724
The Russian Academy of Sciences is founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, and implemented in the Senate decree. It is called the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.
November 11, 1724
Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, a highwayman known for attacking "Thief-Taker General" (and thief) Jonathan Wild at the Old Bailey, is hanged in London.
May 21, 1725
The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by the empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
May 9, 1726
Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn.
March 24, 1731
Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary Act is passed.
February 12, 1733
Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, and its first city at Savannah (known as Georgia Day).
May 29, 1733
The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld at Quebec City.
March 10, 1735
An agreement between Nadir Shah and Russia is signed near Ganja and Russian troops are withdrawn from Baku.
July 11, 1735
Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979.
September 20, 1737
Runner Edward Marshall completes his journey in the Walking Purchase forcing the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.
April 18, 1738
Real Academia de la Historia ("Royal Academy of History") founded in Madrid.
January 1, 1739
Bouvet Island is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
March 20, 1739
Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne.
September 9, 1739
Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britains mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupts near Charleston, South Carolina.
June 25, 1741
Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned King of Hungary.
May 12, 1743
Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned King of Bohemia after defeating her rival, Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.
September 13, 1743
Great Britain, Austria and Savoy-Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms (1743).
February 18, 1745
The city of Surakarta, Central Java is founded on the banks of Bengawan Solo river, and becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Surakarta
June 16, 1745
British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada.
June 16, 1745
Sir William Pepperell captures the French Fortress Louisbourg in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia during the War of the Austrian Succession.
August 19, 1745
Jacobite Rising, Prince Charles Edward Stuart lands from a French warship in Glenfinnan, raises his standard and marches on London – the start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion known as "the 45".
December 4, 1745
Charles Edward Stewart's army reaches Derby, its furthest point during the second Jacobite rising.
January 8, 1746
Second Jacobite Rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
October 22, 1746
The College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) receives its charter.
January 31, 1747
The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
June 24, 1748
John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley open the Kingswood School in Bristol. The school later moves to Bath.
August 26, 1748
The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
January 3, 1749
Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
January 21, 1749
The Verona Philharmonic Theatre is destroyed by fire. It is rebuilt in 1754.
June 29, 1749
New Governor Charles de la Ralière Des Herbiers arrives at Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island).
July 11, 1750
Halifax, Nova Scotia is almost completely destroyed by fire.
November 11, 1750
The F.H.C. Society, also known as the Flat Hat Club, is formed at Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, Virginia. It is the first college fraternity.
December 14, 1751
The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first Military Academy in the world.
February 11, 1752
Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, opens.
February 17, 1753
In Sweden February 17 is followed by March 1 as the country moves from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
January 28, 1754
Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.*1760 – Pownal, Vermont is created by Benning Wentworth as one of the New Hampshire Grants.
April 2, 1755
Commodore William James captures the pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.
April 15, 1755
Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language published in London.
January 5, 1757
Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert–François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
March 14, 1757
On-board the HMS Monarch, Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad for neglecting his duty.
May 6, 1757
Battle of Prague – A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
May 21, 1758
Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
May 1, 1759
Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood pottery company in Great Britain.
May 31, 1759
The Province of Pennsylvania bans all theater productions.
December 31, 1759
Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
July 19, 1760
The formal request to found the later city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is filed by its founders.
March 10, 1762
French Huguenot Jean Calas, who was wrongly convicted of killing his son, dies after being tortured by authorities; the event inspired Voltaire to begin a campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform.
May 5, 1762
Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg.
June 2, 1763
Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.
September 1, 1763
Catherine II of Russia endorses Ivan Betskoy's plans for a Foundling Home in Moscow
March 9, 1765
After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have actually committed suicide.
May 18, 1765
Fire destroys a large part of Montreal, Quebec.
September 21, 1765
Antoine de Beauterne announces he had killed the Beast of Gévaudan, but is later proved wrong by more attacks.
November 10, 1766
The last Colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University).
June 18, 1767
Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sights Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island.
October 18, 1767
Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.
May 10, 1768
John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.
June 21, 1768
James Otis, Jr. offends the King and parliament in a speech to the Massachusetts General Court.
December 28, 1768
King Taksin's coronation achieved through conquest as a king of Thailand and established Thonburi as a capital.
December 13, 1769
Dartmouth College is founded by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, with a Royal Charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal Governor John Wentworth.
May 16, 1770
14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
June 3, 1770
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo is founded in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
June 19, 1770
Emanuel Swedenborg reports the completion of the Second Coming of Christ in his work True Christian Religion.
August 21, 1770
James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
May 16, 1771
The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
October 9, 1771
The Dutch merchant ship Vrouw Maria sinks near the coast of Finland.
January 1, 1772
The first traveler's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London.
September 1, 1772
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa founded in San Luis Obispo, California.
January 12, 1773
The first public Colonial American museum opens in Charleston, South Carolina.
January 17, 1773
Captain James Cook and his crew become the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle.
October 12, 1773
America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia
October 14, 1773
The first recorded Ministry of Education, the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for Commission of National Education), is formed in Poland.
July 21, 1774
Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774: Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the war.
September 5, 1774
First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
March 8, 1775
Thomas Paine's "African Slavery in America," the first article in the U.S. calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery is published.
April 14, 1775
The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
July 26, 1775
The birth of what would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress.
October 26, 1775
King George III went before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorized a military response to quell the American Revolution.
November 7, 1775
John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, starts the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America by issuing Lord Dunmore's Offer of Emancipation, which offers freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial masters in order to fight with Murray and the British.
December 3, 1775
The USS Alfred became the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.
December 5, 1775
At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
January 24, 1776
Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga.
May 1, 1776
Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.
June 7, 1776
Richard Henry Lee presents the "Lee Resolution" to the Continental Congress. The motion is seconded by John Adams and leads to the United States Declaration of Independence.
June 11, 1776
The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
September 9, 1776
The Continental Congress officially names their new union of sovereign states the United States.
September 11, 1776
British-American peace conference on Staten Island fails to stop nascent American Revolution.
October 7, 1776
Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.
October 26, 1776
Benjamin Franklin departed from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.
December 5, 1776
In the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, students from the College of William and Mary meet for the first time founding Phi Beta Kappa, the first scholastic fraternity in the United States.
December 7, 1776
Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general.
December 19, 1776
Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in the Pennsylvania Journal titled The American Crisis.
December 25, 1776
George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack the Kingdom of Great Britain's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.
January 12, 1777
Mission Santa Clara de Asís is founded in what is now Santa Clara, California.
January 18, 1777
Representatives of the New Hampshire Grants declare the independence of the Vermont Republic from Britain.
May 16, 1777
Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
June 14, 1777
The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States.
September 26, 1777
British troops occupy Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.
September 27, 1777
Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the capital of the United States, for one day.
October 13, 1777
his defeat on October 7, 1777, General John Burgoyne's Army at The Battles of Saratoga become surrounded by superior numbers, setting the stage for its surrender — which feat of arms inspires the Kingdom of France to enter the American Revolutionary War against the British.
November 17, 1777
Articles of Confederation are submitted to the states for ratification.
November 29, 1777
San Jose, California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. It is the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California.
December 18, 1777
The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.
December 24, 1777
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.
January 18, 1778
James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".
February 5, 1778
South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
February 14, 1778
The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
March 4, 1778
The Continental Congress votes to ratify both the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance with France. The two treaties are the first entered into by the United States government.
September 17, 1778
The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed. It is the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware Indians).
November 26, 1778
In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui.
February 14, 1779
James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
May 13, 1779
War of Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from them (the Innviertel).
November 5, 1780
French-American forces under Colonel LaBalme are defeated by Miami Chief Little Turtle.
January 1, 1781
1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey as part of the Pennsylvania (Continentals; Regiment) Mutiny of 1781.
March 1, 1781
The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation.
October 16, 1781
George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia after the Siege of Yorktown.
October 17, 1781
General Charles Cornwallis offers his surrender to the American revolutionists at Yorktown, Virginia.
October 20, 1781
Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, is approved in Habsburg Monarchy.
November 29, 1781
The crew of the slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea in order to claim insurance.
January 7, 1782
The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.
January 15, 1782
Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.
March 8, 1782
Gnadenhütten massacre: Ninety-six Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity are killed by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians.
April 6, 1782
Rama I succeeds King Taksin of Siam (modern day Thailand), who is overthrown in a coup d'état.
April 19, 1782
John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.
June 20, 1782
The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.
December 14, 1782
The Montgolfier brothers first balloon lifts on its first test flight.
March 15, 1783
In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d'etat never takes place.
April 15, 1783
Preliminary articles of peace ending Revolutionary War ratified.
April 18, 1783
Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.
May 26, 1783
A Great Jubilee Day is held in Trumbull, Connecticut to celebrate the end of the American Revolution.
June 4, 1783
The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon).
November 2, 1783
In Rocky Hill, New Jersey, US General George Washington gives his "Farewell Address to the Army".
November 3, 1783
John Austin, a highwayman, is the last person to be publicly hanged at London's Tyburn gallows.
December 23, 1783
George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
March 5, 1784
Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney is named President of the Board of Trade.
January 7, 1785
Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
January 27, 1785
The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.
May 1, 1785
Kamehameha, the king of Hawaiʻi defeats Kalanikupule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
June 15, 1785
Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, co-pilot of the first-ever manned flight (1783), and his companion, Pierre Romain, become the first-ever casualties of an air crash when their hot air balloon explodes during their attempt to cross the English Channel.
June 25, 1786
Gavriil Pribylov discovers St. George Island of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.
November 30, 1786
Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty. For this, November 30 is commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day.
January 11, 1787
William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
January 25, 1787
American Daniel Shays leads rebellion to seize Federal arsenal to protest debtor's prisons.
February 28, 1787
The charter establishing the institution now known as the University of Pittsburgh is granted.
May 25, 1787
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States. George Washington presides.
June 20, 1787
Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States.
September 17, 1787
The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
September 28, 1787
The newly completed United States Constitution is voted on by the U.S. Congress to be sent to the state legislatures for approval.
December 7, 1787
Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the US Constitution.
December 12, 1787
Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the United States Constitution five days after Delaware became the first.
December 18, 1787
New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
January 9, 1788
Connecticut becomes the fifth state to be admitted to the United States.
January 19, 1788
Second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay.
January 20, 1788
The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides that Botany Bay is unsuitable for location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson.
February 6, 1788
Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
February 9, 1788
The Habsburg Empire joins the Russo-Turkish War in the Russian camp.
March 6, 1788
The First Fleet arrives at Norfolk Island in order to found a convict settlement.
April 7, 1788
American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrive at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory, and opening the westward expansion of the new country.
April 28, 1788
Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
June 25, 1788
Virginia becomes the 10th state to ratify the United States Constitution.
January 21, 1789
The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
February 4, 1789
George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
April 28, 1789
Mutiny on the Bounty: Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
May 5, 1789
In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614.
June 8, 1789
James Madison introduces 12 proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in the United States House of Representatives; 10 of them are ratified by the state legislatures and become the Bill of Rights
June 14, 1789
Whiskey distilled from maize is first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig. It is named Bourbon because Rev Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
June 17, 1789
In France, the Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly.
June 20, 1789
Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath.
September 15, 1789
The United States Department of State is established (formerly known as Department of Foreign Affairs).
September 24, 1789
The office of the Attorney General of the United States of America, and the United States Post Office Department, are established.
September 25, 1789
The U.S. Congress passes twelve amendments to the United States Constitution: the Congressional Apportionment Amendment, the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten that are known as the Bill of Rights. Only the Bill of Rights is ratified at the time, while the other two are proposed by James Madison but not ratified. In 1992, the Congressional Compensation Amendment is ratified as the 27th amendment to the Constitution.
September 26, 1789
Thomas Jefferson is appointed the first United States Secretary of State, John Jay is appointed the first Chief Justice of the United States, Samuel Osgood is appointed the first United States Postmaster General, and Edmund Randolph is appointed the first United States Attorney General.
October 2, 1789
George Washington sends the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification.
October 19, 1789
Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
November 20, 1789
New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
November 21, 1789
North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.
November 26, 1789
A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.
December 11, 1789
The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly.
January 30, 1790
The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.
February 11, 1790
Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitions U.S. Congress for abolition of slavery.
March 4, 1790
France is divided into 83 départements, which cuts across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.
May 29, 1790
Rhode Island becomes the last of the original United States' colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state.
May 31, 1790
Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
May 31, 1790
The United States enacts its first copyright statute, the Copyright Act of 1790.
July 9, 1790
Russo-Swedish War: Second Battle of Svensksund – in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Navy captures one third of the Russian fleet.
July 12, 1790
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is passed in France by the National Assembly.
May 3, 1791
The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
May 15, 1791
Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.
September 9, 1791
Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is named after President George Washington.
September 30, 1791
The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre and Jérôme Pétion as incorruptible patriots.
December 15, 1791
The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
February 4, 1792
George Washington is unanimously elected to a second term as President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
February 20, 1792
The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
March 16, 1792
King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
March 29, 1792
King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade ball at Stockholm's Royal Opera 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.
April 2, 1792
The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
April 5, 1792
U.S. President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States.
April 21, 1792
Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil's independence, is hanged, drawn and quartered.
April 25, 1792
Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
May 11, 1792
Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to sail into the Columbia River.
June 1, 1792
Kentucky is admitted as the 15th state of the United States.
June 4, 1792
Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain.
July 25, 1792
The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French Royal Family is harmed.
September 11, 1792
The Hope Diamond is stolen along with other crown jewels when six men break into the house used to store the jewels.
September 21, 1792
The National Convention declares France a republic and abolishes the monarchy.
September 26, 1792
Marc-David Lasource begins accusing Maximilien Robespierre of wanting a dictatorship for France.
January 9, 1793
Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States.
February 25, 1793
George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.
May 15, 1793
Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5-6 meters, during one of the first attempted flights.
June 2, 1793
Jean-Paul Marat recites the names of 29 people to the French National Convention. Almost all of these people are guillotined, followed by 17,000 more over the course of the next year during the Reign of Terror.
June 24, 1793
The first republican constitution in France is adopted.
August 12, 1793
The Rhône départment is created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two: Rhône and Loire (Lêre).
October 12, 1793
The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina
November 3, 1793
French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges is guillotined.
December 18, 1793
Surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.
December 26, 1793
The wedding of Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia and Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz takes place.
January 11, 1794
Robert Forsythe, a U.S. Marshal is killed in Augusta, Georgia when trying to serve court papers, the first US marshal to die while carrying out his duties.
February 4, 1794
The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic.
March 4, 1794
The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress.
March 27, 1794
The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
May 8, 1794
Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme Générale, is tried, convicted, and guillotined all on the same day in Paris.
June 4, 1794
British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
June 23, 1794
Empress Catherine II of Russia grants Jews permission to settle in Kiev.
June 30, 1794
Native American forces under Blue Jacket attack Fort Recovery.
January 19, 1795
Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands. End of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
February 7, 1795
The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
March 28, 1795
Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.
April 7, 1795
France adopts the metre as the basic measure of length.
October 24, 1795
Partitions of Poland: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is completely divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia
November 25, 1795
Partitions of Poland: Stanislaus August Poniatowski, the last king of independent Poland, is forced to abdicate and is exiled to Russia.
April 13, 1796
The first elephant ever seen in the United States arrives from India.
May 15, 1796
First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph.
June 1, 1796
Tennessee is admitted as the 16th state of the United States.
February 25, 1797
Colonel William Tate and his force of 1000-1500 soldiers surrender after the Last Invasion of Britain.
March 4, 1797
In the first ever peaceful transfer of power between elected leaders in modern times, John Adams is sworn in as President of the United States, succeeding George Washington.
May 12, 1797
First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice.
October 22, 1797
One thousand meters (3,200 feet) above Paris, André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump.
April 7, 1798
The Mississippi Territory is organized from territory ceded by Georgia and South Carolina and is later twice expanded to include disputed territory claimed by both the U.S. and Spain.
July 11, 1798
The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.
January 9, 1799
British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon.
January 17, 1799
Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots, is executed.
March 29, 1799
New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.
April 24, 1800
The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".
May 15, 1800
George III survives two assassination attempts in one day.
June 3, 1800
U.S. President John Adams takes up residence in Washington, D.C. (in a tavern because the White House was not yet completed).
June 7, 1800
David Thompson reaches the mouth of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba.
August 30, 1800
Gabriel Prosser leads a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia
October 1, 1800
Spain cedes Louisiana to France via the Treaty of San Ildefonso.
October 7, 1800
French corsair Surcouf, commander of the 18-gun ship La Confiance, captures the English 38-gun Kent inspiring the traditional french song Le Trente-et-un du mois d'août.
January 20, 1801
John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States.
February 4, 1801
John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
February 17, 1801
An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
February 27, 1801
Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
March 23, 1801
Tsar Paul I of Russia is struck with a sword, then strangled, and finally trampled to death in his bedroom at St. Michael's Castle.
March 16, 1802
The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
April 15, 1802
William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
May 3, 1802
Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.
June 4, 1802
Grieving over the death of his wife, Marie Clotilde of France, King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia abdicates his throne in favor of his brother, Victor Emmanuel.
January 1, 1803
Emperor Gia Long orders all bronze wares of the Tây Sơn Dynasty to be collected and melted into nine cannons for the Royal Citadel in Huế, Vietnam.
February 14, 1803
Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void.
February 24, 1803
The Supreme Court of the United States, in Marbury v. Madison, establishes the principle of judicial review.
March 3, 1803
Colégio Militar is founded in Portugal by Colonel Teixeira Rebello.
April 30, 1803
Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
November 18, 1803
The Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere.
January 1, 1804
French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black republic and second independent country on the American Continent after the U.S.
February 14, 1804
Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
February 16, 1804
First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia (1799).
February 21, 1804
The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
February 24, 1804
London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.
March 10, 1804
Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
April 2, 1804
Forty merchantmen are wrecked when a convoy led by HMS Apollo runs aground off Portugal.
May 14, 1804
The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begins its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.
June 15, 1804
New Hampshire approves the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratifying the document.
July 12, 1804
Former United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton dies after being shot in a duel.
September 25, 1804
The Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for moving further upriver.
March 1, 1805
Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.
April 7, 1805
Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery breaks camp among the Mandan tribe and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.
April 26, 1805
United States Marines captured Derne, Tripoli under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.
June 30, 1805
The U.S. Congress organizes the Michigan Territory.
January 9, 1806
Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral.
March 23, 1806
After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home.
May 30, 1806
Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson had accused Jackson's wife of bigamy.
July 12, 1806
Sixteen German imperial states leave the Holy Roman Empire and form the Confederation of the Rhine.
August 6, 1806
Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates ending the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
September 23, 1806
Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis, after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
October 17, 1806
Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti is assassinated after an oppressive rule.
November 15, 1806
Pike expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains (it is later named Pikes Peak).
February 8, 1807
Battle of Eylau – Napoleon defeats Russians under General Benigssen.
March 2, 1807
The U.S. Congress passes an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country."
March 25, 1807
The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger carrying railway in the world.
May 22, 1807
Most of the English town of Chudleigh is destroyed by fire
June 19, 1807
Admiral Dmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos.
July 9, 1807
The Treaties of Tilsit are signed by Napoleon I and Alexander I.
September 2, 1807
The Royal Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon.
November 27, 1807
The Portuguese Royal Family leaves Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops.
December 17, 1807
France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
December 22, 1807
The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.
January 1, 1808
The importation of slaves into the United States is banned.
April 6, 1808
John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company.
May 2, 1808
Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808.
May 3, 1808
Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia.
February 11, 1809
Robert Fulton files a patent for improvements to steamboat navigation
March 13, 1809
Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden is disposed in a coup d'état.
March 22, 1809
Charles XIII succeeds Gustav IV Adolf to the Swedish throne.
March 29, 1809
King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d'état. At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden.
April 19, 1809
An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria; part of a four day campaign which ended in a French victory.
April 20, 1809
Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon I of France at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four day campaign which ended in a French victory.
May 5, 1809
Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.
May 5, 1809
The Swiss canton of Aargau denies citizenship to Jews.
May 17, 1809
Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.
May 22, 1809
On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna), Napoleon is repelled by an enemy army for the first time.
June 6, 1809
Sweden promulgates a new Constitution, which restores political power to the Riksdag of the Estates after 20 years of Enlightened absolutism.
September 17, 1809
Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
October 11, 1809
Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.
January 1, 1810
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB officially becomes Governor of New South Wales
February 20, 1810
Andreas Hofer, Tirolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon's forces, is executed.
April 19, 1810
Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a Junta is installed.
April 20, 1810
The Governor of Caracas declares independence from Spain.
May 25, 1810
In the May Revolution, citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Viceroy during the Semana de Mayo.
August 8, 1810
Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib marries Maaroof, daughter of Nawab Ilahi Baksh, and moves to Delhi.
August 9, 1810
Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire.
August 21, 1810
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates.
September 18, 1810
First Government Junta in Chile. Though supposed to rule only in the absence of the king, it is in fact the first step towards independence from Spain, and is commemorated as such.
September 26, 1810
A new Act of Succession is adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte becomes heir to the Swedish throne.
October 12, 1810
First Oktoberfest: The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
January 8, 1811
An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslandes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
March 1, 1811
Leaders of the Mameluke dynasty are killed by Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali.
March 25, 1811
Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism.
August 3, 1811
First ascent of Jungfrau, third highest summit in the Bernese Alps.
October 1, 1811
The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orléans, Louisiana.
November 17, 1811
José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.
December 26, 1811
A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.
February 2, 1812
Russia establishes a fur trading colony at Fort Ross, California.
February 11, 1812
Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry "gerrymanders" for the first time.
February 27, 1812
Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
April 6, 1812
British forces assault the fortress of Badajoz under the command of the Duke of Wellington. This would be the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon led France.
April 30, 1812
The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
May 11, 1812
Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London.
June 4, 1812
Following Louisiana's admittance as a U.S. state, the Louisiana Territory is renamed the Missouri Territory.
September 16, 1812
Russians set fire to Moscow shortly after midnight – the city burns down completely days later.
December 29, 1812
The USS Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three hour battle.
May 11, 1813
In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth lead an expedition westwards from Sydney. Their route opens up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century.
May 31, 1813
In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, reached Mount Blaxland, effectively marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains.
June 1, 1813
James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gives his final order: "Don't give up the ship!"
August 19, 1813
Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's second triumvirate.
January 14, 1814
Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden in return for Pomerania.
January 31, 1814
Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.
February 11, 1814
Norway's independence is proclaimed, marking the ultimate end of the Kalmar Union.
March 10, 1814
Napoleon I of France is defeated at the Battle of Laon in France.
May 4, 1814
Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
May 17, 1814
Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.
May 17, 1814
The Constitution of Norway is signed and the Danish Crown Prince Christian Frederik is elected King of Norway by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly.
August 24, 1814
British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings.
November 1, 1814
Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France, in the Napoleonic Wars.
December 27, 1814
Destruction of schooner Carolina, the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson's make-shift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
February 6, 1815
New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.
March 1, 1815
Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.
March 20, 1815
After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.
April 23, 1815
The Second Serbian Uprising - a second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupts shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire.
May 16, 1815
The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially names the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.
June 1, 1815
Napoleon swears fidelity to the Constitution of France.
June 16, 1815
Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo.
October 15, 1815
Napoleon I of France begins his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
January 9, 1816
Sir Humphry Davy tests the Davy lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery.
April 10, 1816
The United States Government approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States.
September 5, 1816
Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable ("Unobtainable Chamber").
October 21, 1816
The Penang Free School is founded in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, by the Rev Hutchings. It is the oldest English-language school in Southeast Asia.
January 19, 1817
An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.
February 8, 1817
Las Heras crosses the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain.
May 15, 1817
Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
June 5, 1817
The first Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched.
November 3, 1817
The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal, Quebec.
February 5, 1818
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.
February 12, 1818
Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepción.
April 4, 1818
The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20).
September 23, 1818
Border demarcation markers for Neutral Moresnet are formally installed.
December 25, 1818
The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
February 17, 1819
The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise.
February 19, 1819
British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III.
December 17, 1819
Simón Bolívar declares the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).
January 28, 1820
Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent approaching the Antarctic coast.
January 30, 1820
Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
February 4, 1820
The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald completes the 2 day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and 2 ships.
February 6, 1820
The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia.
March 6, 1820
The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
April 8, 1820
The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
May 11, 1820
Launch of HMS Beagle, the ship that took Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage.
September 15, 1820
Constitutionalist revolution in Lisbon, Portugal; (see Portugal's crises of the Nineteenth Century.
September 26, 1820
Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson proved tomatoes weren't poisonous by eating several on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey.
November 17, 1820
Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula is later named after him).
November 18, 1820
Capt. Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to sight the continent of Antarctica.
November 20, 1820
An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick is in part inspired by this story).
April 10, 1821
Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged by the Turks from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body is thrown into the Bosphorus.
May 5, 1821
Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
June 14, 1821
Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Ismail Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom.
June 19, 1821
Decisive defeat of the Philikí Etaireía by the Ottomans at Drăgăşani (in Wallachia).
July 10, 1821
The United States takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain.
September 7, 1821
The Republic of Gran Colombia (a federation covering much of present day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador) is established, with Simón Bolívar as the founding President and Francisco de Paula Santander as vice president.
September 15, 1821
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain.
January 9, 1822
The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese king João VI, starting the Brazilian independence process.
July 26, 1822
José de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar.
September 7, 1822
Dom Pedro I declares Brazil independent from Portugal on the shores of the Ipiranga river in São Paulo.
September 27, 1822
Jean-François Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta stone.
October 12, 1822
Peter I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor of the Brazilian Empire.
October 31, 1822
Emperor Agustín de Iturbide attempts to dissolve the Mexican Empire.
January 3, 1823
Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
December 2, 1823
Monroe Doctrine: US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts.
March 11, 1824
The United States War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
May 10, 1824
The National Gallery in London opens to the public.
December 1, 1824
U.S. presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate had received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
December 9, 1824
Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.
January 27, 1825
The U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears".
February 4, 1825
The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.
February 9, 1825
After no presidential candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams President of the United States.
February 12, 1825
The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.
September 27, 1825
The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens, and begins operation of the world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.
November 26, 1825
At Union College in Schenectady, New York a group of college students form Kappa Alpha Society, the first college social fraternity.
December 14, 1825
Advocates of Liberalism in Russia rise up against Tsar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg.
December 26, 1825
Several Imperial Russia army officers lead circa 3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising.
January 24, 1826
Mississippi College is founded in Clinton, becoming the first college in the state of Mississippi.
February 11, 1826
University College London is founded under the name University of London.
February 24, 1826
The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War.
October 7, 1826
Granite Railway (first chartered railway in the U.S.) begins operations.
December 1, 1826
French philhellene Charles Nicolas Fabvier forces his way through the Turkish cordon and ascends the Acropolis of Athens, which had been under siege.
December 16, 1826
Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
February 28, 1827
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
March 7, 1827
Brazil marines unsuccessfully attack the temporary naval base of Carmen de Patagones, Argentina.
March 7, 1827
Shrigley Abduction: Ellen Turner is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a future politician in colonial New Zealand.
November 17, 1827
The Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity, is founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York.
April 14, 1828
Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
April 20, 1828
René Caillié becomes the first non-Muslim to enter Timbouctou.
May 19, 1828
U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.
May 26, 1828
Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.
December 19, 1828
Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
April 7, 1829
Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commences translation of the Book of Mormon, with Oliver Cowdery as his scribe.
May 2, 1829
After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of the HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.
June 5, 1829
HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.
August 10, 1829
First ascent of Finsteraarhorn, the highest summit of the Bernese Alps.
September 29, 1829
The Metropolitan Police of London, later also known as the Met, is founded.
October 1, 1829
South African College is founded in Cape Town, South Africa; it will later separate into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools.
March 10, 1830
The KNIL also known as the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army is created.
May 13, 1830
Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia.
May 24, 1830
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.
May 24, 1830
The first revenue trains in the United States begin service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, Maryland and Ellicott's Mills, Maryland.
May 28, 1830
President Andrew Jackson signs The Indian Removal Act which relocates Native Americans.
June 12, 1830
Beginning of the French colonization of Algeria: 34,000 French soldiers land 27 kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch.
September 15, 1830
The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens (see also deaths, below).
February 14, 1831
Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
February 24, 1831
The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West.
March 10, 1831
The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria.
June 1, 1831
James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole.
August 22, 1831
Nat Turner's slave rebellion commences just after midnight in Southampton, Virginia, leading to the deaths of more than 50 whites and several hundred African Americans who are killed in retaliation for the uprising.
September 15, 1831
The locomotive John Bull operates for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
October 30, 1831
In Southampton County, Virginia, escaped slave Nat Turner is captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in United States history.
November 5, 1831
Nat Turner, American slave leader, is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Virginia.
November 11, 1831
In Jerusalem, Virginia, Nat Turner is hanged after inciting a violent slave uprising.
December 5, 1831
Former US President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.
March 12, 1832
The Filippo Taglioni ballet La Sylphide receives its première performance at the Paris Opéra.
June 5, 1832
The June Rebellion breaks out in Paris in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy of Louis-Philippe.
June 6, 1832
The June Rebellion of Paris is put down by the National Guard.
June 7, 1832
Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada.
December 28, 1832
John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President of the United States to resign.
June 6, 1833
U.S. President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train.
January 29, 1834
US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.
March 28, 1834
The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in de-funding the Second Bank of the United States.
October 14, 1834
In Philadelphia, Whigs and Democrats stage a gun, stone and brick battle for control of a Moyamensing Township election, resulting in one death, several injuries, and the burning down of a block of buildings.
November 4, 1834
The Delta Upsilon Fraternity is established at Williams College Massachusetts.
June 2, 1835
P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States.
October 2, 1835
The Texas Revolution begins with the Battle of Gonzales: Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, Texas, but encounter stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.
October 9, 1835
The Royal College, Colombo in Sri Lanka is established with the name Hillstreet Academy.
December 20, 1835
First signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence at Goliad, Texas.
December 29, 1835
The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
March 1, 1836
A convention of delegates from 57 Texas communities convenes in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.
March 5, 1836
Samuel Colt makes the first production-model revolver, the .34-caliber.
March 27, 1836
Kirtland Temple in Ohio is dedicated in an 8 hour long service led by Joseph Smith, Jr. and Sidney Rigdon.
April 20, 1836
U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.
May 7, 1836
The settlement of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is elevated to the royal status of villa by the government of Spain.
May 14, 1836
The Treaties of Velasco are signed in Velasco, Texas.
May 16, 1836
Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.
June 16, 1836
The formation of the London Working Men's Association gives rise to the Chartist Movement.
September 1, 1836
Narcissa Whitman, one of the first white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington.
September 5, 1836
Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
June 5, 1837
Houston, Texas is incorporated by the Republic of Texas.
November 7, 1837
In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot dead by a mob while attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time.
November 8, 1837
Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later becomes Mount Holyoke College.
December 25, 1837
Battle of Lake Okeechobee: United States forces defeat Seminole Native Americans.
January 8, 1838
Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
January 26, 1838
Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
February 16, 1838
Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus.
April 30, 1838
Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation.
September 3, 1838
Dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a Free Black seaman, future abolitionist Frederick Douglass boards a train in Maryland on his way to freedom from slavery.
December 16, 1838
Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius combat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
November 4, 1839
The Newport Rising is the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain.
January 19, 1840
Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
April 27, 1840
Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, is laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
June 20, 1840
Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph.
February 18, 1841
The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11.
March 9, 1841
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
April 4, 1841
William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and the one with the shortest term served.
June 28, 1841
The Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris premieres the ballet Giselle
February 7, 1842
Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
February 21, 1842
John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
March 30, 1842
Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.
May 22, 1842
Farmers Lester Howe and Henry Wetsel discover Howe Caverns when they stumble upon a large hole in the ground.
August 9, 1842
Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.
May 22, 1843
Thousands of people and their cattle head west via wagon train from Independence, Missouri to what would later become the Oregon Territory. It is part of the Great Migration. They follow what is now known as the Oregon Trail.
January 15, 1844
University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.
February 28, 1844
A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing eight people, including two United States Cabinet members.
March 8, 1844
King Oscar I ascends to the throne of Sweden-Norway.
March 21, 1844
The Bahá'í calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Bahá'í calendar. It is annually celebrated by members of the Bahá'í Faith as the Bahá'í New Year or Náw-Rúz.
May 24, 1844
Samuel F. B. Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a Bible quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland.
June 6, 1844
The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.
June 15, 1844
Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
June 22, 1844
North American fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon is founded at Yale University.
December 21, 1844
The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.
January 29, 1845
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is published in the New York Evening Mirror.
March 1, 1845
President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
March 3, 1845
For the first time the U.S. Congress passes legislation overriding a presidential veto.
March 4, 1845
James Knox Polk is inaugurated as the 11th President of the United States.
May 20, 1845
HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost.
October 10, 1845
In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.
December 2, 1845
Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
December 27, 1845
Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Williamson Long in Jefferson, Georgia.
February 19, 1846
In Austin, Texas the newly-formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following Texas' annexation by the United States.
April 14, 1846
The Donner Party of pioneers departs Springfield, Illinois, for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival.
June 14, 1846
Bear Flag Revolt begins – Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the California Republic.
June 15, 1846
The Oregon Treaty establishes the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
August 14, 1846
The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite strikes near the town of Cape Girardeau in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
September 25, 1846
U.S. forces led by Zachary Taylor capture the Mexican city of Monterrey.
January 4, 1847
Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
January 16, 1847
John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
March 1, 1847
The state of Michigan formally abolishes capital punishment.
April 25, 1847
The last survivors of the Donner Party are out of the wilderness.
May 7, 1847
The American Medical Association is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
January 12, 1848
The Palermo rising takes place in Sicily against the Bourbon kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
January 24, 1848
California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.
January 31, 1848
John C. Fremont court-martialed on grounds of mutiny and disobeying orders.
March 4, 1848
Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia
March 5, 1848
Louis Antoine Garnier-Pages is named French minister of Finance.
March 10, 1848
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican-American War.
March 15, 1848
A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
March 20, 1848
Revolutions of 1848 in the German states: King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates.
May 13, 1848
First performance of Finland's national anthem.
July 3, 1848
Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) by Peter von Scholten in the culmination of a year-long plot by enslaved Africans.
July 19, 1848
Women's rights: The two day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York and the "Bloomers" are introduced at the feminist convention.
August 4, 1848
The Podestà of Milan signs the surrender of Milan against the Austrian troops after the Five Days of Milan
August 18, 1848
Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez are executed on the orders of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.
August 19, 1848
California Gold Rush: the New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).
September 13, 1848
Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage incredibly survives a 3-foot-plus iron rod being driven through his head; the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate thinking about the nature of the brain and its functions.
November 1, 1848
In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opens.
December 5, 1848
California Gold Rush: In a message before the U.S. Congress, US President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.
December 26, 1848
The Phi Delta Theta fraternity is founded at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
January 23, 1849
Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.
March 3, 1849
The United States Department of the Interior is established.
March 3, 1849
The U.S. Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of gold coins.
March 22, 1849
The Austrians defeat the Piedmontese at the Battle of Novara.
April 14, 1849
Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Louis Kossuth as its leader.
April 25, 1849
The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
May 3, 1849
The May Uprising in Dresden begins – the last of the German revolutions of 1848.
May 15, 1849
Troops of the Two Sicilies take Palermo and crush the republican government of Sicily.
May 17, 1849
A fire threatens to burn St. Louis, Missouri to the ground.
June 5, 1849
Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy by the signing of a new constitution.
October 6, 1849
The execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian war of independence.
December 22, 1849
The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is called off at the last second.
January 29, 1850
Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
March 7, 1850
Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war.
June 3, 1850
The traditional founding date of Kansas City, Missouri. This was the date on which it was first incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri as the "City of Kansas".
June 19, 1850
Princess Louise of the Netherlands marries Crown Prince Karl of Sweden-Norway.
July 10, 1850
Millard Fillmore is inaugurated as the 13th President of the United States upon the death of President Zachary Taylor, 16 months into his term.
September 9, 1850
The Compromise of 1850 strips Texas of a third of its claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) in return for the U.S. federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation debt.
December 16, 1850
History of New Zealand: The Charlotte-Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.
March 27, 1851
First reported sighting of the Yosemite Valley by Europeans.
May 1, 1851
Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in London.
May 21, 1851
Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
July 29, 1851
Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
November 9, 1851
Kentucky marshals abduct abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and take him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape.
November 13, 1851
The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what would become Seattle, Washington.
February 15, 1852
Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits its first patient.
February 16, 1852
Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established.
February 19, 1852
The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
March 20, 1852
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.
May 1, 1852
The Philippine peso is introduced into circulation.
October 11, 1852
The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.
March 19, 1853
The Taiping reform movement occupies and makes Nanjing its capital until 1864.
April 16, 1853
The first passenger rail opens in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.
December 30, 1853
Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.
December 30, 1853
A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London.
January 4, 1854
The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.
February 28, 1854
The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.
March 1, 1854
German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near Charlottenburg.
March 31, 1854
Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
May 30, 1854
The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas.
June 10, 1854
The first class of the United States Naval Academy students graduate.
August 4, 1854
The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
February 11, 1855
Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam.
February 14, 1855
Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
June 1, 1855
American adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua.
June 2, 1855
The Portland Rum Riot occurs in Portland, Maine.
November 17, 1855
David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now present-day Zambia-Zimbabwe.
February 7, 1856
The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the first piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.
February 18, 1856
The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
February 22, 1856
The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
April 10, 1856
The Theta Chi Fraternity is founded at Norwich University.
May 21, 1856
Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
January 24, 1857
The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia.
March 6, 1857
Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.
May 11, 1857
Indian Mutiny: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.
May 26, 1857
Dred Scott is emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners.
June 1, 1857
Charles Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal is published.
June 6, 1857
Sophia of Nassau marries the future King Oscar II of Sweden-Norway.
June 26, 1857
The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.
August 24, 1857
The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in U.S. history.
September 11, 1857
The Mountain Meadows Massacre: Mormon settlers and Paiutes massacre 120 pioneers at Mountain Meadows, Utah.
November 16, 1857
Second relief of Lucknow. The most Victoria Crosses won in a single day with 24.
January 9, 1858
Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide.
April 10, 1858
The original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonne bell for the Palace of Westminster is cast in Stockton-on-Tees by Warner's of Cripplegate. This however cracked during testing and was recasted into the 13.76 tonne bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry and is still in use to date.
June 16, 1858
Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
June 16, 1858
Battle of Morar takes place during the Indian Mutiny.
January 24, 1859
Political union of Moldavia and Wallachia; Alexandru Ioan Cuza is elected as ruler.
February 5, 1859
Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities.
February 16, 1859
The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch.
March 21, 1859
Zoological Society of Philadelphia, 1st in US, incorporated
April 25, 1859
British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
May 4, 1859
The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.
May 31, 1859
The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.
June 18, 1859
First ascent of Aletschhorn, second summit of the Bernese Alps.
June 28, 1859
First conformation dog show is held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.
June 30, 1859
French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
July 30, 1859
First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
September 17, 1859
Joshua A. Norton declares himself Emperor Norton I of the United States.
December 2, 1859
Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.
February 27, 1860
Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
March 5, 1860
Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia.
April 3, 1860
The first successful United States Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins.
April 6, 1860
Joseph Smith III creates the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by reorganizing the previous church organized by his father, Joseph Smith, Jr.
April 9, 1860
The oldest audible sound recording of a human voice is recorded.
April 14, 1860
The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California.
May 6, 1860
Giuseppe Garibaldi's Mille expedition sets sail from Genoa to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
May 18, 1860
Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.
June 12, 1860
The State Bank of the Russian Empire is established.
June 23, 1860
The United States Congress establishes the Government Printing Office.
June 30, 1860
The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History takes place.
October 10, 1860
The original cornerstone of the University of the South is laid in Sewanee, Tennessee.
December 20, 1860
South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States.
February 18, 1861
In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
February 27, 1861
Russian troops fire on a crowd in Warsaw protesting against Russian rule over Poland, killing five protesters.
March 2, 1861
The Nevada Territory and Dakota Territory are organized as political divisions of the United States.
March 2, 1861
Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia: Tsar Alexander II signs the emancipation reform into law, abolishing Russian serfdom.
March 3, 1861
Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing serfs.
March 4, 1861
First national flag of the Confederate States of America (the 'Stars and Bars') is adopted.
March 4, 1861
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States.
March 10, 1861
El Hadj Umar Tall seizes the city of Segou, destroying the Bambara Empire of Mali.
March 16, 1861
Edward Clark becomes Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who was evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
April 27, 1861
President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
October 23, 1861
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C., for all military-related cases.
November 4, 1861
The University of Washington opens in Seattle, Washington as the Territorial University.
December 21, 1861
Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.
January 30, 1862
The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.
January 31, 1862
Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an eighteen inch telescope at Northwestern University.
February 1, 1862
Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly.
February 22, 1862
Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.
May 5, 1862
Cinco de Mayo in Mexico: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla.
May 12, 1862
U.S. federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
May 15, 1862
President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture.
May 20, 1862
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
June 19, 1862
The U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying the Dred Scott Case.
June 20, 1862
Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.
July 18, 1862
First ascent of Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
September 22, 1862
Slavery in the United States: a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation is released.
December 26, 1862
Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
January 1, 1863
The first claim under the Homestead Act is made by Daniel Freeman for a farm in Nebraska.
January 22, 1863
The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia.
February 26, 1863
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the National Currency Act into law.
March 2, 1863
The U.S. Congress authorizes track width of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) for Union Pacific Railroad
March 4, 1863
The Idaho Territory is created as a political division of the United States.
March 19, 1863
The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000.
April 2, 1863
Richmond Bread Riot: Food shortages incite hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia and demand that the Confederate government release emergency supplies.
June 7, 1863
During the French intervention in Mexico, Mexico City is captured by French troops.
July 1, 1863
Keti Koti, Emancipation Day in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands.
July 7, 1863
United States begins first military draft; exemptions cost $300.
August 21, 1863
Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.
September 16, 1863
Robert College of Istanbul-Turkey, the first American educational institution outside the United States, is founded by Christopher Robert, an American philanthropist.
October 30, 1863
Danish Prince Wilhelm arrives in Athens to assume his throne as George I, King of the Hellenes.
December 15, 1863
In Romania the mountain railway from Anina to Oravita is used for the first time.
February 19, 1864
Knights of Pythias are founded in Washington, D.C. by Justus H. Rathbone.
April 10, 1864
Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is elected emperor of Mexico.
April 22, 1864
The United States Congress passes the Coinage Act, mandating that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
April 29, 1864
The Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
May 21, 1864
Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
May 29, 1864
Emperor Maximilian of Mexico arrives in Mexico for the first time.
June 15, 1864
Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.81 km2) around Arlington Mansion (formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee) are officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
June 30, 1864
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation".
October 19, 1864
Battle of Cedar Creek – Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroys Confederate Army under Jubal Early.
October 19, 1864
Confederate raiders launch an attack on Saint Albans, Vermont from Canada.
October 30, 1864
Helena, Montana is founded after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch".
December 1, 1864
In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation.
December 15, 1864
In the Battle of Nashville, Union forces under George H. Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John B. Hood.
December 22, 1864
Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".
February 1, 1865
President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
February 8, 1865
In the U.S., Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)
February 18, 1865
Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia.
March 2, 1865
East Cape War: The Volkner Incident in New Zealand.
March 3, 1865
The U.S. Congress authorizes the formation of the Freedmen's Bureau.
March 4, 1865
Third (and last) national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted.
April 11, 1865
President Abraham Lincoln makes his last public speech.
April 14, 1865
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth.
April 14, 1865
U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell.
April 17, 1865
Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
April 26, 1865
Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, in Virginia.
April 27, 1865
The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
May 5, 1865
In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio), the first train robbery in the United States takes place.
June 19, 1865
Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 13 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
October 11, 1865
Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.
December 6, 1865
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.
April 4, 1866
Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in the city of Kiev.
May 16, 1866
The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
June 3, 1866
The Fenians are driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the United States.
June 7, 1866
1,800 Fenian raiders are repelled back to the United States after they loot and plunder around Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg, Quebec.
June 11, 1866
The Allahabad High Court (then Agra High Court) is established in India.
July 3, 1866
Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
July 25, 1866
The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (commonly called "5-star general"). Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.
January 8, 1867
African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
January 31, 1867
Maronite nationalist leader Youssef Karam leaves Lebanon on board of a French ship for Algeria
February 8, 1867
The Ausgleich results in the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
March 1, 1867
Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.
March 2, 1867
The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act
March 30, 1867
Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The media call this Seward's Folly.
April 9, 1867
Alaska purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
May 29, 1867
The Austro-Hungarian agreement known as Ausgleich ("the Compromise") is born through Act 12, which establishes the Austro-Hungarian Empire; on June 8 Emperor Franz Joseph is crowned King of Hungary.
June 15, 1867
Atlantic Cable Quartz Lode gold mine located in Montana.
June 19, 1867
Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro.
August 28, 1867
The United States takes possession of the, at this point unoccupied, Midway Atoll.
September 2, 1867
Mutsuhito, Emperor Meiji of Japan, marries Masako Ichijō. The Empress consort is thereafter known as Lady Haruko. Since her death in 1914, she's called by the posthumous name Empress Shōken.
October 14, 1867
The 15th and last Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate resigns in Japan.
October 21, 1867
Manifest Destiny: Medicine Lodge Treaty – Near Medicine Lodge, Kansas a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate a reservation in western Oklahoma.
November 9, 1867
Tokugawa Shogunate hands power back to the Emperor of Japan, starting the Meiji Restoration.
December 4, 1867
Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange).
December 28, 1867
United States claims Midway Atoll, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits.
January 3, 1868
Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
February 24, 1868
The first parade to have floats is staged at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.
February 24, 1868
Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.
March 5, 1868
A court of impeachment is organized in the United States Senate to hear charges against President Andrew Johnson.
March 12, 1868
Henry O'Farrell attempts to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.
March 23, 1868
The University of California is founded in Oakland, California when the Organic Act is signed into law.
March 27, 1868
The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York.
May 14, 1868
Japanese Boshin War: end of the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle, former Shogunate forces withdraw northward to Aizu by way of Nikkō.
May 16, 1868
President Andrew Johnson is acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.
May 26, 1868
The impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson ends with Johnson being found not guilty by one vote.
May 29, 1868
The assassination of Michael Obrenovich III, Prince of Serbia, in Belgrade.
May 30, 1868
Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day") is observed in the United States for the first time (By "Commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic" John A. Logan's proclamation on May 5).
August 18, 1868
French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen discovers helium.
September 25, 1868
The Imperial Russian steam frigate Alexander Neuski is shipwrecked off Jutland while carrying Grand Duke Alexei of Russia.
October 7, 1868
Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the highest at any American university to that date.
October 10, 1868
Carlos Céspedes issues the Grito de Yara from his plantation, La Demajagua, proclaiming Cuba's independence.
November 2, 1868
Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally
November 30, 1868
The inauguration of a statue of King Charles XII of Sweden takes place in the King's garden in Stockholm.
December 25, 1868
U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.
May 4, 1869
The Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place in Japan.
May 10, 1869
The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike.
May 15, 1869
Woman's suffrage: in New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman's Suffrage Association.
May 18, 1869
Surrender and dissolution of the Ezo Republic to Japan.
June 1, 1869
Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine.
August 16, 1869
Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguay battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the War of the Triple Alliance.
October 16, 1869
The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is discovered.
October 16, 1869
Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.
January 15, 1870
A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).
January 23, 1870
In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in the Marias Massacre.
January 27, 1870
The first women's fraternity, Kappa Alpha Theta, is formed at DePauw University.
February 3, 1870
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, granting voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
February 23, 1870
In the United States, post-Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
February 25, 1870
Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.
February 28, 1870
The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.
March 30, 1870
Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.
June 19, 1870
After all of the Southern States are formally readmitted to the United States, the Confederate States of America ceases to exist.
July 1, 1870
The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.
August 2, 1870
Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London.
September 4, 1870
Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed and the Third Republic is declared.
September 18, 1870
Old Faithful Geyser observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone
December 12, 1870
Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black U.S. congressman.
February 17, 1871
The victorious Prussian Army parades though Paris, France after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
March 18, 1871
Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders evacuation of Paris.
March 21, 1871
Otto von Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.
March 22, 1871
In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
April 30, 1871
The Camp Grant Massacre takes place in Arizona Territory.
May 22, 1871
The U.S. Army issued an order for abandonment of Fort Kearny in Nebraska.
November 10, 1871
Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, allegedly greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
November 17, 1871
The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
January 12, 1872
Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first imperial coronation in that city in over 200 years.
March 1, 1872
Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park.
March 11, 1872
Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.
March 11, 1872
The Meiji Japanese government officially annexes the Ryukyu Kingdom into what would become the Okinawa prefecture.
May 10, 1872
Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
May 22, 1872
Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
November 7, 1872
The ship Marie Celeste sails from New York, eventually to be found deserted
December 9, 1872
In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U.S. state.
December 21, 1872
Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth.
February 18, 1873
Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
March 1, 1873
E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
March 3, 1873
Censorship: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.
March 13, 1873
David Swinson Maynard Founder of Seattle, Washington, United States dies
March 15, 1873
The Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity is founded at Massachusetts Agricultural College.
May 9, 1873
Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression.
May 12, 1873
Oscar II of Sweden-Norway is crowned King of Sweden.
May 20, 1873
Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
June 9, 1873
Alexandra Palace burns down after being open for only 16 days.
June 18, 1873
Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.
July 21, 1873
At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West.
March 18, 1874
Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
April 5, 1874
Birkenhead Park, the first civic public park, is opened in Birkenhead.
May 9, 1874
The first horse-drawn bus makes its début in the city of Mumbai, traveling two routes.
September 3, 1874
The congress of the state of México elevates Naucalpan to the category of Villa, with the title of "Villa de Juárez".
October 9, 1874
General Postal Union is created as a result of the Treaty of Berne.
June 19, 1875
The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins.
August 22, 1875
The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
December 9, 1875
Massachusetts Rifle Association "America's Oldest Active Gun Club" is founded.
January 31, 1876
The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.
February 2, 1876
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.
April 11, 1876
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized.
June 2, 1876
Hristo Botev, a national revolutionary of Bulgaria, is killed in Stara Planina
June 25, 1876
Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
September 7, 1876
In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank but are surrounded by an angry mob and are nearly killed.
October 4, 1876
Texas A&M University opens as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas becomes Texas's first public institution of higher education in that state.
January 8, 1877
Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain (Montana Territory).
January 22, 1877
Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices.
March 2, 1877
U.S. presidential election, 1876: Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
March 3, 1877
Rutherford B. Hayes is privately inaugurated as the 19th President of the United States (his public inauguration coming on March 5).
March 31, 1877
The family with samurai antecedents that responded to the Saigo army in Ōita Nakatsu rebels.
May 6, 1877
Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
May 9, 1877
Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day became the Independence Day of Romania.
June 15, 1877
Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.
June 20, 1877
Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
June 21, 1877
The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants, are hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.
January 24, 1878
The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
February 18, 1878
John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jessie Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
March 3, 1878
Bulgaria regains its independence from Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of San Stefano; shortly after Congress of Berlin stripped its status to an autonomous state of the Ottoman Empire.
December 18, 1878
John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.
February 14, 1879
The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
February 15, 1879
Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
May 14, 1879
The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.
May 21, 1879
War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
January 9, 1880
The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow.
February 13, 1880
Work begins on the covering of the Zenne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.
May 13, 1880
In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
June 7, 1880
War of the Pacific: The Battle of Arica, assault and capture of Morro de Arica (Arica Cape), that ended the Campaña del Desierto (Desert Campaign).
June 24, 1880
First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
June 28, 1880
Ned Kelly the Australian bushranger captured at Glenrowan.
July 16, 1880
Dr. Emily Stowe becomes the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada.
October 15, 1880
Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.
January 25, 1881
Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
February 13, 1881
The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert.
March 13, 1881
Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. (Gregorian date: it was March 1 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.)
March 27, 1881
Rioting takes place in Basingstoke in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of rigid Temperance by the Salvation Army.
April 14, 1881
The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas.
April 16, 1881
In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.
April 18, 1881
Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
May 21, 1881
The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
June 13, 1881
The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
July 1, 1881
The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
July 2, 1881
Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually dies from an infection on September 19.
July 23, 1881
The Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina is signed in Buenos Aires.
September 19, 1881
President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting.
September 20, 1881
Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States following the assassination of James Garfield.
October 13, 1881
Revival of the Hebrew language as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends agree to use Hebrew exclusively in their conversations.
October 26, 1881
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.
November 29, 1881
The city of Spokan Falls (today Spokane, Washington) is officially incorporated as a city.
May 6, 1882
Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed and killed during the Phoenix Park Murders in Dublin.
May 6, 1882
The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
June 30, 1882
Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of President James Garfield.
March 20, 1883
The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is signed.
March 13, 1884
The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins, ending on January 26, 1885.
May 1, 1884
Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.
May 31, 1884
at Plymouth of Tawhiao, King of Maoris, to claim protection of Queen Victoria
September 4, 1884
Britain ends its policy of penal transportation to New South Wales in Australia.
October 13, 1884
Greenwich is established as universal time meridian of longitude.
January 4, 1885
The first successful appendectomy is performed by William W. Grant on Mary Gartside.
February 9, 1885
The first Japanese government-approved immigrants arrive in Hawaii.
February 18, 1885
Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
February 26, 1885
The Berlin Act, which resulted from the Berlin Conference regulating European colonization and trade in Africa, is signed
February 28, 1885
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)
March 3, 1885
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York.
April 3, 1885
Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
September 2, 1885
Rock Springs massacre: In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners, who are struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attack their Chinese fellow workers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
September 6, 1885
Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria. The Unification of Bulgaria is accomplished.
September 18, 1885
Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.
October 13, 1885
The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
March 29, 1886
Dr. John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia.
May 5, 1886
The Bay View Tragedy: A militia fires into a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing seven.
May 8, 1886
Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would later be named "Coca-Cola".
June 1, 1886
The railroads of the Southern United States convert 11,000 miles of track from a five foot rail gauge to standard gauge, beginning May 31.
June 2, 1886
U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to wed in the executive mansion.
June 13, 1886
King Ludwig II of Bavaria is found dead in Lake Starnberg south of Munich at 11:30 PM.
September 9, 1886
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is finalized.
January 21, 1887
Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city.
February 2, 1887
In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.
February 8, 1887
The Dawes Act authorized the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.
March 7, 1887
North Carolina State University is founded by the North Carolina General Assembly.
April 4, 1887
Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
June 8, 1887
Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his punch card calculator.
June 23, 1887
The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada, creating the nation's first national park, Banff National Park.
November 3, 1887
Coimbra Academic Association, the oldest students' union in Portugal, is founded.
November 11, 1887
Anarchist Haymarket Martyrs August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel are executed.
January 27, 1888
The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C..
March 2, 1888
The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.
May 13, 1888
With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil abolishes slavery.
June 15, 1888
Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II and is the last emperor of the German Empire.
September 11, 1888
Death of the Argentine politician Domingo Sarmiento, after whom the Latin American Teacher's Day is chosen.
September 30, 1888
Jack the Ripper kills his third and fourth victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes.
October 15, 1888
The "From Hell" letter sent by Jack the Ripper is received by the investigators.
December 9, 1888
Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the United States War Department.
December 18, 1888
Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Mesa Verde.
January 15, 1889
The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is originally incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.
January 30, 1889
Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling.
February 9, 1889
The United States Department of Agriculture is established as a Cabinet-level agency.
February 11, 1889
Meiji constitution of Japan is adopted; the first Diet of Japan convenes in 1890.
February 22, 1889
President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
March 23, 1889
Land Run: President Benjamin Harrison opens Oklahoma to white settlement starting on April 22.
March 23, 1889
The free Woolwich Ferry officially opens in east London.
March 23, 1889
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is established by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Qadian India.
April 22, 1889
At high noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Run of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
May 14, 1889
The children's charity the NSPCC is launched in London.
June 6, 1889
The Great Seattle Fire destroys the entirety of downtown Seattle, Washington.
September 28, 1889
The first General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a meter as the distance between two lines on a standard bar of an alloy of platinum with ten percent iridium, measured at the melting point of ice.
October 2, 1889
In Colorado, Nicholas Creede strikes it rich in silver during the last great silver boom of the American Old West.
November 2, 1889
North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
November 4, 1889
Menelek of Shoa obtains the allegiance of a large majority of the Ethiopian nobility, paving the way for him to be crowned emperor.
January 22, 1890
The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio.
June 1, 1890
The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.
October 1, 1890
The Yosemite National Park and the Yellowstone National Park are established by the U.S. Congress.
October 11, 1890
In Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
November 23, 1890
King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to become his heir.
December 22, 1890
Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kingsport and Kentville, Nova Scotia.
January 31, 1891
The first attempt of a Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.
February 15, 1891
AIK is founded at Biblioteksgatan 8 in Stockholm by Isidor Behrens.
June 29, 1891
Street railway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, commences operation.
September 11, 1891
The Jewish Colonization Association is established by Baron Maurice de Hirsch.
October 1, 1891
In the U.S. state of California, Stanford University opens its doors.
January 1, 1892
Ellis Island opens to begin processing immigrants into the United States.
April 19, 1892
Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
June 7, 1892
Benjamin Harrison becomes the first President of the United States to attend a baseball game.
October 12, 1892
The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited in unison by students in US public schools.
January 6, 1893
The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
January 17, 1893
The Citizen's Committee of Public Safety, led by Lorrin A. Thurston, overthrows the government of Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
January 21, 1893
The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, is formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, which is now Botswana.
February 24, 1893
The American University is chartered by an act of the Congress of the United States of America.
March 1, 1893
Nikola Tesla makes the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
March 4, 1893
Congo Free State: The army of Francis, Baron Dhanis attacks the Lualaba, enabling him to transport his troops across the Upper Congo and, capture Nyangwe almost without an effort.
May 10, 1893
The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883.
June 13, 1893
Grover Cleveland undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; operation not revealed to US public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.
September 19, 1893
Women's suffrage: in New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.
November 28, 1893
Women vote in a national election for the first time: the New Zealand general election.
February 7, 1894
The Cripple Creek miner's strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado.
February 12, 1894
Anarchist Émile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.
March 5, 1894
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery becomes First Lord of the Treasury.
March 12, 1894
In Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.
March 25, 1894
Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington D.C.
April 21, 1894
Norway formally adopts the Krag-Jørgensen rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years.
April 30, 1894
Coxey's Army reaches Washington, D.C. to protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893.
May 1, 1894
Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C.
May 11, 1894
Pullman Strike: Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike in Illinois.
June 6, 1894
Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike.
June 24, 1894
Marie Francois Sadi Carnot is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.
October 30, 1894
Domenico Melegatti obtains a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially.
November 1, 1894
Nicholas II becomes the new Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies.
January 5, 1895
Dreyfus Affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
April 3, 1895
Trial of the libel case instigated by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
April 6, 1895
Oscar Wilde is arrested in the Cadogan Hotel, London after losing a libel case against the John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry.
April 8, 1895
The Supreme Court of the United States declares unapportioned income tax to be unconstitutional in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.
May 24, 1895
Henry Irving becomes the first personage from the theatre to be knighted.
May 25, 1895
Playwright, poet, and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
May 25, 1895
The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president.
June 28, 1895
El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua form the Central American Union.
October 8, 1895
Eulmi incident- Queen Min of Joseon, the last empress of Korea, is assassinated and her corpse burnt by the Japanese in Gyeongbok Palace.
January 5, 1896
An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
January 16, 1896
Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGM, Newport, Monmouthshire.
March 23, 1896
The Raines Law is passed by the New York State Legislature, restricting Sunday sale of alcohol to hotels.
April 6, 1896
In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.
May 18, 1896
The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal is constitutional.
May 18, 1896
Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people.
May 20, 1896
The six ton chandelier of the Palais Garnier falls on the crowd resulting in the death of one and the injury of many others.
May 26, 1896
James Dunham murders six people in Campbell, California.
June 2, 1896
Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his newest invention: the radio.
December 14, 1896
The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
February 28, 1897
Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
May 18, 1897
Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker is published.
May 22, 1897
The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially opened
June 16, 1897
A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
June 22, 1897
British colonial officers Rand and Ayerst are assassinated in Pune, Maharashtra, India by the Chapekar brothers and Ranade, who were later caught and hanged. They are considered the first martyrs to the cause of India's freedom from Britain. The film 22 June 1897 is based on the incident.
July 25, 1897
Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories.
September 1, 1897
The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.
September 11, 1897
After months of pursuit, generals of Menelik II of Ethiopia capture Gaki Sherocho, the last king of Kaffa, bringing an end to that ancient kingdom.
December 6, 1897
London becomes the world's first city to host licenced taxicabs.
December 9, 1897
Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde, in Paris.
February 7, 1898
Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse.
February 23, 1898
Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse," a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
June 12, 1898
Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain.
June 13, 1898
Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.
June 17, 1898
The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.
June 27, 1898
The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia.
July 7, 1898
President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
July 8, 1898
The shooting death of crime boss Soapy Smith releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
September 21, 1898
Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China.
October 1, 1898
The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration is founded under the name k.u.k. Exportakademie.
December 18, 1898
Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the new land speed record going 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h), in a Jeantaud electric car. This is the first recognized land speed record.
January 3, 1899
The first known use of the word automobile, is seen in an editorial in The New York Times.
January 22, 1899
Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation.
January 23, 1899
Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
February 2, 1899
The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital (Canberra) between Sydney and Melbourne.
February 13, 1899
Tallahassee, Florida records its coldest temperature of -2 degrees Fahrenheit.
February 14, 1899
Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
March 2, 1899
In the state of Washington, USA, Mount Rainier National Park is established.
April 18, 1899
The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.
September 13, 1899
Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.
January 2, 1900
John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
January 8, 1900
President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.
January 31, 1900
Datu Muhammad Salleh is assassinated in Kampung Teboh, Tambunan, ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion
February 3, 1900
Gubernatorial candidate William Goebel is assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky.
February 6, 1900
The international arbitration court at The Hague is created when the Netherlands' Senate ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
February 8, 1900
British troops are defeated by Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.
February 14, 1900
Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country.
March 13, 1900
In France the length of the workday for women and children is limited by law to 11 hours.
March 14, 1900
The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.
March 16, 1900
Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
April 2, 1900
The Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
April 30, 1900
Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
April 30, 1900
Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the Cannonball Express.
June 14, 1900
The Reichstag approves a second law that allows the expansion of the German navy.
September 19, 1900
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid commit their first robbery together.
December 7, 1900
Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body emission.
December 18, 1900
The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
January 10, 1901
The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.
January 22, 1901
Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
March 17, 1901
An exhibition of seventy-one Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.
April 25, 1901
New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
May 1, 1901
The Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, New York.
May 9, 1901
Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
June 17, 1901
The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT.
July 24, 1901
O. Henry is released from prison in Austin, Texas after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.
August 5, 1901
Peter O'Connor sets the first IAAF recognised long jump world record of 24ft 11¾ins. The record will stand for 20 years.
August 14, 1901
The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
October 12, 1901
President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.
October 24, 1901
Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
October 29, 1901
In Amherst, Massachusetts nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine.
October 29, 1901
Capital punishment: Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of US President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution.
November 1, 1901
Sigma Phi Epsilon, the largest national male collegiate fraternity is established at Richmond College, in Richmond, VA.
December 12, 1901
Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.
January 28, 1902
The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
April 2, 1902
Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Marie Palace, St Petersburg.
April 28, 1902
Using the ISO 8601 standard Year Zero definition for the Gregorian calendar preceded by the Julian calendar, the one billionth minute since the start of January 1, Year Zero occurs at 10:40 AM on this date.
May 17, 1902
Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
June 28, 1902
The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal.
August 24, 1902
A statue of Joan of Arc is unveiled in Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier.
January 4, 1903
Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by Thomas Edison during the War of Currents campaign.
January 9, 1903
Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia.
January 18, 1903
President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.
February 14, 1903
The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into Department of Commerce and Department of Labor).
March 23, 1903
The Wright Brothers apply for a patent on their invention of one of the first successful airplanes.
March 31, 1903
Richard Pearse allegedly makes a powered flight in an early aircraft.
April 6, 1903
The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Israel and the Western world.
May 29, 1903
May coup d'etat: Alexander Obrenovich, King of Serbia, and Queen Draga, are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization.
June 16, 1903
Roald Amundsen commences the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage by leaving Oslo, Norway.
September 11, 1903
The first race at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisconsin is held. It is the oldest major speedway in the world.
September 24, 1903
Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by Alfred Deakin.
September 27, 1903
Wreck of the Old 97, a train crash made famous by the song of the same name.
September 30, 1903
The new Gresham's School is officially opened by Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood.
October 5, 1903
Sir Samuel Griffith is appointed the first Chief Justice of Australia and Sir Edmund Barton and Richard O'Connor are appointed as foundation justices.
December 14, 1903
The Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
December 17, 1903
The Wright Brothers make their first powered and heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
January 7, 1904
The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".
April 8, 1904
British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the first chapter of The Book of the Law.
April 8, 1904
Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
April 10, 1904
British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the third and final chapter of The Book of The Law.
April 27, 1904
The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
April 30, 1904
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
May 4, 1904
Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England.
May 9, 1904
The steam locomotive City of Truro becomes the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100mph.
June 16, 1904
Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
June 16, 1904
Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle, and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; traditionally "Bloomsday".
October 19, 1904
Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O'Reilley.
December 3, 1904
The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory.
December 8, 1904
Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) in Denmark is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen. Still existing today, it is the oldest political youth organization in Denmark and believed to be one of the oldest in the world.
December 31, 1904
The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York.
January 22, 1905
Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.
January 26, 1905
The Cullinan Diamond is found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.
March 3, 1905
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly, the Duma.
April 17, 1905
The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York which holds that the "right to free contract" is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
May 15, 1905
Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
June 15, 1905
Princess Margaret of Connaught marries Gustav, Crown Prince of Sweden.
September 23, 1905
Norway and Sweden sign the "Karlstad treaty", peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries.
October 1, 1905
František Pavlík is killed in a demonstration in Prague, inspiring Leoš Janáček to the piano composition 1. X. 1905.
October 5, 1905
Wilbur Wright pilots Wright Flyer III in a flight of 24 miles in 39 minutes, a world record that stood until 1908.
November 25, 1905
The Danish Prins Carl arrives in Norway to become King Haakon VII of Norway.
December 11, 1905
A workers' uprising occurs, establishing the Shuliavka Republic in Kiev.
December 15, 1905
The Pushkin House is established in St. Petersburg to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin
December 30, 1905
Former Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated near his home in Caldwell, Idaho.
February 18, 1906
Edouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
March 17, 1906
The Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity is founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
March 18, 1906
Traian Vuia flies the first self-propelled heavier-than-air aircraft in Europe.
April 8, 1906
Auguste Deter, the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, dies.
May 22, 1906
The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".
June 8, 1906
Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.
June 25, 1906
Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw shoots and kills prominent architect Stanford White.
June 30, 1906
The United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.
September 1, 1906
The International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI) is established.
September 20, 1906
Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania is launched at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Newcastle, England.
September 25, 1906
In the presence of the king and before a great crowd, Leonardo Torres Quevedo successfully demonstrates the invention of the Telekino in the port of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered the birth of the remote control.
September 30, 1906
Real Academia Galega, Galician language biggest linguistic authority starts working in Havana.
December 4, 1906
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity in the United States established for men of African descent, is founded at Cornell University.
December 24, 1906
Radio: Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
January 6, 1907
Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.
January 23, 1907
Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.
February 7, 1907
The Mud March is the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
April 17, 1907
The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.
April 24, 1907
Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.
May 23, 1907
The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
June 22, 1907
The London Underground's Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opens.
August 17, 1907
Pike Place Market, the longest continuously-running public farmers market in the US, opened in Seattle.
October 22, 1907
Panic of 1907: A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company stock sets events in motion that will lead to a depression.
November 9, 1907
The Cullinan Diamond is presented to King Edward VII on his birthday.
November 16, 1907
Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory become Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th U.S. state.
December 10, 1907
The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals who have been vivisected.
January 12, 1908
A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
January 15, 1908
The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African-American college women.
February 1, 1908
King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, Prince Luis Filipe are killed in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon.
March 23, 1908
American diplomat Durham Stevens is attacked by Korean assassins Jeon Myeong-un and Jang In-hwan, leading to his death in a hospital two days later.
April 8, 1908
Harvard University votes to establish the Harvard Business School.
May 10, 1908
Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
June 18, 1908
Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the Kasato-Maru ship
July 6, 1908
Robert Peary sets sail for the Arctic on the expedition on which he later reaches the North Pole.
September 27, 1908
The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
October 1, 1908
Ford puts the Model T car on the market at a price of US$825.
November 7, 1908
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente, Bolivia.
December 2, 1908
Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at the age of two
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