Posts published in “Today in History”

0118 – Hadrian, Rome’s new emperor, made his entry into the city. 0455 – Avitus, the Roman military commander in Gaul, became Emperor of the…

1099 – Christian soldiers on the First Crusade march around Jerusalem. 1608 – The first French settlement at Quebec was established by Samuel de Champlain.…

1863 – The United States begins its first military draft; exemptions cost $300. 1865 – Four conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln are hanged.…

1483 – Richard III is crowned King of England. 1484 – Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of the Congo River. 1495 –…

1806 – A Spanish army repelled the British during their attempt to retake Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1811 – Venezuela became the first South American country…

1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers. 1774 – Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in…

  608 – The city of Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain. 1775 – U.S. Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army…

1743 – King George II of England defeated the French at Dettingen, Bavaria, in the War of the Austrian Succession. 1787 – Edward Gibbon completed…

1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine. 1521 – Martin Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X from the Roman Catholic Church 1653…

1860 – The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History takes place.   1894 – Korea declared independence from China…

1880 – France annexed Tahiti. 1903 – The British government officially protested Belgian atrocities in the Congo. 1905 – Russian troops intervened as riots erupted…

1635 – The French colony of Guadeloupe was established in the Caribbean. 1675 – Frederick William of Brandenburg crushed the Swedes. 1709 – The Russians…

1096 – Peter the Hermit’s crusaders forced their way across Sava, Hungary. 1243 – The Seljuk Turkish army in Asia Minor was wiped out by…

1658 – Aurangzeb proclaimed himself emperor of the Moghuls in India. 1867 – Lucien B. Smith patented the first barbed wire. 1868 – The U.S.…

1314 – Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce won over Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland. 1340 – The…

1700 – Russia gave up its Black Sea fleet as part of a truce with the Ottoman Empire. 1758 – British and Hanoverian armies defeated…

1558 – The French took the French town of Thioville from the English. 1611 – English explorer Henry Hudson, his son and several other people…

1404 – Owain Glyndwr established a Welsh Parliament at Machynlleth and was crowned Prince of Wales. 1859 – Andrew Lanergan received the first rocket patent.…

1397 – The Union of Kalmar united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch. 1756 – In India, 150 British soldiers were imprisoned in a…

0240 BC – Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using two sticks. 1586 – English colonists sailed away from Roanoke Island, NC, after failing…