Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Today: 1783 – A powerful earthquake strikes Calabria, southern Italy, killing around 50,000 people. 1852 – The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and most prestigious museums in the world, opens to the public. 1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the “Welcome Stranger,” is discovered in Victoria, […]
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Today: 1303 – The English army, led by King Edward I, defeats the Scots at the Battle of Roslin during the First War of Scottish Independence. 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar, which later replaces the Julian calendar in many countries. 1803 – The Supreme Court of the United States establishes the […]
Monday, February 3, 2025
Today: 1377 – More than 2,000 people in Cesena, Italy, are slaughtered by Papal troops under Cardinal Robert of Geneva (later Antipope Clement VII) in what is known as the Cesena Bloodbath. 1690 – The first paper money in the Americas is issued by the Massachusetts Bay Colony to pay soldiers fighting in a military […]
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Today: 506 – The Breviary of Alaric, a collection of Roman laws compiled under the Visigothic King Alaric II, is promulgated. 962 – Pope John XII crowns Otto I as Holy Roman Emperor, marking the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire. 1709 – Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued from an uninhabited island in the […]
Saturday, February 1, 2025
Today: 1793 – France declares war on Great Britain and the Netherlands, marking the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars. 1861 – Texas secedes from the United States and joins the Confederacy during the American Civil War. 1884 – The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary (A–Ant) is published. 1893 – Thomas Edison completes […]
Friday, January 31, 2025
Today: 1606 – Guy Fawkes is executed for his role in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the English Parliament. 1747 – The first venereal disease clinic opens at London Lock Hospital. 1865 – The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. 1917 – Germany announces unrestricted submarine warfare, a […]
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Today: 1649 – King Charles I of England was executed for treason, marking the end of the English Civil War and the temporary abolition of the monarchy. 1661 – Oliver Cromwell, the former Lord Protector of England, was posthumously executed, with his body exhumed and hanged in a symbolic act of retribution by the restored […]
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Today: 1595 – William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is believed to have been performed for the first time. 1676 – Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia after the death of his father, Tsar Alexis. 1814 – France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne during the Napoleonic Wars. 1834 – President Andrew […]
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Today: 814 – Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, died in Aachen, Germany. 1077 – Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, was absolved by Pope Gregory VII after standing barefoot in the snow in Canossa, Italy. 1547 – King Henry VIII of England died, and his nine-year-old son Edward VI became king. 1573 – Articles of […]
Monday, January 27, 2025
Today: 98 – Trajan succeeded Nerva as Roman emperor, marking the beginning of his reign and the Roman Empire’s expansion to its greatest territorial extent. 1302 – Dante Alighieri, the famous Italian poet and author of The Divine Comedy, was exiled from Florence due to political conflicts. 1606 – The trial of Guy Fawkes and […]