Friday, November 15, 2024
Today: 1492 – Christopher Columbus notes in his journal the sighting of a new land, which he names Española (Hispaniola). 1777 – The Articles of Confederation are adopted by the Continental Congress, establishing a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies. 1806 – Explorer Zebulon Pike sights the distant mountain peak that bears his name, Pike’s […]
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Today: 1533 – Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, arrive in Cusco, Peru. 1666 – Samuel Pepys reports on the first blood transfusion in England, between two dogs. 1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes is the source of the Nile River. 1851 – Herman Melville’s novel *Moby-Dick* is published in the United States. […]
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Today: 1002 – English King Æthelred II ordered the massacre of all Danes in England, known as the St. Brice’s Day massacre. 1093 – Saint Margaret of Scotland, wife of King Malcolm III, passed away, later canonized as a saint. 1642 – First known European sighting of New Zealand by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. 1775 […]
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Today: 1028 – Future Byzantine empress Zoe marries Romanos Argyros. 1439 – Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament. 1793 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, is guillotined during the French Revolution. 1893 – The treaty of the Durand Line is signed, establishing the border between present-day Pakistan […]
Monday, November 11, 2024
Today: 1215 – The Fourth Lateran Council meets in Rome, convened by Pope Innocent III, defining key doctrines of the Catholic Church. 1620 – The Mayflower Compact is signed by Pilgrims at Provincetown Harbor in what is now Massachusetts, establishing a form of self-government. 1675 – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz demonstrates integral calculus for the first […]
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Today: 1775 – The United States Marine Corps is established by the Continental Congress to serve in the American Revolutionary War. 1793 – The French revolutionary government opens the Louvre as a public museum, showcasing a large collection of artwork for the first time. 1871 – Journalist Henry Morton Stanley finds Scottish missionary and explorer […]
Saturday, November 9, 2024
Today: 1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte launches a coup d’état, becoming the leader of France. 1848 – Robert Blum, a German revolutionary, is executed in Vienna as part of the suppression of the Revolutions of 1848. 1872 – The Great Boston Fire destroys about 65 acres of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. 1888 – Jack the Ripper’s last […]
Friday, November 8, 2024
Today: 1519 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán, marking the beginning of Spanish rule over the Aztec Empire. 1602 – The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford opens to the public. 1793 – The Louvre Museum in Paris opens to the public for the first time as a public museum. 1837 – Mary Lyon founds […]
Thursday, November 7, 2024
Today: 1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published. 1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition arrives at the Pacific Ocean. 1837 – Elijah Parish Lovejoy, an abolitionist newspaper editor, is murdered by a mob in Alton, Illinois, making him a martyr for the abolitionist cause. 1872 – The cargo ship Mary […]
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Today: 1528 – Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca is shipwrecked on Galveston Island, Texas, becoming one of the first Europeans to set foot in Texas. 1789 – Pope Pius VI appoints Father John Carroll as the first Catholic bishop in the United States. 1860 – Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th President […]