Sunday, October 26, 2025
Today: 1377: Tvrtko I is crowned as the first King of Bosnia. 1774: The First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1825: The Erie Canal officially opens, connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie. 1863: The Football Association is formed at the Freemasons’ Tavern in London, standardizing the rules of the game. 1881: The Gunfight […]
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Today: 1400: English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, dies. 1415: The English army, led by Henry V, defeats a larger French army at the Battle of Agincourt. 1760: George III begins his reign as King of Great Britain and Ireland. 1854: The Charge of the Light Brigade, a famous and disastrous cavalry […]
Friday, October 24, 2025
Today: 1648: The Peace of Westphalia is signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years’ War. 1861: The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed. 1901: Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. 1929: “Black Thursday” occurs on the New York Stock Exchange, beginning […]
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Today: 1746: The College of New Jersey received its charter, later becoming Princeton University. 1797: André-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump, descending from a balloon over Paris. 1836: Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first president of the Republic of Texas. 1879: Thomas Edison successfully tested his first practical incandescent light bulb, which […]
Tuesday, October 22, 2025
Today: 1520: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sails into the strait between the mainland tip of South America and Tierra del Fuego, which would later be named the Strait of Magellan. 1600: Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats his rivals in the Battle of Sekigahara, a decisive victory that leads to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan. […]
Monday, October 20, 2025
Today: 1740: Maria Theresa ascends to the Habsburg throne in Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia. 1774: The First Continental Congress creates the Continental Association, which called for a trade boycott against Great Britain. 1803: The U.S. Senate ratifies the treaty for the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the country. 1818: The United States and the […]
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Today: 202 BC: At the Battle of Zama, Roman legions led by Scipio Africanus defeat Hannibal Barca, leading to the end of the Second Punic War. 439: The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, capture Carthage in North Africa. 1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella I of Castile in Valladolid, Spain, laying the foundation for […]
Saturday, October 18, 2025
Today: 1009: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. 1356: The Basel earthquake, the most significant historical seismic event north of the Alps, destroys the city of Basel, Switzerland. 1648: Boston shoemakers form the first labor organization in what would become the United States. 1685: King […]
Friday, October 17, 2025
Today: 1346: The English captured King David II of Scotland at the Battle of Neville’s Cross. He was imprisoned for eleven years. 1777: British General John Burgoyne surrendered to American forces at Saratoga, New York. This was a major turning point in the American Revolutionary War. 1814: The London Beer Flood occurred when vats of […]
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Today: 1793: Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, was guillotined during the French Revolution. Her execution was a major event in the overthrow of the monarchy. 1846: The first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. This revolutionized surgery by allowing for painless procedures. 1859: Abolitionist John Brown […]