Category: Today In History

557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake. 1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen of Scots at the age of only one week on the death of her father, James V of Scotland. 1780 – Founding Father Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York 1900 –...

1294 – Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months wishing to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit. No subsequent pope has taken the name Celestine. 1577 – Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage. Drake was awarded a knighthood in 1581 and was a hero...

884 – King Carloman II dies after a hunting accident. He is succeeded by his cousin, emperor Charles the Fat, who for the last time reunites the Frankish Empire. 1787 – Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, five days after Delaware became the first. 1862 – USS Cairo sinks on...

1789 – The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly. 1792 – King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention. 1815 – The U.S. Senate creates a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee...

1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII. 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 Edmond Halley. 1768...

574 – Byzantine Emperor Justin II retires due to recurring seizures of insanity. He abdicates the throne in favor of his general Tiberius, proclaiming him Caesar. 1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. 1842 – First concert of the New York Philharmonic. 1930 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts telecasts...