Category: Today In History

86 BC – Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus ending the Siege of Athens and Piraeus. 1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded. 1642 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York,...

202 BC – Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty. 1784 – John Wesley charters the Methodist Church. 1827 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight. 1849 – Regular...

1594 – Henry IV is crowned King of France. 1812 – Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire. 1860 – Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York...

1616 – Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun. 1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba. 1876 – Japan and Korea sign a treaty granting Japanese citizens extraterritoriality rights, opening three ports to Japanese trade, and ending Korea’s status as...

532 – Byzantine emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia. 1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type. 1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an...

705 – Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang dynasty. 1371 – Robert II becomes King of Scotland, beginning the Stuart dynasty.   1632 – Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published. It was a 1632 book by Galileo Galilei comparing the Copernican system with the traditional Ptolemaic system.  The...