Category: Today In History

565 – Justin II succeeds his uncle, Justinian I, as emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation. 1791 – The first U.S. Catholic college, Georgetown University, opens its doors. 1864 – American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman...

1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile. 1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville is published in the USA. Born at #6 Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan, the third child of a merchant in French dry goods, his father Allan Melville moved his wife and three...

1002 – English king Ethelred II launches massacre of Danish settlers 1775 – American Revolutionary forces capture Montreal 1789 – Ben Franklin writes “Nothing . . . certain but death & taxes” 1839 – First US anti-slavery party, Liberty Party, convenes in New York 1841 – James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism,...

1202 – Fourth Crusade: Despite letters from Pope Innocent III forbidding it and threatening excommunication, Catholic crusaders begin a siege of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia). 1580 – After a three-day siege, the English Army beheads over 600 people, including papal soldiers and civilians, at Dún an Óir, Ireland. 1766 – The last colonial governor of...

1519 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration. 1861 – American Civil War: The “Trent Affair”: The USS San Jacinto stops the British mail ship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US. 1917 – The first Council of People’s...

1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France. The remains of the meteorite were later put on display in the main hall of Ensisheim’s 16th-century Regency Palace. 1665 – The London Gazette, the...