Category: Today In History

753 BC – Romulus founds Rome (traditional date). 1898 – Spanish-American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date. 1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred...

AD 65 – The freedman Milichus betrays Piso’s plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested. 1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa...

1025 – Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland. 1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid. 1775 – Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Charleston to Lexington warning the “regulars are coming!” 1783 – Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the...

1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer tells The Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as the start of the book’s pilgrimage to Canterbury. 1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire...

1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire. 1742 – George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland. 1870 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded. 1902 – James C. Penney opens his first...

1713 – Peace of Utrecht; France cedes Maritime provinces to Britain – English, Prussian, Savoois, Portuguese & French peace treaty 1775 – The last conviction for witchcraft in Germany takes place. It was on this date, April 11, 1775, that the sentence of death for witchcraft was handed down in Germany. Some records indicate that...