Category: Today In History

1540 – Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of England; the last religious community to be closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his speech – “Give me liberty, or give me death!” – at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia. 1801 – Tsar Paul...

238 – Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperors. 1508 – Ferdinand II of Aragon commissions Amerigo Vespucci chief navigator of the Spanish Empire. 1621 – The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags. 1622 – Jamestown massacre: Algonquians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown,...

1697 – Czar Peter the Great begins tour through West-Europe 1788 – Fire destroys 856 buildings in New Orleans Louisiana 1826 – Beethoven’s Quartet #13 in B flat major (Op 130) premiered in Vienna 1857 – Earthquake hits Tokyo; about 107,000 die 1871 – Journalist Henry M Stanley begins his famous expedition to Africa 1907...

141 – 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet 1345 – Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction: thought  to be the cause of plague epidemic 1760 – Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings 1815 – Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule 1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” published 1861 – An earthquake completely...

45 BC – In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda. 432 – St Patrick aged 16 is carried off to Ireland as a slave (traditional date) 1190 – A wave of anti-Semitic riots culminated in the massacre of an estimated...

597 BC – Babylonians capture Jerusalem, and replace Jeconiah with Zedekiah as king. 1621 – Samoset, a Mohegan, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, “Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset.” 1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29. 1815 – Prince Willem proclaims himself King of...