Category: Today In History

1066 – Harold Godwinson (or Harold II) is crowned King of England. 1540 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves. 1838 – Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code). 1839 – The most damaging storm in 300 years sweeps across Ireland, damaging...

1066 – Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England. 1527 – Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, Switzerland, is executed by drowning. 1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to...

46 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina. 871 – Battle of Reading: Æthelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army. 1490 – Anne of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the King of France will be considered guilty of lèse-majesté, the crime...

1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. Three months later, Luther was called to defend his beliefs before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms, where he was famously defiant. For his refusal to recant his writings, the emperor declared him an outlaw and...

1826 – American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declare their independence, starting the Fredonian Rebellion. 1879 – World premiere of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark. 1907 – The Chilean Army commits a massacre of at least 2,000 striking saltpeter miners in Iquique, Chile. 1919 – American anarchist Emma...

714 – Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the Merovingian palace, dies at Jupille (modern Belgium). He is succeeded by his infant grandson Theudoald while his wife Plectrude holds actual power in the Frankish Kingdom. 1431 – Hundred Years’ War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris. 1773 –...