1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license. They were married in 1582, when he was 18 and she was 25 years old. She outlived her husband by seven years. 1660 – At Gresham College, twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir...
845 – 845 : The first King of all Brittany, Nominoe defeats the Frankish king Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon near Redon. 1794 – Strasbourg Alsace-Lorraine, prohibits circumcision & wearing of beards 1809 – Peregrine Williamson of Baltimore patents a steel pen 1842 – Mount St Helens in Washington, erupts 1919 –...
1620 – Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact 1783 – In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight. 1861 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin secretary of war. 1877 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a...
Group portrait of the Piltdown skull being examined. Note the portrait of Charles Darwin on the wall. Painting by John Cooke, 1915
326 – The old St. Peter’s Basilica is consecrated. 401 – The Visigoths, led by king Alaric I, cross the Alps and invade northern Italy. 1095 – The Council of Clermont begins: called by Pope Urban II, it led to the First Crusade to the Holy Land.. 1307 – According to legend, William Tell shoots...
"Boulevard du Temple", taken by Daguerre in 1838 in Paris, includes the earliest known candid photograph of a person. The image shows a busy street, but because the exposure had to continue for several minutes the moving traffic is not visible. At the lower left, however, a man apparently having his boots polished, and the bootblack polishing them, were motionless enough for their images to be captured.
794 – Japanese Emperor Kanmu changes his residence from Nara to Kyoto. 1558 – Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England. 1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason. 1800 – Congress holds its first...
Click here to view Richard Nixon's 'I am not a Crook' statement
1272 – While traveling during the Ninth Crusade, Prince Edward becomes King of England upon Henry III of England’s death, but he will not return to England for nearly two years to assume the throne. 1793 – French Revolution: Ninety anti-republican Catholic priests are executed by drowning at Nantes. 1822 – American Old West: Missouri...
