Category: Today In History

609 – Pope Boniface I turns Pantheon in Rome into a Catholic church 1110 – Crusaders march into Beirut causing a bloodbath 1497 – Pope Alexander VI  excommunicated Girolamo Savonarola, Italian Dominican friar and an influential contributor to the politics of Florence. He vehemently preached against the moral corruption of much of the clergy at the time, and his main opponent...

1328 – Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice 1733 – Maria Theresa crowned Queen of Bohemia in Prague 1835 – Charles Darwin visits copper mines in North Chile 1908 – Wireless Radio Broadcasting is patented by Nathan B Stubblefield 1926 – Airship Norge is first vessel to fly over North Pole 1932 – Body...

868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it the oldest known dated printed book 1647 – Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam to replace Willem Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch colonial settlement in present-day New York City 1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by...

28 BCE – A sunspot is observed by Han dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, one of the earliest dated sunspot observations in China. 1497 – Amerigo Vespucci  leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World. 1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas...

1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire 1494 – On second voyage to New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica 1780 – Second oldest learned society in US (American Academy of Arts & Sciences) forms in Boston 1809 – Mary Kies is first woman issued a US patent  for a ‘weaving straw’ 1855 – NYC regains Castle Clinton, to be used...

1436 – Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson 1471 – War of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. 1493 – Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation. 1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New...