March 22 in History 106 – Start of the Bostran era, the calendar of the province of Arabia Petraea. 238 – Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperors. 871 – Æthelred of Wessex is defeated by a Danish invasion army at the Battle of Marton. 1508 – Ferdinand II of Aragon commissions Amerigo Vespucci chief navigator…
March 4 in History AD 51 – Nero, later to become Roman emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth). 306 – Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia. 852 – Croatian Knez Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources. 938 –…
For superstitious reasons, when the Romans began to intercalate to bring their calendar into line with the solar year, they chose not to place their extra month of Mercedonius after February but within it. February 24 — known in the Roman calendar as “the sixth day before the…
February 23 in History 303 – Roman emperor Diocletian orders the destruction of the Christian church in Nicomedia, beginning eight years of Diocletianic Persecution. 532 – Byzantine emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia. 1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed…
February 19 in History 197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies. 356 – Emperor Constantius II issues a decree closing all pagan temples in the Roman Empire. 1594 – Having already been elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1587, Sigismund III of…
February 17 in History 1370 – Northern Crusades: Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights meet in the Battle of Rudau. 1411 – Following the successful campaigns during the Ottoman Interregnum, Musa Çelebi, one of the sons of Bayezid I, becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire with the support of Mircea I of Wallachia. 1500 –…
February 16 in History 1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire. 1270 – Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse. 1630 – Dutch forces led by Hendrick Lonck capture Olinda in what was to become part of Dutch Brazil.…
February 15 in History 590 – Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia. 706 – Byzantine emperor Justinian II has his predecessors Leontios and Tiberios III publicly executed in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. 1002 – At an assembly at Pavia of Lombard nobles, Arduin of Ivrea is restored to his domains and crowned King of Italy. 1113 – Pope Paschal II issues Pie Postulatio Voluntatis, recognizing the…
February 6 in History AD 60 – The earliest date for which the day of the week is known. A graffito in Pompeii identifies this day as a dies Solis (Sunday). In modern reckoning, this date would have been a Wednesday. 1579 – The Archdiocese of Manila is made a diocese…
February 5 in History AD 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy. 756 – An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty, declares himself emperor and establishes the state of Yan. 789 – Idris I reaches Volubilis and founds the Idrisid dynasty, ceding Morocco from the Abbasid caliphate and founding the first Moroccan state. 1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins…