May 2 in History 1194 – King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter 1230 – William de Braose is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great. 1335 – Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia. 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft. 1559 – John…
April 29 in history 1091 – Battle of Levounion: The Pechenegs are defeated by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. 1386 – Battle of the Vikhra River: The Principality of Smolensk is defeated by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and becomes its vassal. 1429 – Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans. 1483 – Gran Canaria,…
April 27 in history 33 BC – Lucius Marcius Philippus, step-brother to the future emperor Augustus, celebrates a triumph for his victories while serving as governor in one of the provinces of Hispania. 395 – Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more…
April 19 in History AD 65 – The freedman Milichus betrays Piso’s plot to kill Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested. 531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at Raqqa (northern Syria). 797 – Empress Irene organizes a conspiracy against her son, the Byzantine emperor Constantine VI.…
April 13 in History 1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire. 1612 – Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō at Funajima island. 1613 – Samuel Argall, having captured Native…
April 7 in History 451 – Attila the Hun sacks the town of Metz and attacks other cities in Gaul. 529 – First draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. 611 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul sacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico. 1141 – Empress Matilda became…
March 28 in History AD 37 – Roman emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, bestowed on him by the Senate. 193 – After assassinating the Roman Emperor Pertinax, his Praetorian Guards auction off the throne to Didius Julianus. 364 – Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor. 1566 – The foundation stone of Valletta, Malta’s capital…
March 27 in History 1309 – Pope Clement V imposes excommunication and interdiction on Venice, and a general prohibition of all commercial intercourse with Venice, which had seized on Ferrara, a papal fiefdom. 1329 – Pope John XXII issues his In Agro Dominico condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical. 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce…
March 17 in History 45 BC – In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda. 180 – Commodus becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire at the age of eighteen, following the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius. 455 – Petronius Maximus becomes, with support of the Roman…
March 12 in History 538 – Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius. 1622 – Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus, are canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. 1689 – James II of England landed at Kinsale,…