April 19 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

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 15 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

April 15 in History 769 – The Lateran Council condemned the Council of Hieria and anathematized its iconoclastic rulings. 1071 – Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to Robert Guiscard. 1395 – Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde at the Battle of the Terek River. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, is razed to the ground and Timur…

April 10 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

April 10 in History 428 – Nestorius becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople. 837 – Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles). 1407 – Deshin Shekpa, 5th Karmapa Lama visits the Ming dynasty capital at Nanjing. He is awarded the title “Great Treasure Prince of…

April 7 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

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 30 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

March 30 in History 598 – Balkan Campaign: The Avars lift the siege at the Byzantine stronghold of Tomis. Their leader Bayan I retreats north of the Danube River after the Avaro-Slavic hordes are decimated by the plague. 1282 – The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers. 1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed…

March 22 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

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…

February 26 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

February 26 in History 747 BC – Epoch (origin) of Ptolemy’s Nabonassar Era. 364 – Valentinian I is proclaimed Roman emperor 1233 – Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols capture Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty, after besieging it for months. 1266 – Battle of Benevento: An army led by Charles, Count of Anjou, defeats a combined German and Sicilian force…