February 7 in History 457 – Leo I the Thracian becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 987 – Bardas Phokas the Younger and Bardas Skleros, Byzantine generals of the military elite, begin a wide-scale rebellion against Emperor Basil II. 1301 – Edward of Caernarvon (later king Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of…
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 1 in History 1327 – The teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. 1411 – The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn (Toruń), Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (Prussia). 1662 – The Chinese…
January 25 in History AD 41 – After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate. 750 – In the Battle of the Zab, the Abbasid rebels defeat the Umayyad Caliphate, leading to overthrow of the dynasty. 1348 – A strong earthquake strikes the South Alpine region of Friuli in modern Italy,…
January 24 in History AD 41 – Claudius is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the Praetorian Guard after they assassinate the previous emperor, his nephew Caligula. 914 – Start of the First Fatimid invasion of Egypt. 1438 – The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV. 1458 – Matthias Corvinus is elected King of Hungary. 1536 – King Henry…
January 22 in History 613 – Eight-month-old Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople. 871 – Battle of Basing: The West Saxons led by King Æthelred I are defeated by the Danelaw Vikings at Basing. 1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican. 1517 – The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures…
January 21 in History 763 – Following the Battle of Bakhamra between Alids and Abbasids near Kufa, the Alid rebellion ends with the death of Ibrahim, brother of Isa ibn Musa. 1525 – The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others…
January 13 in History 532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I. 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope…
January 5 in History 1477 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is defeated and killed in a conflict with René II, Duke of Lorraine; the Burgundy subsequently becomes part of France. 1675 – Battle of Colmar: The French army beats Brandenburg. 1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the…
January 3 in History 250 – Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. 1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. 1653 – By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.…