May 9 in History 1009 – Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy. 1271 – Ninth Crusade, Edward I of England disembarks at Acre. 1386 – England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing of the Treaty of Windsor, making it the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which…
May 6 in History 1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance. 1536 – The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish. 1536 – King Henry VIII orders English-language Bibles be placed…
May 3 in History 752 – Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico assumes the throne. 1294 – John II becomes Duke of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg. 1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties. 1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu…
April 26 in History 1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux. 1478 – The Pazzi family attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in Florence Cathedral. 1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of actual birth is unknown). 1607 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia. 1721 – A…
April 20 in History 1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII. 1453 – Three Genoese galleys and a Byzantine blockade runner fight their way through an Ottoman blockading fleet a few weeks before the fall of Constantinople. 1534 – Jacques Cartier begins his first voyage…
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…
It is the last day of the first quarter of the year. March 31 in History 307 – After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian. 1146 – Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of…
March 26 in History 590 – Emperor Maurice proclaims his son Theodosius as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1027 – Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor. 1169 – Saladin becomes the emir of Egypt. 1344 – The Siege of Algeciras, one of the first European military engagements where gunpowder was…
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 –…
February 25 in History 138 – Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius as his son, effectively making him his successor 628 – Khosrow II, the last great Shah of the Sasanian Empire (iran), is overthrown by his son Kavadh II 1336 – Four thousand defenders of Pilenai commit mass suicide rather than be taken…