June 5 in History 1257 – Kraków, in Poland, receives city rights. 1283 – Battle of the Gulf of Naples: Roger of Lauria, admiral to King Peter III of Aragon, destroys the Neapolitan fleet and captures Charles of Salerno. 1288 – The Battle of Worringen ends the War of the Limburg Succession,…
June 4 in History 1411 – King Charles VI granted a monopoly for the ripening of Roquefort cheese to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon as they had been doing for centuries. 1561 – The steeple of St Paul’s, the medieval cathedral of London, is destroyed in a fire caused by lightning and…
May 25 in History 567 BC – Servius Tullius, the king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victory over the Etruscans. 240 BC – First recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet. 1085 – Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo,…
May 20 in History 325 – The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church. 491 – Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery. 685 – The Battle of Dun Nechtain is…
May 18 in History 332 – Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople. 872 – Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of 47. His first coronation was 28 years earlier, in…
May 16 in History 946 – Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan. 1204 – Having been elected on May 9, Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire. 1426 – Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes king of Ava. 1527 –…
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…
This day marks the approximate midpoint of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere (starting the season at the March equinox). May 5 in History 553 – The Second Council of Constantinople begins 1215 – Rebel barons renounce…
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 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…