Archives for: May 2013
May 31
May 31st
1433 - Sigismund was crowned emperor of Rome. 1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act passed by the U.S. Congress. 1859 - The Philadelphia Athletics were formally organized to play the game of Town Ball. 1859 - In London, Big Ben went into operation. The… more »
May 30
May 30th
1416 - Jerome of Prague was burned as a heretic by the Church. 1431 - Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at the age of 19. 1527 - The University of Marburg was founded in Germany. 1539 - Hernando de Soto, the Spanish explorer,… more »
May 29
May 29th
1453 - Constantinople fell to Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, ending the Byzantine Empire. 1660 - Charles II was restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth. 1721 - South Carolina was formally incorporated as a royal colony. 1765 -… more »
May 28
May 28th
585 BC - Thales Miletus predicted a solar eclipse. 585BC - The Persian-Lydian battle ended. 1533 - England's Archbishop declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid. 1774 - The First Continental Congress convened in Virginia. … more »
May 27
May 27th
1647 - Achsah Young, a resident of Windsor, CT, was executed for being a "witch." It was the first recorded American execution of a "witch." 1668 - Three colonists were expelled from Massachusetts for being Baptists. 1813 - Americans captured Fort… more »
May 26
May 26th
0017 - Germanicus of Rome celebrated his victory over the Germans. 1328 - William of Ockham was forced to flee from Avignon by Pope John XXII. 1521 - Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings. … more »
May 25
May 25th
585 BC - The first known prediction of a solar eclipse was made in Greece. 1085 - Alfonso VI took Toledo, Spain from the Moslems. 1787 - The Constitutional convention opened in Philadelphia with George Washington presiding. 1810 - Argentina… more »
May 24
May 24th
1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus published proof of a sun-centered solar system. 1607 - Captain Christopher Newport and 105 followers found the colony of Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the coast of Virginia. 1610 - Sir Thomas Gates… more »
May 23
May 23rd
1430 - Joan of Arc was captured by Burgundians. She was then sold to the English. 1533 - Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was declared null and void. 1618 - The Thirty Years War began when three opponents of the Reformation were thrown… more »
May 22
May 22nd
1246 - Henry Raspe was elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France. 1455 - King Henry VI was taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses. 1570 - Abraham Ortelius published the first modern atlas in… more »
May 21
May 21st
0996 - Sixteen year old Otto III was crowned the Roman Emperor. 1471 - King Henry VI was killed in the tower of London. Edward IV took the throne. 1536 - The Reformation was officially adopted in Geneva, Switzerland. 1542 - Hernando de Soto died… more »
May 20
May 20th
0325 - The Ecumenical council was inaugurated by Emperor Constantine in Nicea, Asia Minor. 1303 - A peace treaty was signed between England and France over the town of Gascony. 1347 - Cola di Rienzo took the title of tribune in Rome. 1506 - In… more »
May 19
May 19th
1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail for North America. 1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded after she was convicted of adultery. 1568 - After being defeated by the Protestants, Mary the Queen of… more »
May 18
May 18th
1302 - The weaver Peter de Coningk led a massacre of the Flemish oligarchs. 1642 - Montreal, Canada, was founded. 1643 - Queen Anne, the widow of Louis XIII, was granted sole and absolute power as regent by the Paris parliament, overriding the late… more »
May 17
May 17th
1540 - Afghan chief Sher Khan defeated Mongul Emperor Humayun at Kanauj. 1630 - Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi saw the belts on Jupiter's surface. 1681 - Louis XIV sent an expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declares war on Fr… more »
May 16
May 16th
1770 - Marie Antoinette, at age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15. 1866 - The U.S. Congress authorized the first 5-cent piece to be minted. 1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted during the Senate impeachment, b… more »
May 15
May 15th
1602 - Cape Cod was discovered by Bartholomew Gosnold. 1614 - An aristocratic uprising in France ended with the treaty of St.Menehould. 1618 - Johannes Kepler discovered his harmonics law. 1702 - The War of Spanish Succession began. 1768 - Under… more »
May 14
May 14th
1264 - King Henry III was captured by his brother in law Simon deMontfort at the Battle of Lewes in France. 1509 - In the Battle of Agnadello, French defeated Venitians in Northern Italy. 1610 - French King Henri IV (Henri de Navarre) was… more »
May 13
May 13th
1607 - Jamestown, Virginia, was settled as a colony of England. 1648 - Margaret Jones of Plymouth was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be hanged by the neck. 1779 - The War of Bavarian Succession ended. 1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip… more »
May 12
May 12th
1588 - King Henry III fled Paris after Henry of Guise triumphantly entered the city. 1780 - Charleston, South Carolina fell to British forces. 1831 - Edward Smith became the first indicted bank robber in the U.S. 1847 - William Clayton invented… more »
May 11
May 11th
0330 - Constantinople, previously the town of Byzantium, was founded. 1573 - Henry of Anjou became the first elected king of Poland. 1647 - Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor. 1689 - French and English naval battle takes… more »
May 10
May 10th
1503 - Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman Islands. 1676 - Bacon's Rebellion, which pits frontiersmen against the government, began. 1768 - The imprisonment of the journalist John Wilkes as an outlaw provoked violence in London. Wilkes was… more »
May 9
May 9th
1429 - Joan of Arc defeated the besieging English at Orleans. 1502 - Christopher Columbus left Spain for his final trip to the Western Hemisphere. 1671 - Thomas "Captain" Blood stole the crown jewels from the Tower of London. 1754 - The first… more »
May 8
May 8th
1096 - Peter the Hermit and his army reached Hungary. They passed through without incident. 1450 - Jack Cade's Rebellion-Kentishmen revolted against King Henry VI. 1541 - Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River. He called it Rio de Espiritu… more »
May 7
May 7th
0558 - The dome of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. It was immediately rebuilt as ordered by Justinian. 1274 - The Second Council of Lyons opened in France to regulate the election of the pope. 1429 - The English siege of… more »
May 6
May 6th
1527 - German troops began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance. 1529 - Babur defeated the Afghan Chiefs in the Battle of Ghagra, India. 1576 - The peace treaty of Chastenoy ended the fifth war of religion. 1682 - King Louis XIV… more »
May 5
May 5th
1494 - Christopher Columbus sighted Jamaica on his second trip to the Western Hemisphere. He named the island Santa Gloria. 1798 - U.S. Secretary of War William McHenry ordered that the USS Constitution be made ready for sea. The frigate was launched… more »
May 4
May 4th
1471 - In England, the Yorkists defeated the Landcastrians at the battle of Tewkesbury in the War of the Roses. 1493 - Alexander VI divided non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal. 1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on Manhattan… more »
May 3
May 3rd
1568 - French forces in Florida slaughtered hundreds of Spanish. 1802 - Washington, DC, was incorporated as a city. 1855 - Macon B. Allen became the first African American to be admitted to the Bar in Massachusetts. 1859 - France declared war on… more »
