On This Day in History: March 19 In 1077 the Norman monk Gundulf was consecrated as Bishop of Rochester. As chief engineer to William the Conqueror, he later oversaw the construction of Rochester Castle and the White Tower of the Tower of London. In 1644, when the dynasty was near its collapse, 200 members of…
Tag: important dates
Historical Events on March 17
On This Day in History: March 17 In 432, at the age of about 16, St. Patrick was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Great Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland (traditional date). In 1580, Prince William I of Orange was welcomed in Amsterdam. In 1762, New York City hosted its…
Historical Events on March 16
On This Day in History: March 16 In 1079 Iran adopted the Solar Hijri calendar, which is still in use today. In 1322, the Battle of Boroughbridge took place during the First War of Scottish Independence. In 1527, the Mughal army led by Babur defeated the Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sanga in the Battle…
Historical Events on March 14
On This Day in History: March 14 In 1590, King Henry IV of France defeated the Catholic League at the Battle of Ivry during the French Wars of Religion. In 1743, the first American town meeting was held at Boston’s Faneuil Hall. In 1812, the US Congress approved war bonds to finance the War of…
Historical Events on March 12
On This Day in History: March 12 In 1054 Pope Leo IX escaped from prison and returned to Rome and resumed his papacy. In 1455, the first mention of Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible appeared in a letter from Enea Silvio Piccolomini, mentioning its printing the year before. In 1594, Dutch merchants in Amsterdam founded the Company…
Historical Events on March 9
On This Day in History: March 9 In 1522, Martin Luther began delivering his Invocavit sermons in Wittenberg, in which he urged citizens to rely on God’s word rather than violence, helping to end the revolutionary phase of the Reformation. In 1562, Naples imposed a strict ban on kissing in public, with violations punishable by…
Historical Events on March 7
On This Day in History: March 7 In 161, the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius died, and for the first time in the empire’s history, co-emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus assumed power jointly, beginning an unprecedented political arrangement. In 1530, Pope Clement VII rejected King Henry VIII’s request for a divorce, paving the way for…
Historical Events on March 5
On This Day in History: March 5 In 1496, King Henry VII of England issued a royal commission to John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), giving him authority to discover and claim new territories on behalf of the English Crown. This was a pivotal moment in the Age of Exploration, as Cabot’s voyages later contributed to England’s…
Historical Events on Feb 28
On This Day in History: February 28 On this day in 1700, Sweden adopted the Swedish calendar, which skipped February 29 and went straight to March 1. In 1704, a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts resulted in 40 people being killed and 100 others being captured by Indigenous forces. In 1832, Charles Darwin arrived in Salvador,…
Historical Events on Feb 27
On This Day in History: February 27 On this day in 1623, the tragic Amboyna Massacre took place, when the Dutch killed ten Englishmen, ten Japanese and one Portuguese, accusing them of plotting to take over their fort on the island of Ambon, now part of modern-day Indonesia. In 1678, the Earl of Shaftesbury was…