1158      Vladislav II becomes King of Bohemia. 1569      First recorded lottery in England. 1571       Austrian nobility is granted freedom of religion. 1693      Mount Etna erupts in Sicily, Italy. A powerful earthquake destroys parts of Sicily and Malta. 1755      Alexander Hamilton (born), Nevisian-American economist, politician, and philosopher, 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury (died 1804)… Continue reading →

49 BC     Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war. 9              The Western Han Dynasty ends when Wang Mang claims that the divine Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the dynasty and the beginning of his own, the Xin Dynasty. 1628       George Villiers (born), 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English politician… Continue reading →

1324      Marco Polo (died), Italian merchant and explorer (born 1254) 1349      The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, is rounded up and incinerated. 1431       Judges’ investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation… Continue reading →

871         Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings. 1297       François Grimaldi, disguised as monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco. 1455       The Romanus Pontifex is written. 1456       Lawrence Justinian (died), Italian bishop… Continue reading →

1502      Pope Gregory XIII (born) (died 1585) 1536      Catherine of Aragon (died) (b. 1485) 1558      France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England. 1598      Boris Godunov becomes Czar of Russia. 1608      Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia. 1610      Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he… Continue reading →