1519     Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration. 1602     The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is opened to the public. 1656     Edmond Halley (born), English astronomer and mathematician (died 1742) 1837     Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later becomes Mount Holyoke College. 1847     Bram… Continue reading →

1665     The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published. 1687     William Stukeley (born), English antiquarian (died 1765) 1775     John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, starts the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America by issuing Lord Dunmore’s Offer of Emancipation, offering freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial… Continue reading →

1494     Suleiman the Magnificent (born), Ottoman sultan (died 1566) 1528     Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the known European to set foot in Texas. 1851     Charles Dow (born), American journalist and economist (died 1902) 1854     John Philip Sousa (born), American composer (died 1932) 1855     E. S. Gosney (born), American philanthropist and eugenicist,… Continue reading →

1605    The arrest of Guy Fawkes, found during a search of the Palace of Westminster, foils Robert Catesby’s plot to destroy the House of Lords and all within it. 1831     Nat Turner, American slave leader, is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Virginia. 1855    Eugene V. Debs (born), American politician (died 1926) 1872    In… Continue reading →

1429     Joan of Arc liberates Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier. 1501     Catherine of Aragon (later Henry VIII’s first wife) meets Arthur Tudor, Henry VIII’s older brother – they would later marry. 1783     Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria. 1791     The Western Confederacy of American Indians wins a major victory over the United States in… Continue reading →