1276   Pope Innocent V (died) (born 1225) 1633   The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe in the form he presented it in, after heated controversy. 1767    Wilhelm von Humboldt (born), German philosopher and diplomat (died 1835) 1783   A… Continue reading →

217 BC The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene. 533     A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily. 1002   Pope Leo IX (born) (died 1054) 1305   Wenceslaus II of Bohemia (died) (born 1271)… Continue reading →

1214    The University of Oxford receives its charter. 1469   Gian Galeazzo Sforza (born), Italian husband of Isabella of Naples (died 1494) 1733   Betty Washington Lewis (born), American sister of George Washington (died 1797) 1756    A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta. 1761    Jacob Hübner (born), German entomologist and author (died 1826)… Continue reading →

1269   King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver. 1566   James VI and I of England (born) (died 1625) 1586   English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in North America. 1623   Blaise Pascal (born),… Continue reading →

1178    Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon’s distance from the Earth (on the order of meters) are a result of this collision. 1429   French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under… Continue reading →