On This Day In History Archive
Historical Figures
AncientPages.com - On January 7, 1131, Canute Lavard (Danish: Knud Lavard) (1096 - 1131) was killed by his cousin Magnus I of Sweden, who saw him as a
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AncientPages.com - On January 6, 1852, died Louis Braille, creator of the Braille Alphabet For Blind People. Braille was a French teacher who devoted his life to developing and
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AncientPages.com - On 5 January 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported a discovery of a new type of radiation known today as X-rays. Wilhelm Roentgen, a German professor of physics,
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AncientPages.com - On January 4, 871 AD, the Danes surprised the people of Wessex by arriving on horseback in a lightning raid that swiftly took the town of Reading.
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AncientPages.com - On January 3, 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Using the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, Pope Leo X cast Luther out of the
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AncientPages.com - On January 2, 1920, Isaac Asimov, a science fiction creator, was born. He grew up in New York, but during his two decades in Boston, he achieved
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AncientPages.com - On January 1, 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi (1746-1846), a Catholic priest at the Academy of Palermo, Sicily discovered a faint, distant object, correctly believing it to lie in
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AncientPages.com - On December 31, 870, the Battle of Englefield was fought between the Saxons and the invading Danelaw Vikings. It marks the opening of the bitter struggle between the
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AncientPages.com - On December 30, 1924, American astronomer Edwin Hubble announced that there are other galaxies in the cosmos. Our home galaxy Milky Way is not alone; it has
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AncientPages.com - On 28 Dec 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière brothers presented their first film in Paris. The Lumière brothers, Auguste (1862 -1954) and Louis Jean (1864 -
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AncientPages.com - On December 27, 1571, Johannes Kepler, 'Father of Modern Astronomy,' was born. His three fundamental statements about planetary motion represent his work, which he based on
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AncientPages.com - On December 27, 1571, Johannes Kepler, ‘Father of Modern Astronomy’ was born. His three fundamental statements about planetary motion represent his work, which he based on detailed
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AncientPages.com - On December 26, 1606, William Shakespeare performed his play 'King Lear' before the court of King James I at Whitehall Palace. Shakespeare's friend and noted fellow actor,
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AncientPages.com - On Christmas Day, December 25, 1950, four young Scots retrieved the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey. Used as the Coronation Stone of the Scottish kings
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AncientPages.com - On December 24, 1165, William I, the second son of Henry of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon, succeeded his brother Malcolm IV as King of Scotland. He was
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Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - Yohl Ik'nal was the queen of the Maya city-state of Palenque, who ruled until she died in 604. She was also known as Lady
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AncientPages.com - On December 22, 1911, Grote Reber, amateur astronomer and radio engineer, was born in Chicago. He was a ham radio operator, studied radio engineering, and worked
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AncientPages.com - On December 21, 1872, the HMS Challenger sailed from Portsmouth, England, in the first scientific voyage, which would last almost three and a half years. This
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AncientPages.com - On December 20, 1963, two years after the beginning of the construction of the Berlin Wall, 4,000 West Berlin citizens were allowed to visit their relatives
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AncientPages.com - On December 19, 1154, Henry II (also known as Henry Curtmantle) was crowned King of England. Henry II was born in 1133 in France and was the
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AncientPages.com - On December 18, 1888, the Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde, Colorado, was discovered by rancher Richard Wetherill (1858- 1910) and his brother-in-law Charlie Mason, who was
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AncientPages.com - On December 17, 1790, the Sun Stone (Stone of the Five Eras), sometimes called the Aztec calendar stone, was rediscovered during repairs in Mexico City. The
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AncientPages.com - On December 16, 1707, Mount Fuji - Japan’s tallest mountain, erupted. It was the last confirmed eruption of Mount Fuji, the highest volcano and highest peak in
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AncientPages.com - On December 15, 1612, Simon Marius (1573 - 1624), a mathematician and astronomer, independently rediscovered the "Nebula in the Girdle of Andromeda," actually the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).
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AncientPages.com - On December 14, 1883, Ueshiba Morihei - the 'Founder of Aikido,' was born in Nishinotani village (now part of Tanabe), Japan. Until he died in 1969 at
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AncientPages.com - On December 13, 1577, Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth with a five-ship flotilla on the dangerous path that killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan 50 years earlier.
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AncientPages.com - On Dec 12, 627 AD, the Battle of Nineveh was fought between the forces of the Byzantine Empire, under Emperor Heraclius, and those of the Sassanid Persian
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AncientPages.com - On December 11, 1792, King Louis XVI of France was put on trial for treason by the National Convention. Louis XVI (also known as Louis Capet)
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AncientPages.com - On December 9, 1824, the Battle of Ayacucho was fought on the high plateau near Ayacucho, Peru. It was one of the Latin-American wars of independence, and
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AncientPages.com - On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is considered the world’s
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AncientPages.com - On December 8, 1542, Mary Queen of Scots was born. She represents one of history's true enigmas. Historians know plenty about what she did and where she
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AncientPages.com - On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy conducted a surprise military strike against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack was
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AncientPages.com - On December 6, 1214, King Alexander II was crowned at Scone. Scone is a village or a suburb of Perth and Kinross in the center of Scotland.
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AncientPages.com - On December 5, 771, Charlemagne became the King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman. Charlemagne, son of King Pepin the Short, succeeded
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AncientPages.com - On December 4, 1154, the only English Pope in the whole history of the Catholic Church was elected from 1154 to 1159. His birth name was
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