AncientPages.com – On February 1, 1662, the Chinese general Koxinga seized the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege. Koxinga (1624-1662) was a Chinese military leader widely regarded as a pioneer and freedom fighter. Some consider him an army pirate. Zheng Chenggong

AncientPages.com – Reginald Walter Bonham was born on January 31, 1906, in St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, England. Bonham was the most famous British blind player ever. He was known for his extraordinary achievements in both blind and sighted chess. Like others in his

AncientPages.com – On January 30, 1972, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, British Army paratroopers shot 26 unarmed civilians, all Northern Catholics, during a protest march against internment. This tragic event – during which the soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters

AncientPages.com – On January 29-30, 1943, the naval Battle of Rennell Island was fought off Guadalcanal. It was the last major naval clash between U.S. and Japanese forces during the Guadalcanal campaign of World War II. The US Navy heavy cruiser USS Chicago (CA-29)

AncientPages.com – On January 28, 1858, Eugène Dubois was born in Eijsden, Netherlands. Dubois – a Dutch anatomist, geologist, anthropologist, and paleontologist was famous for having discovered remains of Java man. Two social species at Dmanisi. (a) altruistic behaviour of

AncientPages.com – On January 27, 1593, the Vatican began a seven-year trial against an Italian Dominican cleric, Giordano Bruno. Bruno was born in Nola, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, in 1548, and at the age of 17, he joined the

AncientPages.com – On January 26, 1500, Brazil was discovered by Vicente Yañez Pinzóñ, a Spanish explorer who had once sailed with Columbus. Interestingly, by that date, Brazil was already considered a Portuguese possession. Following the ruling of a previous pope, all

 AncientPages.com – On January 25, 1905, a 3,106-carat diamond was discovered during a routine inspection at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa. The diamond, weighing 1.33 pounds, was named the “Cullinan” (after Sir Thomas Cullinan, who owned the mine)

AncientPages.com – On January 24, 1965, Britain’s greatest war-time leader Winston Churchill died in London. Born at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, in 1874, Churchill joined the British Fourth Hussars, after his father’s death in 1895. He did not succeed very well

AncientPages.com – On January 23, 1909, a telegraphed distress call came in from the captain of the ocean liner RMS Republic, which in dense fog, collided with an Italian ship,” Florida,” and began to sink. The nearby Nantucket station relaid the

AncientPages.com – On January 22, 1506, a group of 150 Swiss mercenaries led by their Captain Kaspar of Silenen in the Canton of Uri entered the Vatican for the first time through the “Porta del Popolo.” Pope Julius II blessed

AncientPages.com – On January 21, 1793, King Louis XVI was executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris. It happened one day after the king was convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers. The French National Convention sentenced him

AncientPages.com – On January 20, 1569, Myles Coverdale who printed the first English Bible -died. Coverdale was a clergyman and Classics scholar who produced the first complete printed English Bible.  He was probably born in Yorkshire in 1488, but little

AncientPages.com – On January 18, 1778,  Captain James Cook, the English explorer, became the first European to discover the Hawaiian Islands. He arrived on the Islands on his third voyage to the Pacific. Commanding the Resolution and Discovery on a mission

AncientPages.com – On January 17, 1781, the Battle of Cowpens took place just north of the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. The American forces were led by Daniel Morgan, an experienced Brigadier General who participated in other battles such as the