Today In History
Today In History
Wednesday - May 22nd
It is day 142 of the year 2013, and there are 223 days left...
Famous People Born On This Day In History...
| 1828, | Albrecht Grafe, pioneer eye surgeon, founded modern ophthalmology.
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| 1859, | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, brought Sherlock Holmes to life (twice).
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| 1874, | Dr Daniel François Malan, architect of South Africa’s apartheid policy, which he introduced when he became Premier in 1948. He first instituted the Group Areas Act which divided the country into separate residential areas for different races, black and white.
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| 1880, | Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, South African mining industrialist and philanthropist who formed the Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa in 1917 which by the 1950s controlled 95 per cent of the world’s diamond industry.
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| 1907, | Laurence Olivier, actor.
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| 1920, | Thomas Gold, astronomer, established the steady-state theory of the universe.
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| 1943, | Betty Williams, Northern Irish peace campaigner and joint Nobel prize winner with Mairead Corrigan, founder of the Ulster Peace Movement.
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Events On This Day In History...
| 600, | (B.C. Again), The lucky rabbits foot is first used. (I'll bet the rabbit didn't feel so lucky!).
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| 0337, | Death of Constantine "the Great"
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| 1200, | Treaty of LeGoulet
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| 1216, | French invasion troops land in England
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| 1246, | Henry Raspe elected King of Germany
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| 1308, | INVERURIE
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| 1455, | FIRST ST. ALBANS (York defeats Lancaster) (Wars of the Roses)
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| 1455, | The Lancastrians defeated the Yorkists in the first battle in the War of the Roses, at St Albans.
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| 1457, | Death of St. Rita
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| 1471, | Murder of Henry VI in the tower of London
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| 1499, | CALVEN GORGE (Swiss victory)
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| 1509, | Death of Henry VII Tudor, King of England
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| 1511, | Bologna captured by the French
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| 1526, | Holy League of Cognac; Francis I repudiates Treaty of Madrid
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| 1542, | Council of Trent summoned by Pope Paul III
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| 1570, | Abraham Ortelius publishes first uniform Atlas, the
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| 1611, | First English Baronet (Bacon) created by James I, King of
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| 1621, | 1st wedding in New England, future Gov. Edward Winslow &
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| 1795, | The Scottish explorer, Mungo Park, set sail on his first voyage to Africa which he would relate in his book Travels in the Interior of Africa.
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| 1807, | Townsend Speakman begins making and selling fruit-flavored carbonated drinks - in Philadelphia.
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| 1908, | The Wright brothers patented their flying machine, and the following year, on 23 May, the British Aeronautical Society presented them with its gold medal for achievement.
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| 1915, | The worst rail disaster in Britain took place when a troop train collided with a passenger train at Gretna Green in Scotland, killing 227 people.
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| 1927, | The world’s first ‘open plan’ zoo, Whipsnade, opened in Bedfordshire.
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| 1972, | Richard Nixon became the first US President to visit Russia, where he signed a pact with Leonid Brezhnev to reduce the risk of military confrontation. This day, one year later, Nixon admitted the Watergate cover-up by the White House following the Senate Select committee’s hearings which began on the 17th. (On 30 May 1975, he was warned he could be impeached for not surrendering the Watergate tapes.)
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| 1990, | New Zealand yacht Steinlager 2, captained by Peter Blake, won the Whitbread Round the World Race. New Zealanders also came second and third.
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See the Timeline for Wales
| | |
| 55BC | Caesar's first invasion of Britain |
| 0AD | Nothing special happened |
| 50 | |
| 61 | Romans invade Wales, massacre Druids at Anglesey |
| 100 | |
| 127 | Hadrian's Wall is completed (for the first time) |
| 150 | |
| 166 | First church built at Glastonbury |
| 200 | |
| 208 | Hadrian's Wall is rebuilt (again) |
| 250 | |
| 300 | |
| 304 | Martydom of St. Albans |
| 350 | |
| 400 | |
| 410 | Roman legions withdrawn after Goths sack Rome |
| | |
| 450 | First wave of Angle, Saxon and Jute invasions |
| 500 | |
| 518 | The British defeat the Saxons at Mount Badon |
| 550 | The Anglian Kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria are founded |
| 600 | |
| 607 | The first St. Paul's church is built in London |
| 620 | Edwin, king of Northumbria subdues Isle of Man |
| 627 | Sutton Hoo burial takes place |
| 650 | |
| 664 | Synod of Whitby |
| 700 | |
| 715 | Beowulf is composed |
| 731 | Bede completes his history of the English |
| 750 | |
| 760 | Book of Kells is composed |
| 779 | Offa of Mercia defeats the West Saxons at Benson |
| 800 | Charlemagne is crowned Pope |
| 850 | |
| 878 | Alfred the Great defeats Guthrun, Danelaw is established |
| 900 | |
| 939 | Edmund I starts reign |
| 950 | |
| 991 | Danes defeat the English at Maldon |
| 1000 | |
| 1016 | King Cnut to throne |
| 1050 | |
| | |
| 1071 | William I defeats Hereward the Wake |
| 1078 | Willliam I begins the Tower of London |
| 1100 | Henry I to throne |
| 1110 | Earliest known miracle play at Dunstable |
| 1150 | |
| 1154 | Henry II to throne |
| 1162 | Thomas Becket becomes Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1189 | Richard I to throne |
| 1190 | Jews massacred in York |
| 1199 | King John to throne |
| 1200 | |
| 1215 | Magna Carta |
| 1250 | |
| 1265 | Edward kills de Montfort at Evesham |
| 1271 | Marco Polo to China |
| 1297 | William Wallace defeats Scots at Dunbar |
| 1300 | |
| 1307 | Edward II to throne |
| 1314 | Robert defeats Edward at Bannockburn |
| 1347 | Start of Hundred Years War |
| 1350 | |
| 1381 | Peasants Revolt |
| 1390 | Chaucer complete Canterbury Tales |
| 1400 | Owain Glyndwr begins war of independence in Wales |
| 1413 | Henry V to throne |
| 1431 | Joan of Arc is burned in Rome |
| 1450 | |
| 1453 | End of Hundred Years War |
| 1453 | Gutenberg prints first bible |
| 1455 | Wars of the Roses begins |
| 1471 | Edward IV victory at Tewkesbury |
| 1483 | Richard III to throne |
| | |
| 1485 | Henry VII to throne |
| 1492 | Columbus arrives at America... |
| 1500 | |
| 1509 | Henry VIII to throne |
| 1517 | Martin Luther publishes 95 Theses |
| 1519 | Magellan begins circumnavigation |
| 1520 | Field of the Cloth of Gold |
| 1529 | Reformation parliament meets |
| 1543 | Copernicus publishes sun-centred theory |
| 1547 | Edward VI to throne |
| 1549 | Book of Common Prayer issued |
| 1550 | |
| 1558 | Elizabeth I to throne |
| 1566 | Tobacco introduced to England |
| 1588 | Spanish Armada |
| 1600 | East India Company is founded |
| | |
| 1603 | James I to throne |
| 1605 | Gunpowder plot |
| 1611 | Authorised Bible published |
| 1618 | Thirty Years War begins |
| 1620 | Pilgrim Fathers sail |
| 1625 | Charles I to throne |
| 1642 | English Civil War starts |
| 1650 | |
| 1658 | Death of Cromwell |
| 1660 | Charles II to throne |
| 1665 | Great Plague |
| 1700 | |
| 1704 | Marlborough wins at Blenheim |
| | |
| 1729 | Wesley founds Oxford Methodists |
| 1746 | Jacobites defeated at Culloden |
| 1750 | |
| 1756 | Seven Years War starts |
| 1769 | Watts Steam Engine, Wedgewood Etruria Works |
| 1775 | American Revolution starts |
| 1789 | French Revolution starts |
| 1796 | Jenners cowpox vaccination tested |
| 1799 | Income Tax levied (yep it's only 200 years old) |
| 1800 | |
| 1805 | Grand Junction canal completed |
| 1800 | Nelson wins and dies at Trafalgar |
| 1807 | Slave Trade abolished |
| 1815 | Napoleon finally defeated at Waterloo |
| | |
| 1837 | Victoria to throne |
| 1845 | Irish famine created |
| 1850 | |
| 1853 | Crimean War starts |
| 1861 | American Civil War starts |
| 1879 | Zulu War starts |
| 1881 | Boer War starts |
| 1895 | National Trust formed |
| | |
| 1900 | |
| 1914 | First World War starts |
| 1920 | Black and Tans are sent to Ireland |
| 1928 | Women over 21 given the vote |
| 1936 | Edward VIII to throne and abdication |
| 1936 | George VI to throne |
| 1939 | Second World War begins |
| 1950 | Korean War begins |
| 1952 | Elizabeth II to throne |
| 1959 | Vietnam War begins |
| 2000 | |
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