735AD: Death of The Venerable Bede (b.672), English historian and theologian, whose many scholarly works include the first comprehensive history of the British Isles, titled Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People).
1332: Birth of Ibn Khaldun (d.1406), the Arab polymath whose theory of business cycles and the rise and fall of nations remains foundational to any serious sociological study.
1431: In the final act from her February trial, Joan of Arc is this day burned at the stake for heresy. In the years that follow her execution, the French peasantry attribute scores of miracles to her and she is eventually canonized as Saint Jean d’Arc
1453: After a 53 day siege by the Moslem armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, the Byzantine capital of Constantinople falls to the Turks, closing the final chapter of the 1,500 years of the Roman Empire, and decisively ending the existence of Christianity in its Anatolian heartland. Ironically, the seeds of the defeat were planted by the massive depredations of the 4th Crusade some 200 years prior, when the city underwent another siege and sacking from its erstwhile Christian allies. The Ottoman Empire established this day remained a potent threat to Europe for nearly 500 years, until it was finally dismantled by the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Great War.
1541: Death of French religious reformer John Calvin (b.1509), one of the key figures of the Protestant Reformation, whose insights and writings on Christian doctrine remain the foundation of the Presbyterian and other Reformed churches. Much of his work occurred in Geneva, where his church became a center for a group of English dissidents under John Knox, among other groups dealing with the intellectual and religious ferment of the time.
1588: The Spanish Armada, a fleet of 130 ships loaded with over 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon enroute to the English Channel on a mission to invade Britain, de-throne Elizabeth I, and restore a Catholic monarchy on the island. Under King Philip II, Spain was the unquestioned superpower of its day, having grown rich exploiting the gold and silver of the New World. For its part, England had recently welcomed back the explorer and privateer Francis Drake from his circumnavigation, and between him and Sir Walter Raleigh (with an assist from the weather), the Armada was defeated.
1672: Birth of Peter the Great (d.1725). Peter the Great (1672 – 1725) began as the Tsar of Russia and eventually became the Emperor. He was the grandson of Tsar Michael Romanov and was made Tsar when he was only ten years old. He was educated by several notable intellectuals. In adulthood, Peter I was known for being very tall. Some historians believe he may have suffered from a form of epilepsy. Peter the Great decided to move the capital of Russia from Moscow to St. Petersburg. This was a massive project that required a city to be built on the Gulf of Finland. It took nearly a decade to complete and tens of thousands of people died during its production. St Petersburg remained the capital of Russia until the communist revolution in the year 1918.
1703: After capturing a Swedish fort further up the Neva River, and determined to drag sclerotic Russian leadership and society into the mainstream of the Western European world, Tsar Peter I (The Great) commissions the city of Saint Petersburg as he lays the foundation stone of the Peter and Paul Fortress on Zyachay (Hare) Island in the Neva delta. He names the new city after his patron saint, and sets in motion a development process that brings in the finest Western European architects and planners to essentially create- tabula rasa- the northernmost, and most beautiful capital city in Europe.
1759: In the opening battle of the French and Indian War, the Virginia Militia, under the leadership of 22 year old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, defeats a French surveying party in western Pennsylvania.
1819: Birth of American poet Julia Ward Howe (d.1910), who wrote the lyrics to stirring Battle Hymn of the Republic.
1846: Birth of Russian goldsmith, Peter Carl Faberge (d.1920). Known for jeweled Faberge Eggs.
1854: In a bid to kick the slavery question down the road, Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, splitting the central portion of the Louisiana Purchase into proportional slave and free territories.
1863: The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the nation’s first all-black regiment, leaves Boston to begin fighting for the Union.
1866: Death of General Winfield Scott, USA (b.1786). The old warhorse, also known as “Old Fuss and Feathers” served his country over the course of a 47 year active duty career, commanding forces in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Blackhawk War, the Second Seminole War, and for a short time after the opening guns, the War Between the States. He served 20 years as Commanding General of the United States Army (equivalent to the current Army Chief of Staff). He became a national hero after the Mexican campaign, which led to an unsuccessful run for the Presidency as a Whig in 1852. More important from his service in Mexico was his role in leading and training an entire generation of Army officers who would go on to distinguish themselves on both sides of the Civil War.
1896(a): In Moscow, the thirty year old Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov is crowned Czar Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias.
1896(b): In New York, James Dow publishes his first index of key industrial stocks, 12 companies with an index value of 40.94.
1902: The Peace of Vereeniging is signed, ending the Boer War. Southern Africa endured a century of simmering resentment beginning in 1806 when Great Britain seized the Dutch Cape Colony during the Napoleonic Wars. The native Dutch population, Afrikaners and Boers, eventually made a mass migration northward to get away from British rule and settled in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, creating the capital of Pretoria. A tenuous peace existed between the British and Dutch until diamonds and gold were discovered in the Boer lands in 1867. By 1899 increasingly deadly skirmishing broke out into open war; British forces quickly captured all major Boer cities and strategic sites, but the Boers kept fighting in a vicious guerrilla campaign. In 1901 the British shifted their strategy to a brutal search-and-destroy campaign against the guerrillas, reinforced by rounding up Boer families and holding them in concentration camps, the world’s first use of that method to control an enemy. The treaty signed this day ceded control of the Boer provinces to British military rule and established a political confederation known as the Union of South Africa.
1913: A peace treaty is signed ending the First Balkan War. The conflict aligned Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece against the Ottoman Turks in a successful attempt to separate Macedonia and Albania from Turkish control. A second Balkan war began a month later with Russian support. In response to Austrian moves designed to counter Russian influence in the region, Serbia increased its agitation against Germanic rule in favor of a pan-Slavism promoted by Russia. Strategic cooperation treaties begin to align the Great Powers into blocs. Serbia’s strategic planning for a third Balkan war looked to the summer of 1914 for its beginning.
1914: Bosnian Serb anarchist Gavrillo Princip leaves Belgrade on a conspiratorially secret 10 day journey to Sarajevo.
1916: The Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the Great War and the last naval battle conducted solely by gunfire, begins at 2:20 pm when the British Grand Fleet under Sir John Jellicoe and Vice Admiral David Beatty sights the German High Seas Fleet under Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper. Both fleets begin to maneuver to gain a firing advantage, and at 4:43 pm both sides open fire and continue the opening exchange for 55 minutes. Two British battle cruisers are destroyed in this first engagement, killing over 2000 sailors. Maneuvering and firing continues through the evening and into the next morning with a general engagement continuing throughout the next day. At 6:30 pm the German fleet executes a pre-planned disengagement back to Williamshaven. The German press exults and the British press sulks. But as with many naval battles, the difference between the bean count of ships lost and the strategic effect are inverted: German losses were 11 ships sunk, including a battleship and battle cruiser and 3,058 casualties. British losses were 14 ships sunk, including three battle cruisers and 6,784 casualties. However, because of damage sustained during the battle, on June 2nd the Germans would have only been able to sortie 10 of the participating ships against 23 available to the British. The German high command further recognized that their capability to conduct major fleet operations was now severely constrained, which led to the conscious decision to concentrate their efforts on unrestricted submarine warfare, the doctrine which did more than anything else to induce the United States to enter the war on the side of the Allied Powers.
1923: First running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans road race in Sarthe, France.
1927: In Dearborn, Michigan, last day of production of the Ford Model T, as equipment on the assembly line is changed out to produce the new Model A. The Model T was the first car to be mass-produced, beginning in 1908. With over 15,000,000 produced, it was the best-selling car in the world until surpassed by the Volkswagen Beetle in 1972.
1932: The Bonus March: a group of unemployed World War I veterans converges on Washington, DC to demand early payment of a promised bonus for their service in the Great War. The payment of Army bonuses was long established to make up for the difference in what a soldier earned in service and what he would have earned as a civilian. A 1924 law set the rates for the recently returned veterans, but for payments due of over $50, it was in the form of a note that would not come due for 20 years, in this case 1945. Over 3.6 million service certificates were issued based on this law. The financial hardship of Depression triggered an increasing number of calls for early payment of the bonuses, and as the issue gained traction in the press, more and more veterans came to Washington to back up the demands. As the veterans arrived, some with their families, they ended up creating in the low land area near the Anacostia River a plywood shantytown that became known as “Hooverville.” The group also became known as the Bonus Army as its protests grew more forceful.
1937: Opening Day of the Golden Gate Bridge, linking San Francisco with my actual hometown in Marin County.
1940: Completely overrun by the Wehrmacht, the Belgian King Leopold III capitulates to the Germans after 18 days of bitter fighting. Rather than fleeing to lead the government-in-exile, he remains in Belgium under house arrest for five years, including a forced deportation into Germany in 1944. The split between the king and his government remained bitter, even after the war ended, leading to his abdication in 1951 in favor of his son Baudouin, who reigned until his death in 1993.
1941: Three days after obliterating HMS Hood and making her way into the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck is crippled by a torpedo shot from an ancient Fairey Swordfish biplane from HMS Ark Royal, allowing the British battleships King George V and Rodney and their escorts to close the German vessel and open fire. A fierce gun duel rages for nearly two hours, after which Bismarck sinks from the combined effects of gunfire and intentional scuttling. 111 survivors are rescued by the British ships before leaving the area from a U-boat threat. The wreck of the Bismarck was discovered and documented in June of 1989 by Robert Ballard.
1953: New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 29,029 feet above sea level.
1967: After two years of PLO attacks and a continuing buildup of conventional forces along Israel’s border, King Hussein of Jordan and Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt sign a joint defense agreement. At the signing, Nasser was characteristically blunt: “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight.”
1972: President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonoid Brezhnev sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The landmark agreement limited the parties to a single fixed site (Moscow and Grand Forks, ND) and for practical purposes enshrined Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) as a viable basis for the relationship of the two nuclear superpowers. The United States withdrew from the treaty in December, 2002, per the provision requiring six months notice
1977(a): Mountaineer George Willig performs a single-handed free climb of the south tower of New York’s World Trade Center. He is arrested for trespassing and fined $1.10, a penny for each floor.
1977(b): Opening night for the space opera Star Wars.
1980: John Paul II makes the first papal visit to France since 1814.
1982: British forces on the Falklands “yomp” their way across the island to defeat Argentine defenders in the Battle of Goose Green.
1987: 19 year old German pilot Mathias Rust flies a Cessna 172 unscathed through hundreds of miles of Soviet air defenses and lands the machine in Moscow’s Red Square.
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