This day in 1356 marked the Battle of Poitiers in France during the Hundred Yearsâ War. It is interesting to note that the British even captured John II of France or John the Good (French: Jean le Bon), who was monarch of the House of Valois. At the...
On this day in, Hu Jintao became the new Chinese leader. The previous Chinese president Jiang Zemin resigned as the Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China. Hu Jintao became the fifth Chinese leader (after Mao Zedo...
The powerful Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the USA in 1959, during the Cold War. The visit lasted 13 days. Earlier this year, when the U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon visited Moscow, invited Khrushchev to visit the USA. Khrushchev flew to...
The emoticons đ and đ were used for the first time on this day in 1982 (the first documented case). Scott Fahlman, who was a scientist (Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh), proposed the use of these emoticons in order to differentiate humor...
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, a member of probably the richest family in world history, died on this day. He died in Frankfurt am Main, where he had been born 68 years earlier. The generations of the Rothschilds had lived in the âJudengasseâ, the Jewish...
U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died under mysterious circumstances on this day in 1961. It has remained unknown what caused the crash of his plane in Africa. That was a peacekeeping mission due to the riots in Katanga. His plane should have...
Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, the man who was to become the 254th Pope in 1831, was born on this day in 1765. As Pope, he took the name Gregory XVI and remains the last pope who took that name. He was born in the town of Belluno in the Italian Alps....
The TV network currently known as the CBS started broadcasting on this day in 1927. Today it is the largest TV network in America, and the second largest in the world (after the British BBC). The CBS started out as a radio network because TV was not...
Arnold Schwarzenegger's first son, Patrick, was born on this day in 1993. His mother was Maria Shriver, a well-known member of the Kennedy family (John F. Kennedy was her uncle, as were senators Robert and Edward Kennedy). Naturally, the Kennedy fami...
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (also known as Baron von Steuben), one of the Germans who helped the USA gain independence, was born on this day in 1730. He was born in the German city of Magdeburg, and became a Prussian military officer. He held the r...
On this day in 1930, Thomas P. Stafford was born. He became the first person who held the rank of general and was launched into space (the Apollo-Soyuz mission, 1975). At the time, he served as Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Air Force. Thomas P....
Nazi Germany planned to invade Britain, and that plan is also known as Operation Sea Lion (German: Unternehmen Seelöwe). They planned to land on the coast of England, the part of England closest to France. The SS planned to arrest 2,700 people. They...
The first African American Miss America, Vanessa Williams, won the competition on this day in 1983. She became a famous singer and actress. Vanessa played her first major role in the film Eraser, with Arnold Schwarzenegger. She also starred in Desper...
On this day in 1908, U.S. Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, the first victim of a plane crash in history, died. The 26-year-old member of the U.S. Army died when the plane of the Wright brothers crashed. The plane was piloted by Orville Wright, and had tw...
The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer was first signed on this day in 1987. About 197 countries signed the protocol (during the 25-year period). Some people consider it the most successful international agreement regarding...
Mikhail Kutuzov, the Commander-in-Chief who played an important role during the Napoleonic Wars, was born on this day in 1745. Kutuzov reached the rank of the Russian Field Marshal, and became famous for his role in the Battle of Borodino, where he c...
On this day in 1975, Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia. Today, this country has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Its linguistic and cultural diversity is particularly interesting. Namely, more than 800 languages ar...
On this day in 1620 the famed Mayflower set sail, taking the mostly English colonists to the North American coast. The Mayflower has an almost mythical significance regarding the creation of the United States of America because it has become symbolic...
German admiral Karl Dönitz was born on this day in 1891. He is notable for being the man who Adolf Hitler appointed as his successor in his will. Namely, just before he committed suicide in his Berlin bunker, Hitler dictated his will, in which he nam...
This day in 1613 marked the birth of François de La Rochefoucauld, the famous French writer of aristocratic origin. He had extraordinarily high status among the French nobility, because he was a member of one of the most prominent French aristocratic...
The first public school in Europe was opened in the Italian town of Frascati on this day in 1616. Only noble familiesâ children and future priests attended the schools which had been opened before that. The school opened in Frascati was a public scho...
The United States Department of State was established on this day in 1789, and it is something akin to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United States. This institution had been originally named âDepartment of Foreign Affairsâ, and its name was...
This day in 1968 marked the death of Servant of God Joseph Kentenich, the Catholic priest who founded the famous Schönstatt Movement. This Marian Movement is present in many countries around the world (approximately 42 countries). It was named after...
The largest bankruptcy in the U.S. history took place on this day in 2008. This day marked the bankruptcy of the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank. The Lehman Brothers, the immigrants from Bavaria, founded the company in 1850. Their bank became one...
The Maronite Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel was assassinated on this day in 1982, when a bomb exploded in Beirut. He was killed just three weeks after he had been elected president, before even taking the oath. The Gemayel family is a very influen...
On this day in 1814, the national anthem of the United States was written. It is the work of an amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, who was inspired by the American defense of the Fort McHenry in Maryland. "Defence of Fort M'Henry" was original name of...
On this day in 1954, the Soviet Union conducted one of the most controversial nuclear tests in history. In order to study the effects of a nuclear attack (on people), they threw a nuclear bomb near the place where unprotected Soviet soldiers and offi...
This day in 1321 marked the death of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. He was born in the city of Florence, the central point of Italian history and culture at the time. But Dante was exiled from Florence, and spent his last years in exile (about 20...
