On this day in 1714 Burmese King Alaungpaya was born. He was one of the most famous rulers in Burmese history. He is particularly important because he was the founder of the last ruling dynasty of Burma. His dynasty ruled Burma for over 133 years, an...
On this day in 1890 Mormon leaders issued a manifesto according to which the practice of polygamy was to be abolished within their community. Church president Wilford Woodruff was the lead author of the manifesto, and claimed to have been prompted by...
France formally occupied the territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean on this day in 1853. Today, New Caledonia is one of the most unusual “components” of France. Namely, it is the only country with the status of so-called "sui generis collect...
Politician Riccardo Illy, the member of the family who has produced coffee and its successor, was born in Trieste, Italy on this day in 1955. The founder of the family fortune was Francesco Illy, born in 1892 as a Hungarian in Timisoara (present-day...
On this day in 1883, Franklin Clarence Mars, the founder of the chocolate company “Mars”, was born. The company is one of the main manufacturers of chocolate in the world. Chocolate bars (Bounty, Twix, Mars, Snickers, Milky Way), chewing gum brands (...
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the largest Arabian monarchy in the world, was established on this day in 1932. The state was established during the rule of King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud. Namely, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud was also King of the Hejaz (where the citie...
Hungarian Baroness Emma Orczy, who later became a famous writer in the UK, was born on this day in 1865. Her birth name was Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Joseph Borbála Orczy de Orczi, and her Hungarian nickname was "Emmuska". She was born in Tarnaörs,...
On this day in 1641, a ship which carried an interesting treasure sank. This great treasure is still waiting to be discovered. It was the British ship named Merchant Royal. The weather was very bad, and the ship sank near the south coast of England....
Sigmund Freud died in exile in London on this day in 1939. He had lived there since 1938, when the Nazis had come to power in Austria. Then, he left the city of Vienna where he had spent most of his life. The Nazis were against him because he was a J...
On this day in 1938, nearly a year before the beginning of World War II, British Prime Minister Chamberlain met with German Chancellor Hitler. They tried to peacefully resolve the situation. Chamberlain was known for his compromises, and thought he w...
Father of Suleiman the Magnificent – the famous Sultan Selim I (also known as Selim the Cruel) died on this day in 1520. He doubled the Ottoman Empire after he had conquered Egypt, Palestine, Syria and part of Arabia. He received the title of Caliph...
The American politician Henry Kissinger became Secretary of State on this day in 1973, but he retained his position of the president's national security adviser. He has been the only person who held these positions. Kissinger was born in Fürth in Bav...
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, a Spanish conquistador who had travelled through the areas of the present-day USA during the 16th century, died on this day in 1554. Interestingly, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado came to the area of the present-day U.S....
Wilhelm Keitel, one of Hitler's highest-ranking military commanders, was born on this day in 1882. He held the rank of Field Marshal in the armed forces of the Third Reich, and was also chief of the German Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW). This means...
Japanese admiral Soemu Toyoda – the last commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, died on this day in 1957. Imperial Japan's massive navy was formally abolished after World War II and was never revived. Modern Japan only maintains the so-cal...
This day marked the maiden flight of the fastest bomber in history, the American XB-70 Valkyrie. It was truly a massive aircraft, with a maximum weight of 246 tons, comparable to a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet. Despite being so heavy, the Valkyrie could achi...
"The Hobbit", one of the most successful novels of the 20th century in the field of fiction, was published on this day in 1937. It was written by the 45-year-old J.R.R. Tolkien, a Professor of Anglo-Saxon Language at the famous Oxford University. Tha...
Marshal Ivan Bagramyan, the only Armenian who has ever received a high rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, died on this day in 1982. Hovhannes Baghramyan was his name in the Armenian language (Hovhannes is the Armenian variant of John). It is intere...
The first prototype of the B-29 Superfortress bomber flew for the first time on this day in 1942. The development of this American heavy bomber had started before World War II, but the U.S. Army started to use it during the war. The mentioned flight...
Hungarian and Croatian king Andrew II of the Arpad dynasty died on this day in 1235. The king was a prominent crusader leader and personally led his men during the Fifth Crusade. Andrew II was the son of King Bela III, while his mother was Agnes of A...
This day in 1356 marked the Battle of Poitiers in France during the Hundred Years’ 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 🙂 and 🙁 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 “Judengasse”, 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...
Léon Foucault, the French scientist after whom the famous Foucault pendulum was named, was born on this day in 1819. The British Queen Victoria was also born in 1819. Futhermore, Léon Foucault was a contemporary of Charles Baudelaire, Gustave Flauber...
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...
