History Trivia

April 6, 46 BC – Julius Caesar defeated Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus. 402 Stilicho stymied the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia. 1199 32 year old King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) of England died from an infection following the removal of an arrow from his shoulder. 1320 The Scots reaffirmed their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.1327 The poet Petrarch first saw his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon. 1385 John, Master of the Order of Aviz, was made king John I of Portugal.1453 Mehmed II began his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul), which fell on May 29. 1453 Siege of Constantinople began. Over the centuries, the Byzantine Empire had shrunk from its former glory to little more than the city of Constantinople itself. Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire would be the military genius who would at last breach the walls after besieging the city for more than 50 days. 1483 Raphael was born.