History Trivia

July 31, 30 BC Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieved a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserted, leading to his suicide. 432 Saint Sixtus III was elected Roman Catholic pope. 781 The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781). 1009 Pope Sergius IV became the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII. 1201 Byzantine noble John Komnenos, nicknamed "the Fat" attempted to usurp the imperial throne from Alexios III Angelos in a short-lived coup in Constantinople. He was captured and executed when the coup was suppressed. 1423 Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant – the French army was defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne. 1588 The Spanish Armada was spotted off the coast of England.

History Trivia

July 30, 579 Benedict I ended his reign as Catholic Pope. 657 St Vitalian began his reign as Catholic Pope succeeding Eugene I. 1178 Frederick I (Barbarossa), Holy Roman Emperor, was crowned King of Burgundy. 1419 First Defenestration of Prague: Anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, stormed the town hall in Prague and threw Catholic councilors out the windows. 1629 An earthquake in Naples, Italy, killed about 10,000 people.

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July 29 238 The Praetorian Guard stormed the palace and captured Pupienus and Balbinus. They were dragged through the streets of Rome and executed. On the same day Gordian III, age 13, was proclaimed emperor. 904 Sack of Thessalonica: Saracen raiders under Leo of Tripoli sacked Thessalonica, the Byzantine Empire's second-largest city, after a short siege, and plundered it for a week. 1030 Ladejarl-Fairhair succession wars: Battle of Stiklestad – King Olaf II , the patron saint of Norway, fought and died trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes. 1565 The widowed Mary, Queen of Scots, married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Duke of Albany, at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland. 1567 James VI was crowned King of Scotland at Stirling. 1588 Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – English naval forces under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeated the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France.

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July 28, 1364 Troops of the Republic of Pisa and of the Republic of Florence clashed in the Battle of Cascina.Florence's victory followed a recent defeat to Pisan forces that had enabled mercenary John Hawkwood, who was in command of the Pisan army, to travel the Valdinievole, Prato en route to looting Florence. 1540 Thomas Cromwell was executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.

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July 27, 1054 Siward, Earl of Northumbria invaded Scotland to support Malcolm Canmore against Macbeth of Scotland, who usurped the Scottish throne from Malcolm's father, King Duncan. Macbeth was defeated at Dunsinane. 1170: Thomas Becket and King Henry II temporarily reconciled. Becket's six-year self-imposed exile from England was resolved when he met with Henry and King Louis VII of France at a conference in Freteval and settled on an uneasy truce. Becket made preparations to return to his See in Canterbury. 1214 King John lost Normandy and his other French possessions after being defeated by Philip II of France in the Battle of Bouvines.

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July 26,811 Battle of Pliska: Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I was killed and his heir Stauracius was seriously wounded. 920 Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona. 1309 Henry VII was recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V. 1469 Wars of the Roses: the Battle of Edgecote Moor pitted the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV of England took place.

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July 25, 44 Saint James, the brother of John and the son of Zebedee, and one of the 12 apostles, became the first of the apostles to be martyred when he was killed on orders of Herod Agrippa I. 285 Diocletian appointed Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler. 306Constantine I was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops. 864 The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald ordered defensive measures against the Vikings. 1215 Frederick II, called Stupor Munci (The Amazement of the World), was crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Aix-la-Chapelle. 1261 The city of Constantinople was recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire. 1547 Henry II of France was crowned. 1593 Henry IV of France publicly converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. 1603 James VI of Scotland was crowned as king of England (James I of England), uniting the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into personal union. Political union would occur in 1707.

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July 24,1132 – Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily.
1148 Louis VII of France laid siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade. 1411 Battle of Harlaw, Highland and Lowland Scots clash at 'Red Harlaw' - one of the bloodiest battles of Scottish history. 1487 Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands held a strike against a ban on foreign beer. 1534 French explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and takes possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France. 1567 Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate and was replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI.

History Trivia

July 23, 685 John V became Roman Catholic pope. 1313 Bridget the patron saint of Sweden who founded the Brigittine Order died. Bridget was a Swedish princess renowned for her piety from her childhood; she was given in marriage to Ulf, Prince of Mercia, by whom she had a large family. After Ulf's death in 1344 and with the help of King Magnus, she established on her own estate at Vadstena the first monastery for men and women, of which Katherine, her daughter, became the first Abbess soon after her death in 1375. At this time double monasteries were not unusual: the monks and nuns used the same chapel, but lived in separate wings of the monastery, the confessor alone having access to the nuns.

July 22, 838 Battle of Anzen: the Byzantine emperor Theophilos suffered a heavy defeat by the Abbasids. 1099 First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon was elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem. 1298 Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk – King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeated William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk. 1456 Ottoman Wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade – John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, defeated Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire. 1484 Battle of Lochmaben Fair A 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas were defeated by Scots forces loyal to Albany's brother James III of Scotland; Douglas was captured.1499 Battle of Dornach – The Swiss decisively defeated the Imperial army of Emperor Maximilian I.

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July 21, 356 BC The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was destroyed by arson. 230 Pope Pontian succeeded Urban I as the eighteenth pope. 285 Diocletian appointed Maximian as Caesar and co-ruler. 365 A tsunami devastated the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by an earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter Scale. 5,000 people perished in Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside the city. 1403 Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeated rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England. 1545 The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight. 1588 The Armada - an invasion fleet sent by Philip II of Spain - was sighted off the coast of Cornwall.

History Trivia

July 20, 70 First Jewish-Roman War: Siege of Jerusalem - Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, stormed the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army was drawn into street fights with the Zealots. 911 Norman incursions: Norse nobleman Rollo captured and burnt Chartres. 1304 Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle – King Edward I of England took the stronghold using the WarWolf (siege engine). 1304 Petrarch (Francisco Petracco) the Italian poet, scholar, and humanist was born.

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July 19,711 – Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Battle of Guadalete – Muslim Umayyad Caliphate forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeated the Visigoths led by King Roderic.1318 Austria recognized the Three Forest Cantons, marking the beginning of modern Switzerland. 1333 Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Halidon Hill – The English won a decisive victory over the Scots. 1544 Italian War of 1542: the first Siege of Boulogne began. 1545 The Tudor warship Mary Rose capsized and sunk off Portsmouth with the loss of approximately 500 men. 1553 Lady Jane Grey was replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after only nine days of reign. 1588 Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – The Spanish Armada was sighted in the English Channel.

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July 17, 180 – Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa were executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world. 1203 The Fourth Crusade - Constantinople captured. The Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus fled from his capital into exile. 1453 Hundred Years' War: Battle of Castillon: The French under Jean Bureau defeated the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was killed in the battle in Gascony. 1586 A meeting took place at Lüneburg (a town in the German state of Lower Saxony) between several some evangelical Princes and Electors, and representatives of the King of Navarre, the King of Denmark and the Queen of England in order to discuss the formation of an 'evangelical' league of defense, called the 'Confederatio Militiae Evangelicae', against the Catholic League.

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July 16, 622 Mohammed made his famous flight, or Hegira, from Mecca to Medina, marking the beginning of the Moslem calendar. 1054 Three Roman legates broke relations between Western and Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal Bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East-West Schism. 1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: after Pope Innocent III called European knights to a crusade, forces of Kings Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Pedro II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal defeated those of the Berber Muslim leader Almohad, thus marking a significant turning point in the Reconquista and in the medieval history of Spain. 1377 Coronation of Richard II of England. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III.

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July 15, 971 Sainte Swithin, the Bishop of Winchester, was reburied inside his cathedral. The day is celebrated in England as Saint Swithin's Day. 1099 Jerusalem was captured by soldiers of the First Crusade, having been held by Islamic rulers since 655 AD. 1149 The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre was consecrated in Jerusalem. 1207 King John of England expelled Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop Stephen Langton. 1381 John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, was hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England. 1799 The Rosetta Stone - key to the translation of hieroglyphs - was discovered in Egypt by a French soldier.

History Trivia

July 14, 1223 Louis VIII became King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II of France. 1789 the general populace stormed the Bastille; on 4 August feudalism was abolished and on 26 August the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was proclaimed. The anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic during the French Revolution.

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July 13,1174 William I of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173–1174, was captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Henry II of England. 1260 the Livonian Order, a Catholic and military-political organization of knights of the Teutonic Order, which created a feudal state in the eastern Baltic region that lasted from the 13th through 16th centuries, suffered its greatest defeat in the 13th century in the battle of Durbe against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The battle inspired the Great Prussian Uprising which ended in 1274.

History Trivia

July 12,100 BC Gaius Julius Caesar was born. 526 Saint Felix IV became Roman Catholic pope. 927 England was unified by Athelstan of England after a long process of annexation. 1153 Anasasius IV was crowned Roman Catholic pope. 1191 Third Crusade: Saladin's garrison surrendered to Conrad of Montferrat, ending the two-year siege of Acre. 1450 A rebellion against war taxes ended when its leader, Jack Cade, was driven out of London and later killed. 1543 King Henry VIII of England married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.

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July 11, 472 After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius was captured in the Old St. Peter's Basilica and put to death. 911 The Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple of France and Rollo leader of the Vikings was signed. The treaty protected Charles kingdom from further invasion and created the duchy of Normandy; the Vikings became known as Normans. Also Rollo agreed to be baptized and to marry the illegitimate daughter of Charles, thus becoming the king's vassal. 1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs: a coalition around the Flemish cities defeated the king of France's royal army. The battle was a
French attempt to subdue the County of Flanders, which was formally part of the French kingdom and added to the crown lands in 1297 but had resisted centralist French policies. 1346 Charles IV of Luxembourg was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

History Trivia

July 10, 48 BC Battle of Dyrrhachium: Julius Caesar barely avoided a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia. 138 Emperor Hadrian died of heart failure at Baiae at age 62, he was buried in Rome in the Tomb of Hadrian beside his late wife, Vibia Sabina. 988 The city of Dublin was founded on the banks of the river Liffey. 1212 The most severe of several early fires of London burned most of the city to the ground. 1460 Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick defeated the king's Lancastrian forces and captured King Henry VI in the Battle of Northampton. 1553 Lady Jane Grey took the throne of England. 1645 English Civil War: The Battle of Langport took place.

History Trivia

July 9, 455 Roman military commander Avitus was proclaimed Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. 1357 Emperor Charles IV assisted in laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague. 1540 King Henry VIII of England annulled his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. 1553 Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen of England in succession to Edward VI, who died three days earlier.

History Trivia

July 8, 49 BC, the city of Paris, France was founded by the Parisii, a Celtic tribe of fisherman. 1099 First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched in a religious procession around Jerusalem after a priest by the name of Peter Desiderius claimed to have had a divine vision in which the ghost of Adhemar instructed them to fast for three days and then march in a barefoot procession around the city walls, after which the city would fall in nine days, following the Biblical example of Joshua at the siege of Jericho. The Crusaders were ultimately victorious in taking the city. 1283 War of the Sicilian Vespers: the naval Battle of Malta between the Aragonese and the Neapolitan fleets was fought.

History Trivia

July 7, 1307 King Edward I of England died at age 68 on his way to subdue the new Scottish king, Robert Bruce. 1456 A retrial verdict acquitted Joan of Arc of heresy 25years after her death. 1575 Raid of the Redeswire, the last major battle between England and Scotland.The Scots proved victorious. The story of the skirmish was turned into a Border ballad.

History Trivia

July 6, 1189, King Henry II of England died at the age of 55 and was succeeded by his son, Richard I, the Lionheart. 1348 Pope Clement VI issued a Papal bull protecting the Jews accused of having caused the Black Death. 1483 Richard III was crowned King of England. 1535 Sir Thomas More was executed for treason against King Henry VIII of England. 1560 The Treaty of Edinburgh was signed by Scotland and England.

History Trivia

July 5, 1295 Scotland and France formed the Auld Alliance against England.The alliance played an important role in conflicts between both countries and England such as the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Hundred Years' War, the War of the League of Cambrai and the Rough Wooing when Henry VIII of England declared war in an attempt to force the Scots to agree to a marriage between his son Edward and Mary, Queen of Scots. Scotland benefited from French military aid. Edward VI continued the war until changing circumstances made it irrelevant in 1550. It was the last major conflict between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns in 1603, excepting perhaps the English intervention at the Siege of Leith in 1560, and was part of the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the 16th century.

History Trivia

July 4, 993 Saint Ulrich of Augsburg (leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany) was canonized. He studied at the monastery school of St. Gall and received additional training under Adalbero, Bishop of Augsburg, who made him a chamberlain. He was appointed Bishop of Augsburg by King Henry in 923. 1054 A supernova was observed by the Chinese, Arabs and possibly Amerindians near the star Tauri. For several months it remained bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula. 1120 Jordan II of Capua was anointed prince after his infant nephew's death. 1187 The Crusades: Battle of Hattin – Saladin defeated Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.

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July 3, 324 – Battle of Adrianople: Constantine I defeated Licinius, who fled to Byzantium. 987 Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France until the French Revolution in 1792.

History Trivia

July 2,419 Valentinian III, Emperor of Rome, 425-455, was crowned at the age of 6. 963 The imperial army proclaimed Nicephorus Phocas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea. 1298 Albert I was elected Holy Roman Emperor after successfully defeating Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg at the Battle of Göllheim.

History Trivia

July 1, 69 Tiberius Julius Alexander ordered his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor. Vespasian refused to recognize Vitellius as emperor, and had his legions acclaim him as Imperator. 251 Battle of Abrittus: The Goths defeated emperor Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus on swampy ground in the Dobrudja (Moesia). Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Northern Republic of Macedonia, Southern Serbia (Upper Moesia),Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak (Lower Moesia).