History Trivia

April 16, 1178 BC The calculated date of the Greek king Odysseus' return home from the Trojan War. 73 Roman troops breached the walls of Masada fortress to find the Jewish defenders had committed mass suicide, which ended the Jewish revolt. 556 Pelagius I began his reign as Catholic Pope. 778 Louis the Pious was born. 1071 Bari, (coastal region off the Adriatic Sea) fell to Norman Robert Guiscard, ending five centuries of Byzantine rule in southern Italy. 1209 Franciscan order founded. 1521 Martin Luther made his first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. According to tradition, April 16th was the day that Pope Innocent III gave his oral approbation to the rule of the order founded by St. Francis of Assisi.