History Trivia

October 2, 1187 the Moslems, led by the warrior Saladin, captured Jerusalem which brought about the Third Crusade. 1263 The Battle of Largs was fought between Norwegians and Scots. It was the most important military engagement of the Scottish-Norwegian War. The Norwegian forces were led by King Håkon Håkonsson and the Scottish forces by King Alexander III. The result was inconclusive, but in the long term favored the Scots. 1264 Pope Urban IV died. His brief pontificate was largely occupied with his attempts to restore papal power in Italy. 1452 King Richard III of England was born. 1492 King Henry VII of England invaded France. This act of war was a bluff by Henry, as he had no intention of fighting over the winter. However, as France became more concerned with the Italian Wars, the French were happy to agree to the Treaty of Etaples.

History Trivia

October 1, 331 BC Alexander the Great defeated Persian emperor Darius III in the Battle of Arbela in Mesopotamia in one of the fifteen decisive battles of history. 959 Edgar, King of the Mercians and Northumbrians, became King of the West Saxons and was then considered to be King of all England. 965 John XIII became Pope. 1189 Gerard de Ridefort, grandmaster of the Knights Templar since 1184, was killed in the Siege of Acre. 1207 Henry III was born. King of England 1216-1264, his 56-year reign was one of the longest in history. The building of the Westminster Abbey was his most enduring moment. 1404 Boniface IX died. The second pope in Rome during the Western Schism, Boniface was unable to end the breach and increased hostility with his attempts to raise money in order to combat the antipopes. 1553 Coronation of Queen Mary I of England.

History Trivia

September 30, 420 Saint Jerome, one of the great scholars of the early Christian church, died at age 80. 579 Pope Benedict I died . 1227 Pope Nicholas IV, the first Franciscan pontiff, was born. 1544 Henry VIII withdrew his armies out of France. 1555 Oxford Bishop Nicholas Ridley was sentenced to death as a heretic.

History Trivia

September 29, 480 BC Battle of Salamis: The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeated the Persian fleet under Xerxes I. 106 BC Pompey the Great, statesman and general of the Roman Empire was born. He was the chief rival of Julius Caesar and in 61 BC Pompey celebrated his victory in the third Mithridatic War (between Rome and the Kingdom of Pontus, a Persian state off the Black Sea) on his 45th birthday. 440 Saint Leo I, the Great, was elected Roman Catholic pope. 1227 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades. 1399 King Richard II of England abdicated; he was succeeded by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV). Richard was initially imprisoned and later died from uncertain causes. 1364 Battle of Auray: English forces defeated the French in Brittany; ending the Breton War of Succession between the Houses of Blois and Montfort. 1547 Miguel de Cervantes, Creator of Don Quixote, was born. 1564, in the reign of Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley became earl of Leicester.

History Trivia

September 28,48 BC Pompey the Great was murdered on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt. 351 Battle of Mursa Major: the Roman Emperor Constantius II defeated the usurper Magnentius in one of the bloodiest battles in Roman military history. 365 Roman usurper Procopius proclaimed himself Roman emperor. 855 The Emperor Lothar died in Gaul (present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine), and his kingdom was divided between his three sons. 1066William the Conqueror and his Norman army arrived in England, landing at Pevensey, beginning the Norman Conquest. 1106 The Battle of Tinchebrai: Henry I of England defeated his brother, Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy. Henry's knights won a decisive victory, capturing Robert and imprisoning him in England and then Wales until Robert's death in Cardiff Castle. England and Normandy remained under a single ruler until 1204. 1322 Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor defeated Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.

History Trivia

September 27, 489 Odoacer (first Germanic king of Italy) attacked Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Verona, and was defeated again. 1009 Caliph al Hakim ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem, a Christian holy site. 1066 William the Conqueror, with a Norman army of 5,000 men, set sail from France for England, to claim the English throne. 1540 Pope Paul III approved the first outline of the organization of the Jesuit Society, drafted by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the order's founder. 1590 Pope Urban VII died 13 days after being chosen Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.

History Trivia

Sept 26, 46 BC Julius Caesar dedicated a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in accordance with a vow he made at the battle of Pharsalus. 715 Ragenfrid defeated Theudoald at the Battle of Compiègne, the first definite battle of the civil war which followed the death of Pepin of Heristal, Duke of the Franks. 1143 Celestine II became Pope. He was a friend of Peter Abelard(French scholastic philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician), Celestine was a scholar whose pontificate only lasted six months. 1687 The Parthenon in Athens, unscathed since 432BC, was severely damaged by a gunpowder explosion, caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morosini (Doge of Venice) who besieged the Ottoman Turks stationed in Athens.