History Trivia

November 23, 534 BC Thespis of Icaria became the first actor to portray a character onstage. 800 Charlemagne arrived at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III. 912 Otto I (The Great) was born. He was King of Germany from 936-983 and was the first king to become Holy Roman Emperor in 961. 955 King Eadred died. King of Wessex and acknowledged as overlord of Mercia, and the Danelaw Eadred brought Northumbria permanently under English rule. 1165 Pope Alexander III returned from exile to Rome. 1248 Conquest of Seville by the Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile. 1499 Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck was hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in 1497, claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV of England.

History Trivia

November 22,498 Symmachus Consecrated. Christian convert Symmachus was chosen by the Roman Church to succeed Pope Anastasius II at the same time a Byzantine faction selected Laurentius. Both individuals were consecrated on the same date, and the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great was asked to choose the new pope. He chose Symmachus. 845 the first King of all Brittany, Nominoe, defeated the Frankish king Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon near Redon. 1307 Pope Clement V issued the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets. 1221 Frederik II Hohenstaufen crowned Roman-German Emperor. 1428 Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick and also known as known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was born.

History Trivia

November 21, 164 BC Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restored the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah. 235 St. Anterus became Roman Catholic pope. He was Pope from November 21, 235 to January 3, 236, and succeeded Pope Pontian, who had been deported from Rome along with the antipope Hippolytus to Sardinia. Anterus was the son of Romulus, born in Petilia, and is thought to have been of Greek origin, but the name could indicate that he was a freed slave. He died on January 3, 236 of undetermined causes. 1272, following Henry III of England's death on November 16, his son Prince Edward became King of England.

History Trivia

November 20, 284 Diocletian was chosen as Roman Emperor. 870 Edmund the Martyr died. Saint Edmund was king of East Anglia. His gruesome death at the hands of the Danes led to legends and a shrine at what is now Bury St. Edmund's, West Suffolk. 1194 Palermo was conquered by Emperor Henry VI. 1272 Barons swore fealty to Edward I. Upon the death of his father, King Henry III, Edward received the fealty of the English barons and succeeded to the throne. 1407 a truce between John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orleans was agreed under the auspices of John, Duke of Berry. Orleans was assassinated three days later by Burgundy.

November 19

November 19, 1095 The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land, began. 1367 League of Cologne (medieval military alliance against Denmark signed by cities of the Hanseatic League on their meeting called Hansetag in Cologne) approved war against Denmark and Norway.

History Trivia

November 18, 326 Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was consecrated. 942 Saint Odo of Cluny died. The second abbot of the great monastery at Cluny, Odo achieved exemption from all but papal authority for his monastic community and reformed monasteries in Gaul and Italy. 1105 Maginulf elected the Antipope Sylvester the IV. 1210 Pope Innocent III excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV. 1302 Pope Boniface VIII issued the Papal bull Unam sanctam (One Faith). 1307 William Tell shot an apple off of his son's head. 1421 A seawall at the Zuiderzee dike in the Netherlands broke, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people. 1477 William Caxton produced Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, the first book printed on a printing press in England. 1494 French King Charles VIII occupied Florence, Italy. 1626 St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome was officially dedicated on the same day the Old Basilica was consecrated 1300 years earlier.

History Trivia

November 17, 284 Diocletian was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers. 375 Enraged by the insolence of barbarian envoys, Valentinian, the Emperor of the West, died of apoplexy in Pannonia in Central Europe. 473 The future Leo II was named associate emperor of the Byzantine Empire by Leo I. 680 Saint Hild of Whitby died. Hild or Hilda founded Streaneshalch Abbey (now Whitby) and was one of the most renowned abbesses of Anglo-Saxon England. 1292 Edward I of England made John Balliol king of Scotland, marking the start of increased English control. 1511 Spain and England ally against France. 1558 Elizabethan era began. Queen Mary I of England died and was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England who was not officially crowned until January.