Denis Diderot died, 1784
Born on 5th October 1713 in the city of Langres in eastern France, Diderot was destined for a life in one of the professions, initially as a clergyman and then…
All slaves emancipated in British Empire, 1834
In March 1807, as a response to the growing popularity of the abolitionist movement the British Parliament passed An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which made the…
Japanese feudal caste system abolished, 1869
For over six-hundred years a series of Shogun dynasties had dominated Japanese politics, with the Emperor reduced to a largely symbolic role. Yet, in 1866, the leaders of two feudal…
Sir Richard Arkwright died, 1792
Richard Arkwright, pioneer of industrialisation, was born on 23rd December 1732 in Preston, Lancashire. The son of a poor tailor, Richard had no formal education and became an apprentice barber.…
First English colony in North America founded, 1583
In June 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert – soldier, Member of Parliament, and explorer – secured letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I, which entitled him to claim any lands not already…
Kon Tiki expedition ended, 1947
In the early 1940s, a Norwegian ethnographer called Thor Heyerdahl proposed that the peoples of Polynesia originated in the Americas rather than Asia. In order to test his theory, he…
First Scouting camp ended, 1907
In 1899 Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Baden-Powell published Aids to Scouting, a manual of reconnaissance skills based on his military experiences in South Africa. That same year, Baden-Powell commanded a force of…
First ascent of Mont Blanc, 1786
In the mid-eighteenth century the Swiss aristocrat and naturalist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure became a regular visitor the French town of Chamonix, which sits at the foot of Mont Blanc, the…
Foundation stone of Royal Greenwich Observatory laid, 1675
On 4th March 1675, King Charles II issued a royal warrant appointing John Flamsteed as his ‘astronomical observator’ – a position later known as Astronomer Royal. The warrant detailed his…
Last steam-hauled mainline passenger train on British Railways, 1968
On 11th August 1968 a special train set off from Liverpool Lime Street station on a return trip to Carlisle. The train, known as the ‘Fifteen Guinea Special’ because of…
The quagga became extinct, 1883
The quagga were an equine species, similar to the zebra but with stripes only on the head, neck and shoulders. They roamed the drier parts of South Africa between the…
First Jefferson Airplane gig, 1965
In the early 1960s, the singer Marty Buchwald signed to Challenge Records, which promoted him as a teen idol under the name of Marty Balin. Having failed to achieve any…
Cologne Cathedral completed, 1880
In 1164, Cologne’s Archbishop Rainald von Dassel brought the relics of the Magi to the city after the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, took them from Milan. These relics attracted…
Peterloo Massacre, 1819
In spite of victory, the Napoleonic Wars left Britain with chronic economic problems. The Government’s response, the Corn Laws, resulted in famine and unemployment, which only served to politicise the…
Indonesian independence declared, 1945
In the early sixteenth century, Portuguese explorers arrived in Indonesia seeking a source of spices that would break the monopoly of Muslim traders and their Venetian agents. Over the next…
Battle of Lower Sioux Agency, 1862
In 1851, the United States government signed a pair of treaties with the Dakota Sioux who ceded much of their land in the Minnesota Territory in return for goods and…
Tucson, Arizona founded, 1775
Hugh O’Connor was born in Dublin in 1732 into an aristocratic family. Like many contemporary Irish Catholics of the day, Hugh saw no future for himself in his homeland, which…
Buffalo Nine arrested, 1968
In the summer of 1968, a group of anti-war protesters centred on the University of Buffalo in New York State began to engage in draft resistance. Fearing arrest, a number…
Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia, 1968
In January 1968, Alexander Dubček became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Dubček was previously leader of the party in Slovakia, where he had implemented a programme of…
Haitian Revolution, 1791
At the time of the Storming of the Bastille in Paris, the French territories on the island of Hispaniola, known as Saint-Domingue, produced forty per cent of the world’s sugar…