A Daily Dose of History: Events on this Day in History

A Daily Dose of History (22 May 2026) Today's historical events: Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lü Bu. Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt. The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to assassinate Saladin near Aleppo. King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet. Henry...

A Daily Dose of History (21 May 2026) Today's historical events: Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy. Syracuse, Sicily, is captured by the Muslim Aghlabids after a nine-month siege. Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international r...

A Daily Dose of History (20 May 2026) Today's historical events: The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church. Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery. The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army und...

A Daily Dose of History (19 May 2026) Today's historical events: Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen assaulted Emperor Taizong at Jiucheng Palace. Pope Gregory II is elected. John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo. French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom...

A Daily Dose of History (18 May 2026) Today's historical events: Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople. Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Holy Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of 47. His first coronation was 28 years earlier, in 844, during the reign of his father Lothair I. First Crusade: Around 800 Jews are massacr...

A Daily Dose of History (17 May 2026) Today's historical events: Battle of Rovine: The Wallachians defeat an invading Ottoman army. Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason. Pánfilo de Narváez departs Spain to explore Florida with 600 men - by 1536 only 4 survive. George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford and four other men are executed for treason. Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's...

A Daily Dose of History (16 May 2026) Today's historical events: Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan. Having been elected on May 9, Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire. Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes king of Ava. The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-...

A Daily Dose of History (15 May 2026) Today's historical events: Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty. Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne. King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholi...

A Daily Dose of History (14 May 2026) Today's historical events: Robert II of France names his son Henry I as junior King of the Franks. The Siege of Nicaea begins during the First Crusade. Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the effective ruler of England. Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the...

A Daily Dose of History (12 May 2026) Today's historical events: Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I, becoming the 23rd pope of the Catholic Church, and immediately takes a stand against Novatianism. Zhu Wen forces Emperor Ai into abdicating, ending the Tang dynasty after nearly three hundred years of rule. Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre in Cyprus; she is crowned Queen consor...

A Daily Dose of History (11 May 2026) Today's historical events: Constantinople is consecrated. A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it the oldest known dated printed book. War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army. Robert Gray commands the first expedition to sail into the Columbia River. Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated...

A Daily Dose of History (10 May 2026) Today's historical events: Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England pending the selection of a king. Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there. Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland. King Narai nominates Phetracha as regent, leading to the revolution of 1688 in which Phetrach...

A Daily Dose of History (09 May 2026) Today's historical events: Athanasius is elected Patriarch of Alexandria. England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing of the Treaty of Windsor, making it the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force. 'Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated. Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of Cal...

A Daily Dose of History (08 May 2026) Today's historical events: Reccared I opens the Third Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church. Treaty of Brétigny drafted between King Edward III of England and King John II of France (the Good). Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic and anchoress, experiences the deathbed visions described in her Revelations of Divine...

A Daily Dose of History (07 May 2026) Today's historical events: The Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus breaks out after his arrival at Antioch. In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses, twenty years after its construction. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt. In France, the Second Council of Lyon opens to regulate the election of the Pope. The Siege of M...

A Daily Dose of History (06 May 2026) Today's historical events: Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance. The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish. Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time. The Dutch city of Coevorden held by the Spanish, falls to a...

A Daily Dose of History (05 May 2026) Today's historical events: The Second Council of Constantinople begins. Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta. On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown....

A Daily Dose of History (04 May 2026) Today's historical events: The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae. Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance. Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson Wars of t...

A Daily Dose of History (03 May 2026) Today's historical events: Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico, assumes the throne. The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties. Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I. Angered by the brutal onslaught of...

A Daily Dose of History (02 May 2026) Today's historical events: King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. William de Braose is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great. Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft. John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the nascent Scottish Reformati...

A Daily Dose of History (01 May 2026) Today's historical events: Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman emperor. The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches. Norman mercenaries land at Bannow Bay in Leinster, marking the beginning of the Norman invasion of Ireland. Wars of Scottish Independence end: By the Tr...

A Daily Dose of History (30 Apr 2026) Today's historical events: The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends. Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged at the instigation of Charles, Count of Valois. Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. He is named admiral of the ocean sea, viceroy and governor of any territory he discovers. Mapuche leader Lautaro is killed...

A Daily Dose of History (29 Apr 2026) Today's historical events: Battle of Levounion: The Pechenegs are defeated by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.[citation needed] Battle of the Vikhra River: The Principality of Smolensk is defeated by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and becomes its vassal. Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans. Gran Canaria, the main island of the Canary Islands...

A Daily Dose of History (28 Apr 2026) Today's historical events: The Battle of Hormozdgan is fought. Ardashir I defeats and kills Artabanus V effectively ending the Parthian Empire. Emperor Constantius II enters Rome for the first time to celebrate his victory over Magnus Magnentius. Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the thron...

A Daily Dose of History (27 Apr 2026) Today's historical events: Philip the Arab marks the millennium of Rome with a celebration of the ludi seaculares. Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity. Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar t...