Monday, December 29th, 2014
• On Dec. 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights on orders of King Henry II of England. The Christian world was shocked by Becket’s death, and in 1173 he was...
Monday, December 22nd, 2014
• On Dec. 28, 1793, Thomas Paine is arrested in France for treason. Though the charges against him were never detailed, he had been tried in absentia on Dec. 26 and convicted. Before moving to France, Paine...
Monday, December 15th, 2014
• On Dec. 18, 1620, the British ship Mayflower docked at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, and its passengers prepared to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony. That winter of 1620-1621 was brutal, and the Pilgrims struggled to find...
Monday, December 8th, 2014
• On Dec. 13, 1577, English seaman Francis Drake sets out from England with five ships and 164 men on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World. Three years later,...
Monday, December 1st, 2014
• On Dec. 2, 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Napoleon I, the first Frenchman to hold the title of emperor in a thousand years. After suffering military defeats, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena...
Monday, November 24th, 2014
• On Nov. 26, 1922, in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, British archaeologists become the first souls to enter King Tutankhamen’s tomb in more than 3,000 years. Inside was a collection of several thousand priceless objects, including...
Monday, November 17th, 2014
• On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivers what will become one of the most famous speeches in American history at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Using just 272 words, Lincoln articulated the meaning of the Civil War for...
Monday, November 10th, 2014
• On Nov. 15, 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his famous March to the Sea by torching the industrial section of Atlanta. For the next six weeks, Sherman’s army cut a 60-mile-wide swath of destruction...
Monday, November 3rd, 2014
• On Nov. 6, 1789, Pope Pius VI appoints John Carroll bishop of Baltimore, making him the first Catholic bishop in the United States. He oversaw the creation of leading Catholic institutions, including the nation’s first Catholic...
Monday, October 27th, 2014
• On Nov. 1, 1512, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of Italian artist Michelangelo’s finest works, is first exhibited to the public. Michelangelo’s epic ceiling frescoes consist of nine panels devoted to biblical...