MaryAnn Bernal's Blog, page 557

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.

History Trivia

Sept 25, 275 The Roman Senate proclaimed Marcus Claudius Tacitus Emperor after the assassination of Aurelian. During his short reign he campaigned against the Goths and the Heruli, for which he received the title Gothicus Maximus. 396 Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I defeated a Christian army at the Battle of Nicopolis, often referred to as the Crusade of Nicopolis and was the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages. 1066 Harold II (Harold Godwinson) of England defeated an invasion by Harald Hardrada of Norway, at Stamford Bridge near York, and marked the end of the Viking invasions of England. It also delayed Harold's arrival at Hastings, becoming a significant factor in the outcome of the Norman Conquest.

History Trivia

Sept 24, 15 Aulus Vitellius was born. Vitellius was acclaimed emperor following the quick succession of the previous emperors Galba and Otho, in a year of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Vitellius was the first to add the honorific cognomen Germanicus to his name instead of Caesar upon his accession; the latter name had fallen into disrepute in many quarters because of the actions of Nero. 768 Pepin the Short, King of the Franks and father of Charlemagne, died at age 54. 1180 Manuel I Komnenos, last Emperor of the Komnenian restoration died, and the Byzantine Empire slipped into terminal decline. 1645 Battle of Rowton Heath, Parliamentarian victory over a Royalist army commanded by King Charles I; casualties estimated at 600dead and 900 injured.

History Trivia

Sept 23, 480 BC The Greeks defeated the Persians in the greatest of ancient naval battles, at Salamis, avenging the destruction of Athens. Over 1,000 Persian ships were sunk by fewer than 400 Greek vessels. 63 BC Augustus (Octavian) was born. He was the Roman emperor at the time of Christ, and the founder in 27 BC of the Roman Empire as it was known after the end of the Roman Republic of Julius Caesar's time.
1122 Concordat of Worms brought to an end the first phase of the power struggle between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperors. 1459 Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, was fought at Blore Heath in Staffordshire. The Yorkists, though inferior in numbers, were completely victorious.

History Trivia

Sept 22, 530 Both Boniface II and Dioscorus (antipope) were consecrated. The short-lived schism ended with Dioscorus' death on October 14, 530. 1515 Anne of Cleves was born. The fourth wife of Henry VIII, Anne was able to obtain a divorce and maintained a friendly relationship with the Tudor family. 1586 Battle of Zutphen was a confrontation of the Eighty Years' War fought between forces of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, aided by the English, against the Spanish, who sought to regain the northern Netherlands. Elizabeth I sent troops under the earl of Leicester to aid the rebels, however the Spanish were victorious.