Middle Ages
Death of William Rufus (1100): Killed in the New Forest
William II was killed by an arrow while hunting; his younger brother Henry seized the treasury and was crowned within three days.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Middle Ages
Columbanus and the Irish Mission to the Continent (c. 590)
Columbanus founded influential monasteries at Luxeuil and Bobbio and spread an Irish style of monastic life and penance across Frankish Gaul and northern Italy.
Middle Ages
Siege of Constantinople (626): Avars and Persians at the Walls
Byzantine victory; the Slav boats were destroyed in the Golden Horn and the Avar army withdrew, ending the threat to the capital.
Early Modern
The Deluge (1655-1660): Swedish Invasion of Poland-Lithuania
The Commonwealth survived and expelled the Swedes, but lost Livonia at Oliva in 1660 and was left gravely weakened by war, plunder and population loss.
Early Modern
Battle of Tondibi (1591): Morocco Destroys the Songhai Empire
Decisive Moroccan victory; the Songhai empire collapsed and Gao, Timbuktu and Djenne came under Moroccan rule.
Early Modern
First Thanksgiving (1621): Pilgrims and Wampanoag at Plymouth
A three-day harvest gathering of about 50 colonists and some 90 Wampanoag men that was later reimagined as the origin of a national holiday.
Early Modern
Battle of Nagashino (1575): Guns Against the Takeda Cavalry
Decisive Oda-Tokugawa victory; the Takeda lost many senior commanders and never recovered their former power.
Early Modern
Babur: Timurid Prince and Founder of the Mughal Dynasty
Babur conquered the Delhi Sultanate and founded the Mughal dynasty, which ruled much of South Asia until the 18th century.
Early Modern
Galileo's Telescope and Sidereus Nuncius (1610): Moons of Jupiter
Galileo's observations of the Moon, the stars and Jupiter's four moons made the telescope a scientific instrument and strengthened the case for Copernicus.
Early Modern
Sack of Rome (1527): Charles V's Mutinous Army Pillages the City
Rome was pillaged for weeks, Clement VII surrendered on 6 June 1527, and the papacy fell under the influence of Charles V.
Early Modern
Corte-Real Brothers' Voyages to Newfoundland (1500–1502)
The voyages gave Portugal a claim to Newfoundland and its fisheries, but both brothers were lost at sea.
Contemporary
1970 Bhola Cyclone: The Deadliest Tropical Cyclone on Record
An estimated 300,000-500,000 people died; anger at the government's response fed the political crisis that led to Bangladesh's independence in 1971.