slug: england

label: England

description: country in north-west Europe, part of the United Kingdom

text: Vindolanda, a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) in northern England, is garrisoned by cohort VIII Batavorum.

title: AD 122

section: Events › By place › Roman Empire

section: Culture & Society

text: According to a tradition noted by 19th-century historian Stephen Glover, the earliest recorded game of association football (soccer) took place in Derby, England as a celebration on Shrove Tuesday, the day before commencement of the Lent season on Ash Wednesday, and 47 days before Easter Sunday

title: 217

section: Events › By topic › Sports

text: Aelle, first king of the South Saxons, lands on the Sussex coast of England with his three sons near Cymenshore, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Britons engage him upon landing, but his superior force besieges them at Pevensey and drives them into the wood called Andredes leage. Over the next nine years, Saxon coastal holdings are gradually expanded.

title: 477

section: Events › By place › Europe

section: Climate & Environment

text: Winter – All the rivers in England are frozen for more than two months.

title: 508

section: Events › By place › Britannia

text: The Kingdom of East Anglia is formed, by the merging of the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and perhaps the eastern part of The Fens (approximate date).

title: 520

text: Cador, king of Dumnonia (England)

title: 530

text: Eormenric, king of Kent (England)

title: 590

section: Science & Discovery

text: England gets her first written code of laws from Æthelbert. The code is concerned with preserving social order, through compensation and punishment for personal injury (approximate date).

title: 597

section: Events › By topic › Law

text: Ceol, king of Wessex (England)

title: 597

text: Mellitus, bishop of London, is exiled by Sexred and his pagan brothers (Sæward and Sigeberht). He is forced to take refuge in Gaul, and returns to England the following year.

title: 616

section: Events › By topic › Religion

text: Hilda, Anglo-Saxon abbess, founds a monastery at Streaneshalch, on the Yorkshire coast at Whitby (England).

title: 657

text: The epidemic significantly depopulates southern coastal areas of England.

title: 664

section: Events › By place › Great Britain & Ireland

text: King Ecgberht of Kent loses the overlordship of Surrey to King Wulfhere of Mercia. Ecgberht then grants the old Saxon Shore Fort at Reculver (south-east England) to a priest named Bassa, in order to establish a monastery dedicated to St. Mary (approximate date).

title: 669

text: The diocese of Dorchester-on-Thames in England is replaced by the Diocese of Winchester (approximate date).

title: 670

text: The first glass windows are placed in English churches (approximate date).

title: 674

text: King Wulfhere of Mercia dies after a 17-year reign, in which he has extended his sway over much of England south of the Humber River, including Essex, Surrey, and part of Wessex north of the Thames. Wulfhere is succeeded by his brother Æthelred.

title: 675

text: Geraint, king of Dumnonia (England)

title: 710

text: Boniface, Anglo-Saxon missionary, leaves England and travels to Frisia (the western parts of the modern-day Netherlands) to assist Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht, in his work to convert the pagan Frisians.

title: 716

text: King Æthelbald of Mercia is described in the Ismere Diploma as ruler (bretwalda) of the Mercians, and all the provinces in southern England. He is also named "Rex Britanniae" (king of Britain).

title: 736

text: Exceptional winter in England: Frost begins October 1, and ends February 26, 760.

title: 759

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: Offa's Dyke is constructed around this time, according to the traditional history of this defensive earthwork. This 150 mi km earthwork marks the current border with the Welsh kingdoms, between England and Wales (approximate date). However, modern analysis of Offa's Dyke suggests that it was built in the 5th century, well before the reign of King Offa.

title: 760

section: Conflict & Security

text: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the first appearance of Vikings in England. The Viking raid on Portland in Dorset is the first of its kind recorded in the British Isles, including Ireland. The reeve of Dorchester (a local high-ranking official) goes to greet them after they land, perhaps accustomed to welcoming Scandinavian merchants. He is killed. Viking attacks increase in intensity over the coming decades.

title: 789

text: Alcuin, Anglo-Saxon missionary, returns (after an 8-year absence) to England. During his stay at the Carolingian court of King Charlemagne in Aachen, he has educated his sons Charles, Pepin and Louis. Alcuin revises the church liturgy and the Bible, and is responsible for an intellectual movement within the Frankish Kingdom.

title: 790

text: Offa arranges coastal defences to fend off Viking attacks. He forms an alliance with Essex, Kent and Sussex, in an attempt to unify England (approximate date).

title: 792

text: Vikings sack the Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey in Northumbria (the second monastery target in England of the Vikings, after the raids on Lindisfarne in 793).

title: 794

text: Synod of Chelsea: King Coenwulf of Mercia calls for a council about his right to appoint abbots and monasteries in England.

title: 816

text: Battle of Ellandun: King Egbert of Wessex defeats Beornwulf of Mercia near Swindon. The battle marks the end of the Mercian domination of southern England. The kingdoms of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex submit to Wessex, and East Anglia acknowledges Egbert as overlord (bretwalda).

title: 825

text: Ragnar Lodbrok, a Norse Viking ruler, rises to power. He becomes the scourge of France and England (approximate date).

title: 835

date: January 13

text: January 13 – King Æthelwulf of Wessex dies after an 18-year reign, and is succeeded by his eldest son Æthelbald. He marries his father's young widow Judith (daughter of Charles the Bald), and becomes sole ruler of Wessex. His brother, Æthelberht, is left to rule Kent and the south-east of England.

title: 858

date: April 23

text: April 23 – Alfred succeeds as king of Wessex after Æthelred's death. He makes peace with the Danes, and pays them Danegeld, each ruling parts of England.

title: 871

text: Treaty of Wedmore: Guthrum agrees to a peace treaty and is baptised, taking the name of Aethelstan. England is divided between Wessex in the south, and the Vikings in the Danelaw up north. Guthrum returns to East Anglia.

title: 878

text: Battle of Thimeon: King Louis III ("the Younger") defeats Vikings (probably Norsemen) from England, near Charleroi, north of the River Sambre. During the battle 5,000 Vikings are killed.

title: 880

text: The Vikings in Northumbria and East Anglia swear allegiance and hand over hostages to King Alfred the Great, but promptly break their truce by attacking the southwest of England. A Viking force returns from Exeter and sails along the coast, in an attempt to plunder Chichester. They are defeated by the Saxon garrison, losing many ships and men.

title: 894

date: October 26

text: October 26 – King Alfred the Great dies after a 28-year reign in which he has forced invading Danish Vikings to withdraw, consolidated England around Wessex, divided parts of Mercia into shires, compiled the best laws of earlier kings, encouraged learning by bringing famous scholars to Wessex and made his own translations of Latin works. He is succeeded by his eldest son, Edward the Elder as king of Wessex.

title: 899

date: June 8

text: June 8 – Edward the Elder (son of Alfred the Great) is crowned king of England at Kingston upon Thames.

title: 900

text: Summer – Danish Viking raiders under Sweyn Forkbeard continue to ravage the cities (mostly poorly defended) in southern England. A famine strikes Sweyn's army, which has to live off the land.

title: 1005

section: Events › By place › British Isles

text: In England, King Æthelred the Unready orders a new fleet of warships built, organised on a national scale. It is a huge undertaking, but is completed the following year.

title: 1008

date: February 2

text: February 2 – The Anarchy in the Kingdom of England – Battle of Lincoln: Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester and Empress Matilda wrest control of the throne of England from King Stephen, who is captured and imprisoned.

title: 1141

section: Events

text: The town of Portsmouth is founded by the Norman merchant Jean de Gisors, who establishes it as a strategic port to facilitate trade between England and France (approximate date).

title: 1180

text: The Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey decide, after a plebiscite of wealthy land owners, to remain with the English crown, after Normandy is recaptured by Philip II of France.

title: 1204

date: April 17

text: April 17 – Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury in England, opens a council at Osney Abbey, Oxford.

title: 1222

text: The earliest known manuscript of The Proverbs of Alfred, a collection of sayings of England's Alfred the Great, is written.

title: 1251

text: The consequences of the volcanic 1257 Samalas eruption in Indonesia include the following anecdotal accounts: very dry fog in France; lunar eclipses in England; severe winter in Europe; a harsh spring in Iceland; famine in England, Germany, France and Italy; and pestilence in London, parts of France, Austria, Iraq, Syria, and southeast Turkey.

title: 1258

section: Events › By topic › Global

date: September

text: September – Rabban Bar Sauma arrives in Paris, and is received in an audience by King Philip IV (the Fair). He spends one month at the royal court, during his stay, Philip himself escorts him around the Sainte-Chapelle (or Holy Chapel) to see the collection of Passion relics by late King Louis IX (the Saint). Philip gives Bar Sauma many presents and sends one of his noblemen, Gobert de Helleville, to return with him to Mongol lands. In response, he attempts to form a military alliance with France and England.

title: 1287

date: May 28

text: May 28 – Thomas Cobham, Archdeacon of Lewes, is elected by his peers to be the Archbishop of Canterbury in England, but King Edward II intervenes and asks Pope Clement V to cancel the result. The Pope installs Walter Reynolds as the new archbishop on October 1.

title: 1313

section: Events › April – June

text: March 18 – After leading a six-week-long revolt from Wales against England's, and retreating to Glamorgan, Welsh rebel Llywelyn Bren finally surrenders to King Edward's general, Humphrey de Bohun at Ystradfellte.

title: 1316

text: September 20 – Scotland's King Robert the Bruce begins the "Great Raid" on sites in northern England, leading troops across the River Tweed and starting with an attack on Norham Castle. England's King Edward II responds with an order directing the English Army to assemble at Newcastle upon Tyne to make a counterattack.

title: 1322

text: July 20 – The kingdoms of England and Scotland sign a 14-year-truce.

title: 1369

text: May 20 – Edward the Black Prince, eldest son and heir apparent to England's King Edward III, presides over a council of bishops and nobles at Westminster on Whitsunday to review a demand by Pope Gregory XI for a subsidy from England to help the Papal States in the war against the Republic of Florence. In his letter, the Pope asserts his right as Lord Spiritual and refers to himself as "Lord of all". The English nobles conclude, and the bishops agree, that the Kingdom of England will not be subject to the Pope's authority.

title: 1374

text: June 27 – Hundred Years' War: The English, weakened by the plague, lose so much ground to the French that they agree to sign the Treaty of Bruges, leaving them with only the coastal towns of Calais, Bordeaux and Bayonne.

title: 1375

text: June 7 – The day before his death, Prince Edward of Wales, heir to the English throne and known as "The Black Prince" summons his father, King Edward III, and brother, John of Gaunt, and makes them swear to uphold the claim to the throne of his son Richard. Edward is the first "English" Prince of Wales (as opposed to Welsh) not to become King of England.

title: 1376

text: March 4 – Thomas Usk, English author

title: 1388

text: Glendalough monastery in Wicklow, Ireland is destroyed by English troops.

title: 1398

text: April 21 – Sir Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, resigns as England's Admiral of the North and West to join the resistance against King Henry IV. The office will remain vacant for more than six years. Percy will be beheaded in 1403 after his defeat in the Battle of Shrewsbury.

title: 1400

text: January 4 – The Epiphany Rising begins in England against King Henry IV by nobles planning to restore King Richard II to the throne, and is quickly crushed. Baron Lumley dies after attempting to seize Cirencester. The Earl of Salisbury and the Earl of Kent are captured and beheaded on January 7. Sir Thomas Blount is hanged, drawn and quartered at Oxford on January 12. Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester is captured and executed by a mob in Bristol on January 13. The Earl of Huntingdon is beheaded at Pleshey on January 16.

title: 1400

text: January 24 – France and England agree to extend their truce in the ongoing Burgundian War after the English Bishop of Durham and of Norwich meet with representatives of King Charles VI, prolonging a ceasefire until May 1.

title: 1415

text: July 29 – The Army of England, led by King Henry V, begins the siege of Rouen, the capital of Normandy in France. The siege lasts almost six months before the Burgundian French defenders surrender

title: 1418

text: March 28 – King James I of Scotland is released after having been held captive in England for 18 years. James is freed after putting his royal seal on a ransom treaty of £40,000, secured by Scottish hostages taking his place, as agreed at Durham, England.

title: 1424

text: October 12 – English forces under Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury, besiege Orléans. Jean de Dunois, the Bastard of Orléans, commands the defenders. Bombardment starts on October 17 and troops attempt an assault on

title: 1428

text: February 12 – Battle of Rouvray (or "of the Herrings"): English forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy, which is carrying rations (food) to the army of William de la Pole, 4th Earl of Suffolk at Orléans, from attack by the Comte de Clermont and John Stewart.

title: 1429

text: June 18 – Battle of Patay: French forces under Joan of Arc smash the English forces under Lord Talbot and Sir John Fastolf, forcing the withdrawal of the English from the Loire Valley.

title: 1429

text: May 8 – The English, weakened by disease and lack of supplies, depart Orléans.

title: 1429

text: April 11 – Henry Beaufort, Cardinal, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1377)

title: 1447

text: August 12 – Cherbourg, the last English territory in Normandy, surrenders to the French.

title: 1450

text: October 10 – In England, a rebellion is started by Duke of Buckingham, against King Richard III. Fighting between the supporters of King Richard and of the late King Edward IV lasts for more than six weeks.

title: 1483

text: October 2 – Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon arrives in England and arrives at Plymouth. Although she will later become the wife of King Henry VIII in 1509, she initially arrives to marry Henry's older brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales.

title: 1501

text: Bristol merchants return from Newfoundland (first so named this year from a letter) to England, carrying three native people and cod from the Grand Banks.

title: 1502

text: October 27 – George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros, English nobleman

title: 1513

text: In England, Bishop Vesey's Grammar School (at Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands) is founded by Bishop John Vesey; and Sir George Monoux College is founded as a grammar school at Walthamstow by Sir George Monoux, draper and Lord Mayor of London.

title: 1527

text: January 26 – Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, is appointed Lord Chancellor of England.

title: 1533

text: May 27 – A joint delegation of Lutherans from various German cities arrives in England for meetings with King Henry VIII; Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; and Thomas Cromwell, the former Chief Minister of England.

title: 1538

text: December 27 – Anne of Cleves arrives in England in fulfillment of the October 4 contract for marriage to King Henry VIII and the payment of a dowry of 100,000 florins to her brother. Anne and Henry are married 10 days later, but the marriage is annulled on July 12.

title: 1539

text: September 24 – The Debatable Lands on the border of England and Scotland are divided between the two kingdoms by a commission creating the Scots' Dike in an unsuccessful attempt to halt lawlessness here, but giving both countries their modern borders.

title: 1552

text: Rugby School, one of the oldest public schools in England, is founded.

title: 1567

text: June 17 – Francis Drake, during his circumnavigation of the world, lands in modern-day California, which he claims for Queen Elizabeth I. With an English claim here and in Newfoundland, it becomes the basis for English colonial charters which will claim all land from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from "sea to sea." Drake's claim is called Nova Albion (New England), and subsequent maps will show all lands north of New Spain and New Mexico under this name.

title: 1579

text: December 1 – In England, Jesuit priest Edmund Campion is executed for treason.

title: 1581

text: August 5 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on the site of the modern-day city of St. John's, claims the island of Newfoundland on behalf of England, marking the beginning of the British Empire.

title: 1583

text: The first water closet, by Sir John Harington, is installed in a manor near Kelston in England.

title: 1596

text: October 1 – The second of the Jamestown supply missions, which set out in July from England, arrives at Jamestown, Virginia, with Christopher Newport commanding the Mary and Margaret carrying 70 settlers, bringing the population back up to 120; the passengers include two women and some skilled artisans, mostly from continental Europe, to develop industries.

title: 1608

text: January 28 – Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and library founder (b. 1545)

title: 1613

text: May 13 – King James I of England is escorted by the Earl of Home across the border to return to Scotland (where he reigns as King James VI) for the first time since the Union of the Crowns 14 years earlier in 1603. He is given lodging at Home's Dunglass Castle, East Lothian.

title: 1617

text: October 29 – English adventurer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded at the Palace of Westminster, for allegedly conspiring treasonably against James I of England in 1603, following pressure from the Spanish government, over his attack on their settlement on the Orinoco, on his last (1617–18) voyage.

title: 1618

text: August 24 – Jasper Vinall becomes the first person to die while playing the sport of cricket, after being struck on the head with a bat during a game at Horsted Keynes in England.

title: 1624

text: December 9 – Thirty Years' War: The Netherlands and England sign the Treaty of The Hague, a military peace treaty for providing economical aid to King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway, during his military campaigns in Germany.

title: 1625

text: July – The Barbary pirates first attack south-western England. In August they enslave about 60 people from Mount's Bay in Cornwall.

title: 1625

text: September 15 – After several skirmishes in the preceding days, troops under the Marquis of Toiras successfully recapture the island of Ré, forcing the Duke of Soubise to flee to England, and ending the second Huguenot rebellion.

title: 1625

text: February 17 – England lands the first European settlers on Barbados.

title: 1627

text: February 13 – Fire engines are used for the first time in England in order to control and extinguish a fire that breaks out at London Bridge, but not before 43 houses are destroyed.

title: 1633

text: August 8 – Battle of Dungan's Hill: Irish forces are defeated by English Parliamentary forces.

title: 1647

text: April 20 – Oliver Cromwell expels the Rump Parliament in England.

title: 1653

text: March 31 – The war in the West Indies between the indigenous Carib people, and the French Jesuits and English people who have colonized the islands, is ended with a treaty signed at Basse-Terre at Guadeloupe at the residence of the French Governor, Charles Houël du Petit Pré.

title: 1660

text: August 28 – In an unseasonably cold summer, severe frost hits England.

title: 1663

text: July 27 – The English Parliament passes the second Navigation Act, requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports.

title: 1663

text: July 11 – Representatives of England (led by King Charles II) and Denmark (led by King Christian V) sign a treaty of alliance and commerce, the Treaty of Copenhagen.

title: 1670

text: July 18 (July 8, O.S.) – The Treaty of Madrid, also known as the Godolphin Treaty, is signed between England and Spain to formally end hostilities left over from the Anglo-Spanish War, in the Caribbean, that ended ten years earlier. For the first time, Spain acknowledges that it is not entitled to all territory in the Americas west of Brazil, as provided by the 1493 line of demarcation decreed by Pope Alexander VI, and by the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal. Spain acknowledges that Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are English possessions.

title: 1670

text: January 30 – The Orthodox Confession of Faith is drafted up in the Buckinghamshire Assembly and signed by 54 messengers and elders of all Baptist churches in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Oxfordshire, in England.

title: 1679

text: September 15 – A four month truce between England and Morocco expires and the Alcaid Omar, Viceroy of Morocco, begins a bombardment of the English fort at Tangier.

title: 1680

text: September 29 – The first organised street lighting is introduced by the city of London in England, as Edward Hemming begins carrying out his contract to be paid for lighting an oil lamp "at every tenth house on main streets between 6 PM and midnight between September 29 and March 25" on nights in the autumn and winter without adequate moonlight.

title: 1685

text: November 26 – Hearing that William of Orange has landed in England, Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands.

title: 1688

text: May 18 – Elias Ashmole, English antiquarian (b. 1617)

title: 1692

text: December 31 – A window tax is imposed in England. Some windows are bricked up to avoid it.

title: 1695

text: November 28 – Anthony Wood, English antiquarian (b. 1632)

title: 1695

text: June 20 – The Pact of Genoa is signed by representatives of England and the Spanish Principality of Catalonia as a military alliance providing for English troops to be stationed in Catalonia as part of the War of Spanish Succession.

title: 1705

text: July 9 – Christopher Slaughterford of London is executed in Guildford for the murder of Jane Young, his fiancée. He is the first person in modern England executed for murder based exclusively on circumstantial evidence, and he maintains his innocence to the last.

title: 1709

text: April 28 – Thomas Betterton, English actor (b. c. 1635)

title: 1710

text: November 5 – The southwest spire of Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire, England is struck by lightning, resulting in a fire that spreads to the nave and tower, destroying roofs, bells, clock and organ.

title: 1711

text: October 14 – Woodes Rogers returns to England after a successful round-the-world privateering cruise against Spain, carrying loot worth £150,000.

title: 1711

text: The first known working Newcomen steam engine is built by Thomas Newcomen with John Calley, to pump water out of mines in the Black Country of England, the first device to make practical use of the power of steam to produce mechanical work.

title: 1712

text: August – Longman, the oldest surviving publishing house in England, is founded in London by Thomas Longman.

title: 1724

text: December 11 – John Strype, English historian and biographer (b. 1643)

title: 1737

text: February 22 – Charles Rivington, English publisher (b. 1688)

title: 1742

text: June 24–October 14 – The English ships Dobbs galley and California, under Captains William Moore and Francis Smith, explore Hudson Bay, discovering there is no Northwest Passage by this route.

title: 1747

text: March 25 – For the last time, New Year's Day is legally on March 25, in England and Wales and "in all his Majesty's Dominions in Europe, Asia, Africa and America" due to the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. The months of January 1751, February 1751 and most of March 1751 did not exist in British territories: those months were recorded as the last three of 1750 according to the Old Style dating system; the equivalent months a year later were recorded as the first three of 1752 under the New Style system.

title: 1751

text: February 15 – The British Royal Navy ship HMS Royal Katherine runs aground off Bolt Head in England, with the loss of 699 lives.

title: 1760

text: July 3 – A lightning strike causes a major fire at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in England.

title: 1760

text: January – Central England records its coldest ever month, in the CET records dating back to 1659.

title: 1795

text: January 2 – Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke in Seaham, county of Durham, England.

title: 1815

text: December 27 – Thomas Blakiston, English explorer, zoologist, and naturalist. (d. 1891)

title: 1832

text: June 7 – The Reform Act receives royal assent after passage by the British Parliament, reforming the electoral system and setting uniform law for voting rights in England and Wales, though not in Scotland or Ireland.

title: 1832

text: May 15 – The Great Gold Robbery is made from a moving train between London Bridge and Folkestone in England, one of the first crimes of its kind.

title: 1855

text: Nottingham Forest Football Club, an association football based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, England, is founded.

title: 1865

text: October 28 – The first stone is laid for the Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech, England.

title: 1880

text: March 26 – The Body Shop, the retail chain for skin care products and cosmetics founded by Anita Roddick, opens its first branch in Brighton, England.

title: 1976

text: June 8–30 – England hosts the UEFA Euro 1996 football tournament, which is won by Germany.

title: 1996

text: May 18 – English whisky is re-established in England.

title: 2005

text: October 23 – The bodies of 39 people are found in a truck container in Essex, England. A 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland is arrested on suspicion of murder.

title: 2019

text: July 28–August 8 – The 2022 Commonwealth Games is held in Birmingham, England.

title: 2022

text: July 6 – July 31 – UEFA Women's Euro 2022, originally intended for 2021 but indirectly delayed due to UEFA Euro 2020 being delayed, is held in England, with the hosts winning their first major tournament since 1966.

title: 2022


slug: english-channel

label: English Channel

description: arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France

year_label: 55 BCE

text: Summer – Julius Caesar defeats the Usipetes and the Tencteri, two Germanic tribes who have been driven across the Rhine River by the Suebi. He spreads Roman law and order, and makes the whole country as far as the Channel accessible to trade.

title: 55 BC

section: Events › By place › Roman Republic

text: Carausius, naval commander at Bononia (modern-day Boulogne), is given the task of clearing the English Channel of Frankish and Saxon pirates.

title: 285

text: Summer – Constantine joins his father at Bononia (Boulogne) in Gaul; they cross the Channel to Britain and make their way to Eboracum (York), capital of Britannia Secunda and home to a large military base. They campaign with success against the Picts.

title: 305

text: Roman Civil war of 407–415:Constantine III, a general (magister militum), declares himself Roman emperor. To extend his dominion over Gaul and Spain, he takes practically all the Roman garrisons from Britain and crosses the English Channel. Constantine occupies Arles and establishes tenuous authority over Gaul, sharing control with marauding "barbarians". This is generally seen as the beginning of Rome's withdrawal from Britain.

title: 407

text: Columbanus, Irish missionary, gathers 12 companions for his journey to Britain, probably to the Scottish coast. After a short time, he crosses the English Channel and lands in Brittany (France).

title: 585

text: Cyneheard is executed and succeeded by Beorhtric, through the support of King Offa of Mercia. His rival claimant to the Wessex throne, a distant nephew of the late king Ine, named Egbert, is driven across the Channel.

title: 786

section: Events › By place › Britain

text: Danish Vikings land in Kent and besiege Rochester. Town defences having been improved, the city holds out long enough for Alfred the Great to organize an army. He forces the Vikings to flee back across the Channel, to the Continent.

title: 885

text: King Edward the Confessor goes to war against Flanders, blockading the English Channel with a fleet based at Sandwich, Kent.

title: 1048

section: Events › By place › England

date: November 11

text: November 11 – Great floods around the North Sea and English Channel.

title: 1099

section: Events › By topic › Natural events

section: Disasters & Accidents

date: November 25

text: November 25 – The White Ship sinks in the English Channel off Barfleur. Henry I's only legitimate son, William Adelin, is among 300 (many of them Anglo-Norman nobility) who drown.

title: 1120

text: Summer – King Philip II ("Augustus") conquers most of the Angevin lands, including much of Aquitaine. Fearing a French invasion of England itself, John, King of England ("Lackland") requires every English male over 12 years to enter a mobilization "for the general defense of the realm and the preservation of peace". John prepares an expedition force of his own, but the barons refuse to cross the Channel.

title: 1205

date: August 24

text: August 24 – Battle of Sandwich: An English fleet under Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent defeats the French armada (10 large ships and 70 supply ships) in the English Channel, near Sandwich. The French fleet is commanded by Eustace the Monk, a mercenary and pirate, who fights for both the French and English when it suits his needs. The French fleet is bringing more men and supplies to assist Prince Louis, in his quest to take the English throne. The English capture Eustace's flagship, and Eustace himself is (while offering 10,000 marks for ransom) beheaded.

title: 1217

section: Events › Other events by place › Europe

date: December 14

text: December 14 – A huge storm and associated storm tide in the North Sea and English Channel, known as St. Lucia's flood in the Netherlands, kills thousands and reshapes the coastline of the Netherlands and England. In the Netherlands, a fringing barrier between the North Sea and a shallow lake collapses, causing the fifth-largest flood in recorded history – which creates the Zuider Zee inlet, and kills over 50,000 people. It also gives sea access to Amsterdam, allowing its development as an important port city.

title: 1287

date: July 11

text: July 11–12 – Edward III and the English army cross the English Channel and begin an invasion of France.

title: 1346

date: March 18

text: March 18 – The French prepare to defend the channel coasts.

title: 1346

section: Health & Medicine

text: By June 24 – The Black Death pandemic reaches England, having probably been brought across the English Channel by fleas on rats aboard a ship from Gascony to the south coast port of Melcombe (modern-day Weymouth, Dorset); by November it will have reached London and by 1350 will have killed one third to a half of its population.

title: 1348

section: Events › January–December

date: June 22

text: June 22 – The Kingdom of France and the Crown of Castile defeat the Kingdom of England in the Battle of La Rochelle, and France gains control of the English Channel for the first time since 1340.

title: 1372

section: Events › April–June

date: October 18

text: October 18 – An English fleet organised by John Hawley of Dartmouth and Thomas Norton of Bristol seizes seven French merchant vessels in the English Channel.

title: 1403

section: Events › October–December

date: March 22

text: March 22 – On "Monday before the Annunciation", Prince James, the 10-year-old son of King Robert III of Scotland, is captured while being taken across the English Channel from Scotland to France when the ship he is on, Maryenknyght, by privateers Hugh atte Fen, William Oxeney, John Hacon and Nicholas Steyward of Cley. The crown prince is delivered to London where he is held hostage by King Henry IV of England for the next 18 years.

title: 1406

section: Events › January–March

date: August 14

text: August 14 – The Siege of Dieppe, an attempt by England's Earl of Shrewsbury to capture the French port at Normandy and France's access to the English Channel, fails after nine months.

title: 1443

section: Events › July–September

date: July 4

text: July 4 – Brought on ships across the English Channel, an English fleet and army under the command of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, attacks Brittany and Picardy after landing at Le Dourduff-en-Mer, near Calais, and burns and loots the countryside.

title: 1522

date: May 25

text: May 25 – On orders of King Henry VIII, the English Navy, commanded by Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, begins crossing the English Channel to invade from the west with 19,000 troops, while Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, commences an invasion of France from the east.

title: 1544

date: April 5

text: April 5 – The English galleon ship HMS Grehound strikes a sandbar off of the coast of Rye, East Sussex and sinks with all hands in the English Channel, including the Admiral of the Narrow Seas, John Malyn.

title: 1563

text: May 28 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from the Tagus estuary, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sedonia and Juan Martínez de Recalde, heading for the English Channel (it will take until May 30 for all of the ships to leave port).

title: 1588

date: October 21

text: October 21 – The Spanish Armada reaches the English Channel without opposition. An English ship sees the invading force's approach, but is intercepted and sunk, with the survivors being taken prisoner. The Armada encounters a storm the next day.

title: 1597

date: November 22

text: November 22 – commissioned by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore to transport 140 English colonists to the province of Maryland in America, The Ark and another ship, the Dove (with 128 settlers), depart Gravesend in England for the New World. Three days later, the two ships become separated by a storm in the English Channel, and the crew of The Ark assumes that the Dove sank.

title: 1633

date: March 2

text: March 2 – The future Charles II of England escapes from Cornwall into exile across the English Channel.

title: 1646

date: December 7

text: December 7–10 (November 26–29 O.S.) – The Great Storm of 1703, an extratropical cyclone, ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing at least 8,000, mostly at sea. The Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth is destroyed in the storm together with its designer Henry Winstanley and many buildings on land are damaged.

title: 1703

date: August 17

text: August 17 – Action of 17 August 1779: The 64-gun British warship HMS Ardent is captured by France in the English Channel off of Plymouth after an ineffective attempt by the British captain to properly aim its cannons at the French frigate Junon.

title: 1779

section: Technology & Infrastructure

date: January 7

text: January 7 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a hydrogen gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air.

title: 1785

date: March 31

text: March 31 – The paddle steamer , bound from Cork to London, is wrecked in the English Channel with the loss of all 250 on board.

title: 1850

date: November 13

text: November 13 – The first protected submarine telegraph cable is laid, across the English Channel.

title: 1851

date: June 19

text: June 19 – American Civil War: Battle of Cherbourg – Confederate States Navy CSS Alabama is sunk in a single-ship action with USS Kearsarge, in the English Channel off the coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, France.

title: 1864

section: Events › June

date: August 25

text: August 25 – Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.

title: 1875

section: Events › August

date: March 24

text: March 24 – The British Royal Navy frigate capsizes in the English Channel; all but 2 of the 319 crew members are killed.

title: 1878

section: Events › March

date: January 5

text: January 5 – The collision of a British steamer and a French steamer kills 12 people on the English Channel.

title: 1899

text: March 11 – The world's first wireless distress signal is sent by wireless telegraphy (in Morse code) to the East Goodwin light vessel when German cargo-carrying barquentine Elbe runs aground in fog in the English Channel.

title: 1899

text: March 27 – Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmits a radio signal across the English Channel.

title: 1899

text: July 25 – Louis Blériot is the first man to fly across the English Channel (thus a large open body of water) in a heavier-than-air craft.

title: 1909

text: June 2 – Charles Rolls became the first person to fly across the English Channel and back without stopping.

title: 1910

text: April 16 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

title: 1912

text: July 1 – Harriet Quimby, who set the record as the first woman to fly the English Channel two months previously, dies in Squantum, Massachusetts, after her brand-new two-seat Bleriot monoplane crashes, killing both Quimby and her passenger.

title: 1912

text: March 24 – French ferry is torpedoed by in the English Channel, with at least 50 killed (including the composer Enrique Granados), resulting on May 4 in the Sussex Pledge by Germany to the United States.

title: 1916

text: August 3 – WWI: Australian hospital ship is torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel on passage from Le Havre to Southampton by German submarine with the loss of 123 of the 801 people on board.

title: 1918

text: January 20 – British K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel; all 57 on board are lost.

title: 1921

text: August 6 – American Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, from France to England.

title: 1926

text: February 11–13 – WWII: Operation Cerberus: A Kriegsmarine (German navy) squadron comprising the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and their escort, dash from Brest through the English Channel to German ports; the British fail to sink any of them.

title: 1942

text: May – Operation Pluto: The plan to construct oil pipelines under the English Channel, between England and France, is tested in the River Medway.

title: 1942

text: December 15 – A USAAF utility aircraft carrying bandleader Major Glenn Miller disappears in heavy fog over the English Channel, while flying to Paris.

title: 1944

text: British Group Captain James Stagg correctly forecasts a brief improvement in weather conditions over the English Channel, which will permit the following day's Normandy landings to take place (having been deferred from today due to unfavourable weather).

title: 1944

text: July 6 – The world's first Air Car-ferry service is flown by a Bristol Freighter of Silver City Airways, from Lympne to Le Touquet across the English Channel.

title: 1948

text: August 8 – American Florence Chadwick swims the English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes, beating the women's record for the crossing.

title: 1950

text: June 30 – The first roll-on/roll-off ferry crossing of the English Channel, Dover–Boulogne, takes place.

title: 1953

text: August 18 – Brojen Das from East Pakistan swims across the English Channel in a competition, the first Bangali as well as the first Asian to ever do it. He is first among 39 competitors.

title: 1958

text: July 25 – The British SR.N1 hovercraft crosses the English Channel from Calais to Dover in just over 2 hours, on the 50th anniversary of Louis Blériot's first crossing by heavier-than-air craft.

title: 1959

text: April 30 – Regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel (discontinued in 2000).

title: 1966

text: June 12 – Bryan Allen flies the man-powered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.

title: 1979

text: December 1 – Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first land connection between Great Britain and the mainland of Europe for around 8,000 years.

title: 1990


slug: english-language

label: English language

description: West Germanic language

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: October 13

text: October 13 – The Chancellor of England for the first time opens Parliament with a speech in English. Under Edward III, the Pleading in English Act makes English rather than Law French the official language in English law courts.

title: 1362

date: August 12

text: August 12 – King Henry V of England begins using the English language in correspondence back to England from France, where he is leading a campaign, marking the beginning of this king's continuous usage of English in prose, and the beginning of the restoration of English as an official language for the first time since the Norman Conquest, some 350 years earlier.

title: 1417

text: Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye is the first book to be printed in English, by William Caxton in Bruges (or 1473–74?).

title: 1475

section: Events › Date unknown

section: Religion & Belief

date: March 26

text: March 26 – William Caxton, the first printer of books in English, prints his translation of Aesop's Fables in London.

title: 1484

date: June 15

text: June 15 – English printer William Caxton prints his English language translation of the French book, Ars moriendi, which he renders as The art and crafte to knowe well to dye.

title: 1490

section: Science & Discovery

text: Welsh-born mathematician Robert Recorde publishes The Whetstone of Witte in London, containing the first recorded use of the equals sign, and the first use in English of plus and minus signs.

title: 1557

section: Culture & Society

date: March

text: March – The New Testament of the Douai Bible, the translation into English by Father Gregory Martin from Latin of the New Testament, for use in the Roman Catholic Church, is published. Martin had started his work on October 16, 1578.

title: 1582

date: March 25

text: March 25 – English replaces Latin and Law French as the official language of English and Scottish courts following the enforcement of the Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730.

title: 1733

date: September 1

text: September 1 – The oldest existing English language newspaper in the world, The News Letter, is founded in Belfast, Ireland.

title: 1737

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: Robert Wood publishes The ruins of Palmyra; otherwise Tedmor in the desart in English and French, making the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra known to the West.

title: 1753

date: January 20

text: January 20 – Ram Mohan Roy and David Hare found Hindu College, Calcutta, offering instructions in English on Western subjects, including other European languages.

title: 1817

text: The Finnish epic Kalevala is published for the first time in the English language, by American linguist John Martin Crawford.

title: 1888


slug: english-parliament

label: English Parliament

date: October 20

text: October 20 – The English Parliament begins its fourth session of the reign of King Edward II and meets at Westminster.

title: 1308

section: Events › October – December

date: September 23

text: September 23 – The English Parliament is called into session for the fourth time in less than 12 months, after three unsuccessful attempts to assemble members. King Edward II persuades the session to pass a tax bill for revenues to be collected by the following June in order to finance a new campaign against Scotland.

title: 1313

section: Events › July – September

date: October 10

text: October 10 – King Edward II calls for representatives of the three estates (including the knights representative) to meet at Westminster for a session of the English Parliament, beginning on November 18 to discuss the matter of the failure of his wife, Queen Isabella, to return from France.

title: 1325

date: April 6

text: April 6 – King Edward III summons the members of the House of Lords and House of Commons to assemble on June 3 for a session of the English Parliament.

title: 1369

date: January 8

text: January 8 – King Edward II summons the members of the House of Lords and House of Commons to assemble at Westminster for a one-month session of the English Parliament.

title: 1371

date: September 3

text: September 3 – As regent for the 11-year-old King Richard II of England, his mother Joan of Kent summons the English Parliament, directing the members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords to assemble at Gloucester on October 20.

title: 1378

date: August 26

text: August 26 – King Richard II of England summons the English Parliament five months after the dissolution of the previous meeting, and directs the members of the House of Commons and House of Lords to assemble on November 5 at Westminster.

title: 1380

text: January 7 – King Richard II issues a summons for the Lords and members of the House of Commons to assemble for the English Parliament, to convene on February 23.

title: 1383

date: October 26

text: October 26 – King Henry IV of England summons the English Parliament to assemble, starting on January 27.

title: 1409

date: November 3

text: November 3 – The English Parliament is assembled after being summoned by King Henry IV, and again elects Thomas Chaucer as Speaker of the House of Commons.

title: 1411

date: November 4

text: November 4 – The English Parliament is opened by King Henry V for an 8-day session.

title: 1415

date: October 16

text: October 16 – The first session, in almost two years, of the English Parliament is opened by King Henry V. The House of Commons re-elects Roger Flower as its speaker.

title: 1419

text: October 20–King Henry V summons the English Parliament for the last time in his life, directing the members to assemble at Westminster on December 1.

title: 1421

date: September 29

text: September 29 – The Duke of Bedford Regent for King Henry VI of England, summons the members of Parliament to assemble at Westminster on November 9.

title: 1422

date: February 23

text: February 23 – King Henry VI of England gives royal assent to numerous bills passed by the English Parliament, including the Treason Act 1429

title: 1430

date: May 12

text: May 12 – The new English Parliament session is opened at Westminster by the regents for King Henry VI of England, and Sir John Russell is elected by his peers as Speaker of the House of Commons.

title: 1432

date: July 8

text: July 8 – The English Parliament assembles at Westminster, and Roger Hunt is elected as Speaker of the House of Commons.

title: 1433

date: October 29

text: October 29 – The regents for King Henry VI summon members of the English Parliament to assemble on January 21 at Westminster.

title: 1436

date: January 21

text: January 21– The English Parliament, summoned in the name of King Henry VI on October 29, assembles at Westminster. The House of Commons elects the ailing John Tyrrell as its Speaker.

title: 1437

date: March 12

text: March 12 – After a session of eight months that had started on July 9, 1455, the English Parliament adjourns at Westminster. Royal assent is given by King Henry VI to bills passed, including the Importation Act 1455, banning the import for the next five years of woven silk goods (including ribbons and girdles) that had been manufactured outside of England, and subjecting importers to heavy fines. and the Embezzlement Act, allowing civil remedies by executors of estates to recover goods that had been stolen by servants from their masters.

title: 1456

text: January 21 – The English Parliament opens its second session during the reign of King Edward IV, gathering at Westminster, and will remain in session until March 28, 1465.

title: 1464

date: March 28

text: March 28 – King Edward IV gives royal assent to acts passed by the English Parliament, including the Pattens Act 1464, regulating the manufacture of pattens, shoes with wooden soles and heels, and leather covering, declaring that "Patten-makers may make pattens of such asp as is not fit for shafts." The law is among several given royal assent to regulate clothing, including the Cloths Act, the Exportation of Wool Act and Contracting for Wool Act and the Shoemakers Act. The parliament, in session since April 29, 1463, closes.

title: 1465

date: January 23

text: January 23 – King Richard III of England assembles his first, and only Parliament, opening a 29-day session.

title: 1484

date: January 13

text: January 13 – The English Parliament opens at Westminster, with Thomas Fitzwilliam as the Speaker of the House of Commons. The day after its opening, the Treason Act 1488 and the Collusive Actions Act 1488 go into effect on resolution of the English Parliament.

title: 1489

date: January 16

text: January 16 – At Westminster, King Henry VII opens his sixth English Parliament for a two-month session. The House of Commons elects Sir Thomas Englefield as its speaker.

title: 1497

section: Crime & Justice

text: November 13 – On "a great misty morning such as hath seldom been seen", Robert Pakington, a London merchant and a member of the English Parliament, becomes the first person in Britain to be murdered with a handgun, while he is walking across the street from his home at Soper's Lane toward the Mercers' Chapel. His assailant is never caught, despite the offer of a large reward.

title: 1536

date: April 28

text: April 28 – The English Parliament meets for the first time since 1536, after being summoned by King Henry VIII as his seventh Parliament.

title: 1539

text: The English Parliament establishes the first turnpike trusts, which place a length of road under the control of trustees, drawn from local landowners and traders. The trusts borrow capital for road maintenance against the security of tolls, and this arrangement becomes the common method of road maintenance for the next 150 years.

title: 1707


slug: english-people

label: English people

description: citizens or residents of England

date: March 16

text: March 16 – Edward the Black Prince establishes the Duchy of Cornwall, becoming the first English Duke.

title: 1337

section: Events › January–December

section: Deaths

date: September 22

text: September 22 – Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, English politician (b. 1366)

title: 1399

date: August 20

text: August 20 – English merchant Anthony Jenkinson arrives in Moscow on his second expedition to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

title: 1561

date: March 15

text: March 15 – English merchant Anthony Jenkinson has an audience with Ivan the Terrible in Moscow, before departing the city on April 27 and continuing his second expedition through the Grand Duchy of Moscow to Qazvin, capital of the Safavid dynasty in Persia.

title: 1562

date: September 28

text: September 28 – English merchant Anthony Jenkinson returns to London from his second expedition to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, having gained a considerable extension of trading rights for the English Muscovy Company.

title: 1564

date: June 4

text: June 4 – Walter Raleigh sends Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to explore the Outer Banks of Virginia (modern-day North Carolina), with a view to establishing an English colony; they locate Roanoke Island.

title: 1584

section: Events › April–June

date: April 10

text: April 10 – English merchant James Lancaster sets off on a voyage to the East Indies.

title: 1591

date: April

text: April – English merchant Anthony de la Roché, blown off course after rounding Cape Horn eastabout, makes the first discovery of land south of the Antarctic Convergence, landing on South Georgia and (probably) Gough Island.

title: 1675

text: English historian and naturalist Robert Plot publishes The Natural History of Staffordshire, a collection of illustrations and texts detailing the history of the county. It is the first document known to mention crop circles and a double sunset.

title: 1686

section: Conflict & Security

date: September 7

text: September 7 – English pirate Henry Every perpetrates one of the most profitable raids in history, with the capture of the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai. In response, Emperor Aurangzeb threatens to put an end to all English trading in India.

title: 1695

date: January 31

text: January 31 – Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, English privy councilor (b. c. 1645)

title: 1720

text: English astronomer James Bradley uses stellar aberration (first observed in 1725) to calculate the speed of light, and observes nutation of the Earth's axis.

title: 1728

date: March 3

text: March 3 – English Captain Charles Gough rediscovers Gough Island in the South Atlantic.

title: 1732

section: Births

date: January 18

text: January 18 – Alfred Percy Sinnett, English writer and theosophist (d. 1921)

title: 1840

section: Births › January–March

date: July 14

text: July 14 – First ascent of the Matterhorn: The summit of the Matterhorn in the Alps is reached for the first time, by a party of 7 led by the Englishman Edward Whymper; 4 die in a fall during the descent.

title: 1865

section: Events › July

section: Health & Medicine

date: April 5

text: April 5 – Census in the United Kingdom: 15.6 million people live in cities of 20,000 or more in England and Wales, and cities of 20,000 or more account for 54% of the total English population.

title: 1891

section: Events › April


slug: epaminondas

label: Epaminondas

description: Theban general and statesman (419/411–362 BC)

year_label: 418 BCE

text: Epaminondas of Thebes, Theban general and statesman (d. 362 BC)

title: 418 BC

year_label: 382 BCE

text: The Spartan commander Phoebidas, who is passing through Boeotia on campaign, takes advantage of civil strife within Thebes to gain entrance to the city for his troops. Once inside, he seizes the Cadmeia (the citadel of Thebes), and forces the anti-Spartan party to flee the city. The government of Thebes is placed in the hands of the pro-Spartan party, backed by a Spartan garrison based in the Cadmeia. Many of the previous leaders of Thebes are driven into exile. Epaminondas, although associated with the anti-Spartan faction, is allowed to remain.

title: 382 BC

section: Events › By place › Greece

year_label: 378 BCE

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: The Theban general and statesman, Epaminondas, takes command of Thebes. Pelopidas is elected boeotarch, or chief magistrate, of the city.

title: 378 BC

year_label: 371 BCE

text: A fresh peace congress is summoned at Sparta. At the peace conference, the Spartan King Agesilaus II (with the support of Athens) refuses to allow the Thebans to sign the treaty on behalf of all Boeotia. The Theban statesman Epaminondas, who is boeotarch (one of the five magistrates of the Boeotian federation), maintains Thebes' position, even when it leads to the exclusion of Thebes from the peace treaty.

title: 371 BC

year_label: 370 BCE

text: The Spartans under King Agesilaus II invade Arcadia. After appealing in vain to the Athenians for help, Arcadia turns to the Thebans. Epaminondas of Thebes arrives with an army, finds that the Spartans have retired and follows them.

title: 370 BC

year_label: 369 BCE

text: After driving off the Spartan army that has threatened Mantinea, Epaminondas of Thebes moves south and crosses the Evrotas River (the frontier of Sparta), which no hostile army has breached in historical memory. The Spartans, unwilling to engage the massive Theban army in battle, remain inside their city while the Thebans and their allies ravage Laconia.

title: 369 BC

text: Epaminondas briefly returns to Arcadia, then marches south to Messenia, a territory which the Spartans had conquered some 200 years before. There, Epaminondas starts the rebuilding of the ancient city of Messene on Mount Ithome, with fortifications that are among the strongest in Greece. He then issues a call to Messenian exiles all over Greece to return and rebuild their homeland. The loss of Messenia is particularly damaging to the Spartans, since the territory comprises one-third of Sparta's territory and contains half of their helot population.

title: 369 BC

year_label: 368 BCE

text: In response, Epaminondas is reinstated in command of Theban troops and leads the Theban army into Thessaly, where he outmanoeuvres the Thessalians and secures the release of Pelopidas without a fight.

title: 368 BC

year_label: 367 BCE

text: The Theban general, Epaminondas, again invades the Peloponnesus, but this time achieves little beyond winning Sicyon over to an alliance with Thebes. When he returns to Thebes, he is again put on trial, and again acquitted.

title: 367 BC

year_label: 366 BCE

text: Theban leader, Epaminondas, returns to the Peloponnesus for a third time, seeking to secure the allegiance of the states of Achaea. Although no army dares to challenge him in the field, the democratic governments he establishes there are short-lived, as pro-Spartan aristocrats soon return to the cities, reestablish the oligarchies, and bind their cities ever more closely to Sparta.

title: 366 BC

year_label: 364 BCE

text: On the advice of the city's military leader, Epaminondas, Thebes builds a fleet of 100 triremes to help combat Athens. Thebes destroys its Boeotian rival Orchomenus.

title: 364 BC

year_label: 363 BCE

text: The Theban general, Epaminondas, makes a bold attempt to challenge Athens' naval empire. With a new Boeotian fleet, he sails to Byzantium, with the result that a number of cities in the Athenian Empire rebel against their now threatened masters.

title: 363 BC

year_label: 362 BCE

text: Epaminondas of Thebes, Greek general and statesman (b. c. 418 BC)

title: 362 BC


slug: ephesus

label: Ephesus

description: ancient Greek city in Anatolia

year_label: 550 BCE

text: The Temple of Artemis is completed in Ephesus.

title: 550 BC

section: Events

year_label: 540 BCE

text: Heraclitus, Greek philosopher, born in Ephesus (approximate year)

title: 540 BC

year_label: 498 BCE

text: Athens and Eretria respond to the Ionian plea for help against Persia and send troops. An Athenian and Eretrian fleet transports Athenian troops to Ephesus. There they are joined by a force of Ionians and march upon Sardis, the capital of Artaphernes (the satrap of Lydia and brother to Darius I of Persia). Artaphernes, who has sent most of his troops to besiege Miletus, is taken by surprise. However, Artaphernes is able to retreat to the citadel and hold it. Although the Greeks are unable to take the citadel, they pillage the town and set fires that burn Sardis to the ground.

title: 498 BC

year_label: 409 BCE

text: The Athenian general, Thrasyllus, sails out from Athens with a sizable force to campaign in Ionia. There, he quickly captures Colophon and raids the Ionian countryside, but is defeated outside Ephesus by a combined Ephesian, Persian, and Syracusan force.

title: 409 BC

year_label: 408 BCE

text: The Spartan admiral Lysander arrives at Ephesus in autumn and builds up a great fleet with help from the new Persian satrap, Cyrus.

title: 408 BC

year_label: 407 BCE

text: The Spartan admiral Lysander refuses to be lured out of Ephesus to do battle with Alcibiades. However, while Alcibiades is away seeking supplies, the Athenian squadron is placed under the command of Antiochus, his helmsman, who is routed by the Spartan fleet (with the help of the Persians under Cyrus) in the Battle of Notium (or Ephesus).

title: 407 BC

year_label: 400 BCE

text: Thibron embarks his army at the Isthmus of Corinth and sails to Ephesus on the Ionian coast. Upon arrival, he recruits an additional 2,000 soldiers and starts his campaign against Tissaphernes.

title: 400 BC

section: Events › By place

year_label: 356 BCE

section: Disasters & Accidents

date: July 21

text: July 21 (traditional date) – The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus is burned down by a madman named Herostratus, destroying one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The great temple was built by Croesus, king of Lydia, in about 550 BC and was famous not only for its great size (110 metres by 55 metres), but also for the magnificent works of art that adorned it.

title: 356 BC

section: Events › By topic › Architecture

year_label: 302 BCE

text: As Antigonus is finding his enemies closing in on him, a truce is made and the gains by Demetrius have to be abandoned. Demetrius reaches Ephesus to support his father.

title: 302 BC

year_label: 255 BCE

text: In the Second Syrian War, Ptolemy II loses ground in Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Ionia, while Antiochus II regains Miletus and Ephesus. A peace is then concluded between Antiochus and Ptolemy under which Antiochus is to marry Ptolemy's daughter Berenice Syra.

title: 255 BC

section: Events › By place › Egypt

year_label: 253 BCE

text: The second Syrian War between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies ends. Antiochus II regains much of Anatolia from Ptolemy II, including the cities of Miletus and Ephesus, and also the Phoenician coast.

title: 253 BC

section: Events › By place › Seleucid Empire

year_label: 241 BCE

text: Peace is finally reached between Ptolemy III and Seleucus II. Ptolemy manages to keep the Orontes River region in Syria and Antioch as well as Ephesus in Asia Minor and Thrace and Cilicia.

title: 241 BC

year_label: 195 BCE

text: Tensions between Antiochus III and Rome increase when Hannibal is given refuge by Antiochus III at Ephesus and becomes his adviser.

title: 195 BC

year_label: 191 BCE

text: The Romans under Manius Acilius Glabrio and Cato the Elder cut the Seleucid king Antiochus III off from his reinforcements in Thrace and outflank his position at the pass of Thermopylae in the Battle of Thermopylae. With the remainder of his troops, Antiochus flees to Chalcis on Euboea and from there he retreats by sea to Ephesus.

title: 191 BC

section: Events › By place › Roman Republic

year_label: 41 BCE

text: Mark Antony meets Cleopatra VII in Tarsus (Cilicia) and forms an alliance. He returns to Alexandria with her and they become lovers in the winter of 41–40 BC. To safeguard herself and Caesarion, she has Antony order the execution of her (half) sister Arsinoe IV, who is living at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

title: 41 BC

year_label: 53 CE

section: Religion & Belief

text: Paul the Apostle writes his epistle to the Galatians from Ephesus (approximate date).

title: 50s

section: Events › 53 AD › Anatolia

year_label: 54 CE

text: Apollos, a later assistant of Paul, is converted to Christianity in Ephesus.

title: 50s

section: Events › 54 AD › Anatolia

year_label: 65 CE

text: Paul of Tarsus ordains Timothy as bishop of Ephesus (traditional date).

title: AD 65

section: Events › By topic › Religion

text: The Goths invade Asia Minor and destroy the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

title: 262

section: Events › By place › Roman Empire

section: Climate & Environment

text: An earthquake strikes Ephesus and Pergamon and another strikes Cyrene.

title: 262

text: The Temple of Artemis near Selçuk in Ephesus is dismantled.

title: 401

date: October

text: October – A Roman synod repudiates all the decisions of the Second Council of Ephesus.

title: 449

date: November

text: November – The combined forces of Louis VII and Conrad III meet at Lopardium and march along the coastal road via Pergamon and Smyrna to Ephesus, where they celebrate Christmas. Conrad, still suffering from his wounds, sails back to Constantinople to be placed under the care of Manuel's own physicians. Meanwhile, the Crusader camp is attacked by Turkish raiders near Ephesus.

title: 1147

section: Events › By place › Second Crusade

date: October 24

text: October 24 – Ottoman-Turkish forces led by Sultan Osman I conquer the ancient city of Ephesus from the Byzantine Empire, massacring and deporting its native population.

title: 1304


slug: epirus

label: Epirus

description: historical region of present-day Greece and Albania

year_label: 357 BCE

section: Culture & Society

text: Philip II of Macedon marries Olympias, the Molossian princess of Epirus thus helping to stabilize Macedonia's western frontier.

title: 357 BC

section: Events › By place › Macedonia

year_label: 350 BCE

section: Conflict & Security

text: Alexander I becomes king of Epirus after his brother-in-law, Philip II of Macedon, aids him in ousting the previous king, Arymbas.

title: 350 BC

year_label: 336 BCE

text: Following Philip II of Macedon's marriage to Eurydice, Alexander and his mother, Olympias, flee to Epirus, with Alexander later moving to Illyria. However, shortly afterward, father and son are reconciled and Alexander returns; but his position as heir is tenuous.

title: 336 BC

year_label: 331 BCE

section: Deaths

text: Alexander I of Epirus, Aeacid dynasty king of Epirus (b. c. 370 BC)

title: 331 BC

year_label: 319 BCE

text: Alexander the Great's widow, Roxana, joins Alexander's mother, Olympias, in Epirus.

title: 319 BC

section: Events › By place › Macedonian Empire

year_label: 317 BCE

text: Polyperchon flees to Epirus, where he joins Alexander the Great's mother Olympias, Alexander's widow Roxana, and Alexander's infant son Alexander IV. He forms an alliance with Olympias, who is acting as regent for Alexander IV, and King Aeacides of Epirus.

title: 317 BC

year_label: 315 BCE

section: Crime & Justice

text: The King of Epirus, Aeacides, faces a revolt from his people and they drive him from the kingdom. His son, Phyrrhus, who is then only two years old, is saved from being killed by some faithful servants. Cassander takes control of Epirus.

title: 315 BC

year_label: 313 BCE

text: Becoming tired of Macedonian rule, the people of Epirus recall their former king Aeacides (who until then had been campaigning with his old ally Polyperchon in the Peloponnese). Cassander immediately sends an army against him under his brother Philip, who is diverted from invading Aetolia.

title: 313 BC

year_label: 312 BCE

text: The people of Epirus elevate Aeacides' brother, Alcetas, to the kingship.

title: 312 BC

section: Events › By place › Greece/Macedon/Thrace

year_label: 307 BCE

text: Upon becoming ruler of Epirus, Pyrrhus allies himself with his brother-in-law, Demetrius and through him with Antigonus.

title: 307 BC

text: Pyrrhus is dethroned as King of Epirus by an uprising and joins Demetrius while in exile.

title: 302 BC

year_label: 288 BCE

text: The Macedonian King, Demetrius Poliorcetes, faces a combined attack from Lysimachus and Phyrrhus, king of Epirus, after Seleucus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus form a coalition to block plans by Demetrius to invade Asia Minor.

title: 288 BC

year_label: 279 BCE

text: The Carthaginians and the Romans agree to support each other against a common foe. The Carthaginians give Rome money and ships in their fight against Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus.

title: 279 BC

year_label: 275 BCE

text: When Pyrrhus returns from Sicily, he finds himself vastly outnumbered by a superior Roman army under the command of consul Manius Curius Dentatus. After the inconclusive Battle of Beneventum, Roman commander and statesman, Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, negotiates a peace with Pyrrhus, after which Pyrrhus decides to end his campaign in Italy and return to Epirus, which results in the loss of all his Italian holdings.

title: 275 BC

year_label: 272 BCE

text: Pyrrhus of Epirus, king of the Molossians (from c. 297 BC), Epirus (306–301 and 297–272 BC) and Macedon (288–284 and 273–272 BC); involved in disputes in southern Italy against Rome and in Sicily (b. 318 BC)

title: 272 BC

year_label: 263 BCE

text: Alexander II of Epirus attacks and conquers the greater part of Macedonia. However, he is then driven out of both Macedonia and Epirus by Demetrius II, the son of King Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia.

title: 263 BC

year_label: 234 BCE

text: The Epirote Alliance is replaced by the Epirote League, which is a federal state with its own parliament (or synedrion).

title: 234 BC

year_label: 231 BCE

text: Demetrius II, king of Macedonia, seeks military help from Agron, king of Illyria, a loosely organized state on the Adriatic coast north of Epirus, against the advancing Aetolians. The Illyrian army routs the Aetolians and returns home as the victor.

title: 231 BC

year_label: 222 BCE

text: Battle of Sellasia: Cleomenes III of Sparta is defeated by Antigonus III of Macedon and his allies (the Achaean League, the Boeotian League, the Acarnanians, Epirus and the Illyrians under the command of Demetrius of Pharos) near Sellasia (north of Sparta) and flees to Egypt under the protection of King Ptolemy III. Antigonus III's forces occupy Sparta, which is the first time this city has ever been occupied.

title: 222 BC

year_label: 171 BCE

text: Epirus joins Macedonia in the latter's fight against Rome. However, the leagues of southern Greece remain neutral.

title: 171 BC

year_label: 49 BCE

section: Exploration & Expansion

date: February

text: February – Pompey's flight to Epirus (in Western Greece) with most of the Senate.

title: 49 BC

section: Events › By place and Date › Roman Republic

text: The Albani appear in the Roman province of Macedonia, specifically in Epirus.

title: AD 150

text: Revolt of Alaric I: The Visigoths, led by Alaric I, rampage through Greece and plunder Corinth, Argos and Sparta. They destroy the Temple of Eleusis, and harry the Peloponnese. Stilicho makes peace with the Goths, and allows them to settle in Epirus (Balkans).

title: 396

text: Revolt of Alaric I: Stilicho traps the Visigoths under King Alaric in the Peloponnese, but decides to abandon the campaign against the Visigoths in Greece, thus allowing King Alaric to escape north to Epirus with his loot. Presumably, Stilicho has left Greece in order to prepare for military action in northern Africa, where a rebellion (see Gildonic Revolt in 398) seems imminent.

title: 397

text: The Vandals invade Epirus (modern Greece). They are expelled from the Peloponnese (Greece) and in retaliation, the Vandals take 500 hostages at Zakynthos. On the way back to Carthage they are slaughtered.

title: 469

section: Events › By place › Europe

date: August

text: August – Hugh ("the Great"), count of Vermandois (a brother of King Philip I), departs to join the First Crusade. He travels with a small army via the Alps to Rome. While sailing the Adriatic Sea from Bari to Dyrrachium his fleet is reduced by shipwreck. Hugh's own ship is stranded on the shore near Epirus.

title: 1096

section: Events › By place › First Crusade

date: October 9

text: October 9 – Bohemond I, prince of Antioch, lands with his army (some 34,000 men) in Epirus near Avlona. He plunders the countryside and marches to Dyrrhachium (modern Albania).

title: 1107

text: August – King William II of Sicily ("the Good") lands in Epirus with a Siculo-Norman expeditionary force of 200 ships and 80,000 men (including 5,000 knights) and marches as far as the Byzantine city of Thessaloniki, which he takes and pillages, massacring some 7,000 Greek citizens.

title: 1185

section: Events › By place › Byzantine Empire

date: September 30

text: September 30 – Leonardo III Tocco becomes the new ruler of Epirus upon the death of his father Carlo II Tocco.

title: 1448

section: Events › July–September

date: May 30

text: May 30 – First Balkan War: The Treaty of London is signed, ending the war. Greece is granted those parts of southern Epirus which it does not already control, and the independence of Albania is recognised.

title: 1913

section: Events › May


slug: episcopal-see

label: Episcopal see

description: main administrative seat held by a bishop

section: Religion & Belief

text: Acacius succeeds Eusebius as bishop in the see of Caesarea.

title: 340

section: Events › By topic › Religion

text: Emperor Valens orders the expulsion of the Alexandrian bishop Athanasius from his see, but instead of going into exile Athanasius, now about 67, moves to the outskirts of Alexandria.

title: AD 365

text: Paternus becomes bishop of the Episcopal see of Braga (Portugal).

title: 388

text: Heavy taxes levied by Merovingian king Chilperic I of Neustria produce a revolt at Limoges (central France), as he sells bishoprics to the highest bidder.

title: 579

text: Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish missionary, is summoned by King Oswald from Iona (Inner Hebrides) to establish a bishopric on the holy island of Lindisfarne, and reestablish Christianity in Northumbria (approximate date).

title: 634

text: Wilfrid, bishop of York, is at the height of his power and owns vast estates throughout Northumbria. After his refusal to agree to a division of his see, Ecgfrith and Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, have him banished from Northumbria.

title: 678

text: Wilfrid, abbot of Ripon, tries to make himself bishop of all Northumbria. King Aldfrith seizes many of his Ripon Abbey estates, and proposes to create a bishopric there. Wilfrid is banished and flees to Mercia, where King Æthelred makes him bishop of Leicester.

title: 691

text: Wilfrid, Anglo-Saxon bishop, travels to Rome again, and is supported in his struggle to retain his see of York by the pope. On his way Wilfrid stops in Frisia (modern Netherlands), to visit Willibrord.

title: 703

text: The see of York receives the pallium from pope Gregory III, and is elevated to an archbishopric. Ecgbert becomes the first archbishop.

title: 735

date: June

text: June – Pope Zachary gives his approval by sending Abel, Grimo and Hartbert their palliums for the metropolitan sees of Reims, Rouen and Sens.

title: 744

text: Saxon Wars: Saxon forces seize upon Charlemagne's preoccupation with Italy to retake Eresburg and Syburg (near Dortmund). They unsuccessfully attack the episcopal centre of Büraburg, which had been established by St. Boniface (see 723).

title: 773

text: Asser, bishop of Sherborne, dies. His See is divided, there are new Bishoprics created at Wells, Crediton, Ramsbury and Sonning.

title: 909

text: King Ladislaus I of Hungary founds a diocese (alongside the bishop's see) in Zagreb.

title: 1094

text: The Royal Mint is moved into the Tower of London. Mints outside London are reduced, with only a few local and episcopal mints continuing to operate.

title: 1279

section: Events › By place › England


slug: eresburg

label: Eresburg

text: Saxon Wars: King Charlemagne leads a Frankish expedition from the Middle Rhine into disputed territory lost by the Franks in 695. He starts a campaign against the Saxons and seizes Eresburg, destroying the Irminsul (Saxon sacred tree) near Paderborn. Charlemagne devastates several major Saxon strongholds, and forces them to retreat beyond the Weser River. After negotiating with some Saxon nobles and obtaining hostages, he installs a number of garrisons.

title: 772

title: 773

text: Saxon Wars: Saxon raiders ravage much of northern Hesse (modern Germany), and burn the abbey at Fritzlar, putting the abbot and monks to the sword. Charlemagne hurriedly returns to Austrasia, assembles local troops, and recaptures Eresburg, before the approach of winter halts further operations.

title: 774

text: Saxon Wars: King Charlemagne holds a major assembly at Quierzy (Northern France). He leads a Frankish army into Saxony to retake the castrum of Syburg (near Dortmund), then rebuilds and garrisons fortified Eresburg. He reaches the Weser at a place called Braunsberg, where the Saxons stand for battle, but are defeated when Frankish troops cross the river.

title: 775

text: Saxon Wars: The Saxons again revolt against Christianity and Frankish rule. Eresburg falls, but a Saxon assault upon the castle of Syburg fails. Charlemagne hurriedly returns from Italy, launching a counter-offensive which defeats the Saxons. Most of their leaders are summoned to the Lippe at the town of Bad Lippspringe (North Rhine-Westphalia), to submit formally to Charlemagne.

title: 776

text: Autumn – Charlemagne returns from his campaign in Italy, and musters a Frankish army of available troops in Bavaria. He then marches to Saxony, probably to Eresburg. Charlemagne marches north, down the Weser to the Aller River, making camp near Verden.

title: 782

text: Winter – Charlemagne returns to Eresburg and builds a church, probably on the site of the Irminsul (a pagan religious site). Frankish forces based at Eresburg attack rebel Saxon settlements, and take control of the roads. Charlemagne himself takes part in some of these raids.

title: 784

text: King Otto I refuses to give land to his older (illegitimate) half-brother Thankmar, who gains the support of Eberhard III (duke of Franconia) and Wichmann the Elder, and seizes the fortress of Eresburg. Otto assumes direct rule over Franconia, and dissolves it into smaller counties.

title: 937

date: July

text: July – King Otto I besieges the fortress of Eresburg. He defeats his half-brother Thankmar and kills him as he tries to find sanctuary. Eberhard III, duke of Franconia, is banished and replaced by his uncle Berthold.

title: 938

date: July 28

text: July 28 – Thankmar, half-brother of Otto I (during the Siege of Eresburg)

title: 938


slug: erfurt

label: Erfurt

description: capital city of the German federal state of Thuringia

text: Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, submits to Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) at an Imperial Diet in Erfurt. He is banished to England and retains only Brunswick among his former lands.

title: 1181

section: Events › Europe

date: June 16

text: June 16 – The Jewish population of Erfurt (Duchy of Thuringia) is massacred after a ritual murder libel. A crowd storms the synagogue where the Jews have gathered with the threat of baptism or death. The Jewish quarter, including the synagogue, is razed: many Jews are tortured and killed.

title: 1221

date: March 21

text: March 21 – Jewish persecutions during the Black Death: Erfurt massacre – The Jewish community of Erfurt (Germany) is murdered and expelled in a pogrom.

title: 1349

section: Events › January–December

section: Culture & Society

text: Erfurt University is founded in Erfurt, central Germany.

title: 1392

section: Events › Date unknown

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: The Jewish community is expelled from Erfurt (Germany); their houses are sold, and the synagogue turned into an arsenal.

title: 1458

date: July 17

text: July 17 – Luther enters the monastic life, at an Augustinian cloister in Erfurt called St. Augustine's Monastery.

title: 1505

section: Health & Medicine

date: April 7

text: April 7 – Martin Luther preaches an inflammatory sermon to students at Erfurt, while on his way to Worms.

title: 1521

section: Events › April–June

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: March 19

text: March 19 – Ostpolitik: The leaders of West Germany and East Germany meet at a summit for the first time since Germany's division into two republics. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt is greeted by cheering East German crowds as he arrives in Erfurt for a summit with his counterpart, East German Ministerpräsident Willi Stoph.

title: 1970

section: Events › March

date: April 26

text: April 26 – Erfurt school massacre: An expelled student kills 16 people and commits suicide at a school in Erfurt, Germany.

title: 2002

section: Events › April


slug: erik-of-pomerania

label: Erik of Pomerania

description: King of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Kalmar Union

section: Births

text: probable – Erik of Pomerania, King of Norway, Sweden and Denmark (d. 1459)

title: 1382

date: September 8

text: September 8 – Erik of Pomerania becomes the new King of Norway with the regnal name of Erik III after being elected at Trondheim by the Ting, the kingdom's assembly.

title: 1389

date: July 23

text: July 23 – Queen Margaret makes her great-nephew and adopted son Erik of Pomerania joint ruler of Sweden. Eric has already been made joint ruler of Norway.

title: 1396

date: June 17

text: June 17 – Erik of Pomerania is crowned in Kalmar (Sweden) as ruler of the Kalmar Union, a personal union of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Orkney) and Sweden (including Finland and Åland) engineered by Queen Margaret I of Denmark, his great-aunt and adoptive mother, who retains de facto power in the realm.

title: 1397

date: October 26

text: October 26 – Erik of Pomerania, ruler of the Kalmar Union, marries Philippa, daughter of Henry IV of England, in Lund Cathedral.

title: 1406

section: Events › October–December

section: Deaths

date: October 28

text: October 28 – Erik of Pomerania becomes sole ruler of the Kalmar Union (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) on the death of Queen Margaret.

title: 1412

section: Conflict & Security

text: July 17 – Peace of Vordingborg is signed, ending the war between the Hanseatic League of German cities (Hamburg, Lübeck, Lüneburg, Rostock, Stralsund and Wismar) and the Scandinavian Kalmar Union of Denmark and Sweden. King Eric VII of Denmark and Adolph VIII, Count of Holstein sign, along with Hein Hoyer, representing the League, at Vordingborg Castle. Denmark cedes the Duchy of Schleswig to Holstein and agrees to stop interfering with the League, to end ten years of war.

title: 1435

date: January 11

text: January 11 – Erik of Pomerania is deposed from the Swedish throne for the second time, only three months after having been reinstated. Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson remains the leader of the land, in his capacity of rikshövitsman, the military commander of the realm.

title: 1436

section: Events › January–March

date: October 17

text: October 17 – Erik of Pomerania, King of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, loses direct control of Sweden, as Karl Knutsson Bonde is elected Regent of Sweden.

title: 1438

date: June 4

text: June 4 – Erik III is deposed as King of Norway and the nobles vote to invite King Christopher of Sweden to become the new monarch.

title: 1442

text: August – Christopher of Bavaria undertakes a fruitless military campaign against Gotland to end Erik of Pomerania's piracy.

title: 1446

date: August 24

text: August 24 – After many years of fruitless negotiations between Christopher of Bavaria and Erik of Pomerania, a Swedish war march to Gotland is launched in the early summer of 1446. King Christopher comes with a force to the island and on an open field in Västergarn with crossbowmen at gunpoint behind each monarch's back; regular peace negotiations take place.

title: 1446

date: July 29

text: July 29 – The War in Gotland begins in Scandinavia as an army from Sweden, commanded by Generals Magnus Gren and Birger Trolle, invades the island of Gotland, at the time ruled by Denmark. The invasion is repelled by Erik of Pomerania, ruler of the island and the former King of Sweden and Denmark.

title: 1448

text: June 4 – Erik of Pomerania, formerly the King of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, hands over possession of the island of Gotland to the Swedish invaders.

title: 1449

date: September 24

text: September 24 – Erik of Pomerania, King of Norway, Denmark and Sweden (b. 1382)

title: 1459


slug: eritrea

label: Eritrea

description: country in the Horn of Africa

text: The Kingdom of Aksum (modern Eritrea) is destroyed by Beta Israel invaders, under the leadership of Queen Gudit (approximate date).

title: 960

section: Events › By place › Africa

date: May 2

text: May 2 – Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, giving Italy control over what will become Eritrea.

title: 1889

section: Events › May

date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa.

title: 1890

section: Events › January

date: May 9

text: May 9 – Speaking in Rome, Benito Mussolini announces the foundation of the empire, as Italian East Africa is formed from the Italian territories of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland.

title: 1936

section: Events › May–June

section: Religion & Belief

date: February 19

text: February 19 – Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. Italian security guards fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Authorities exact further reprisals, which include indiscriminately slaughtering native Ethiopians over the next 3 days, detaining thousands of Ethiopians at Danan and slaughtering almost 300 monks at the Debre Libanos Monastery.

title: 1937

section: Events › February

date: March 17

text: March 17 – Eritrean War of Independence – Battle of Afabet: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on 3 sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).

title: 1988

date: May 6

text: May 6 – A large Eritrean mechanized force enters Badme in Tigray Region, Ethiopia, resulting in the Eritrean–Ethiopian War.

title: 1998

date: July 9

text: July 9 – Eritrea and Ethiopia officially declare an end to their twenty-year conflict.

title: 2018

section: Events › July


slug: essex

label: Essex

description: ceremonial county in England (use Q21272241 for administrative non-metropolitan county)

text: Sæward, king of Essex (approximate date)

title: 617

text: King Wulfhere of Mercia dies after a 17-year reign, in which he has extended his sway over much of England south of the Humber River, including Essex, Surrey, and part of Wessex north of the Thames. Wulfhere is succeeded by his brother Æthelred.

title: 675

section: Events › By place › Britain

text: King Sighere of Essex dies after a 19-year joint reign. His brother Sæbbi becomes the sole ruler of Essex until his death in 694.

title: 683

text: King Cædwalla of Wessex establishes overlordship of Essex, and invades Kent for a second time. King Eadric is expelled, and Cædwalla's brother Mul is installed in his place. The sub-kings Berthun and Andhun are killed, and Sussex is subjugated by the West Saxons.

title: 686

text: Kings Swæfred and Sigeheard of Essex share power with Offa. He abdicates the throne in order to become a monk in Rome, along with Coenred. Saelred rules jointly with Swæfberht the sub-kingdom of Middlesex.

title: 709

text: Swæfred, king of Essex (approximate date)

title: 709

text: Spring – A Viking army under Hastein moves to a fortified camp at Benfleet (Essex). The Danish camp is captured by the Saxons, while the army is out raiding. Hastein is forced to retreat to Shoebury.

title: 893

text: Autumn – Battle of Benfleet: Danish Viking forces retire to Essex, after being deprived of food by Alfred the Great (see 893). They draw their longships up the Thames and into the Lea, entrenching themselves at Benfleet.

title: 894

text: Fall – Æthelwold (a son of Æthelred I) rebels against his cousin, King Edward the Elder. He comes with a fleet to Essex, and encourages the Danish Vikings of East Anglia to rise up.

title: 901

text: King Edward the Elder begins with the 'reconquest' of the Danelaw and occupies Essex. Death of High-Reeve Eadwulf II. He is succeeded by his son Ealdred I, who is almost immediately driven out by King Ragnall ua Ímair of Norse York. Ealdred flees to the court of King Constantine II of Scotland.

title: 913

date: August 11

text: August 11: Following a raid by Olaf Tryggvason at the mouth of the River Thames, ealdorman Byrhtnoth is killed in the Battle of Maldon in Essex, which is commemorated in the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon. Æthelred the Unready is forced to pay a tribute of 22,000 pounds of silver for Tryggvason to withdraw his troops; this is the first in a series of Danegelds.

title: 991

section: Events

text: August 11 – Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex

title: 991

text: Richard de Luci, Norman High Sheriff of Essex (d. 1179)

title: 1089

text: Rohese de Vere, countess of Essex (approximate date)

title: 1110

section: Culture & Society

date: March

text: March – Robert the Bruce, the future King of Scotland marries as his second wife the 13-year-old Elizabeth de Burgh at Writtle in Essex. She is the daughter of Richard Óg de Burgh ("the Red Earl"), a powerful Irish nobleman and close friend of King Edward I of England.

title: 1302

date: July 7

text: July 7 – King Edward I of England, known as Edward Longshanks, dies at Burgh by Sands after a 34-year reign. He is succeeded by his son 23-year-old Edward II, who becomes new ruler of England. After his death Edward's body is embalmed and transported to Waltham Abbey in Essex. Here it lay unburied for several weeks so that people can come and see the body lying in state. After this, Edward is taken to Westminster Abbey for a proper burial on October 28.

title: 1307

section: Events › July – September

date: June 12

text: June 12 – Peasants' Revolt: In England, rebels from Kent and Essex, led by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, meet at Blackheath. There the rebels are encouraged by a sermon, by renegade priest John Ball.

title: 1381

date: May 28

text: May 28 – The Earl of Oxford, commander of what remains of the Lancastrians during the Wars of the Roses against the Yorkists and King Edward IV of England, makes an unsuccessful attempt to land an army at Essex at the village of St Osyth.

title: 1473

date: April 16

text: April 16 – In England, John Winthrop, later governor of the future Massachusetts Bay Colony, marries his first wife (of 4), Mary Forth, daughter of John Forth, of Great Stambridge, Essex.

title: 1605

section: Climate & Environment

text: In England, a very high tide occurs, the highest ever known in the Thames, and the sea walls in Kent, Essex, and Lincolnshire are overthrown, thus great desolation is caused to the lands near the sea.

title: 1625

section: Events › Date unknown

section: Crime & Justice

date: October 23

text: October 23 – The bodies of 39 people are found in a truck container in Essex, England. A 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland is arrested on suspicion of murder.

title: 2019

section: Events › October