slug: miletus

label: Miletus

description: ancient city of Ionia, in modern-day Turkey

text: c. 1500 BC: Settlers from Crete, Greece move to Miletus, Turkey.

title: 1500s BC (decade)

section: Events and trends

year_label: 670 BCE

text: Miletus begins establishing colonies in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea.

title: 670 BC

section: Events

year_label: 548 BCE

section: Deaths

text: Thales of Miletus (born c. 626 BC), pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and the first natural philosopher who belonged to the Milesian school along with Anaximander and Anaximenes

title: 548 BC

year_label: 499 BCE

text: After a failed attack on the rebellious island of Naxos in c. 501 BC (on behalf of the Persians), Aristagoras, tyrant of Miletus, to save himself from the wrath of Persia, plans a revolt with the Milesians and the other Ionians. With the encouragement of Histiaeus (his father-in-law and former tyrant of Miletus), Aristagoras induces the Ionian cities of Asia Minor to revolt against Persia, thus instigating the Ionian Revolt and beginning the Greco-Persian Wars between Greece and Persia. The pro-Persian tyrant of Mytilene is stoned to death.

title: 499 BC

section: Events › By place › Greece

year_label: 494 BCE

text: Having successfully captured several of the revolting Greek city-states, the Persians under Artaphernes lay siege to Miletus. The decisive Battle of Lade is fought at the island of Lade, near Miletus' port. Although out-numbered, the Greek fleet appears to be winning the battle until the ships from Samos and Lesbos retreat. The sudden defection turns the tide of battle, and the remaining Greek fleet is completely destroyed. Miletus surrenders shortly thereafter, and the Ionian Revolt comes to an end.

title: 494 BC

section: Events › By place › Persian empire

year_label: 493 BCE

section: Crime & Justice

text: The Athenian poet Phrynicus produces a tragedy on the Fall of Miletus. The Athenian authorities ban the play from further production on the grounds of impiety.

title: 493 BC

section: Events › By topic › Literature

year_label: 470 BCE

section: Births

text: Aspasia of Miletus, mistress of Pericles of Athens (d. c. 400 BC)

title: 470 BC

year_label: 440 BCE

text: Samos, an autonomous member of the Delian League and one of Athens' principal allies with a substantial fleet of its own, quarrels with Miletus. Miletus, also a member of the Delian League, appeals to Athens for assistance. Pericles decides in favour of Miletus, so Samos revolts. Pericles then sails to Samos with a fleet to overthrow its oligarchic government and install a democratic one. Sparta threatens to interfere. However, at a congress of the Peloponnesian League, its members vote not to intervene on behalf of Samos against Athens.

title: 440 BC

year_label: 412 BCE

text: The Spartans sign a treaty of mutual help with the Persian satrap of Lower Asia, Tissaphernes. By the treaty of Miletus, Persia is given complete freedom in western Asia Minor in return for agreeing to pay for seamen to man the Peloponnesian fleet.

title: 412 BC

section: Events › By place › Persian Empire

year_label: 400 BCE

text: Aspasia of Miletus, widow of Pericles of Athens (approximate date) (b. c. 470 BC)

title: 400 BC

year_label: 334 BCE

text: Alexander's victory exposes western Asia Minor to the Macedonians, and most of the cities in the region hasten to open their gates. The Ionian city of Miletus defies Alexander and he has to subdue it through a siege.

title: 334 BC

section: Events › By place › Macedonia

year_label: 312 BCE

text: At the start of the year, Asander (Antigonus' governor of Caria) rebels, forcing Antigonus (wintering with his main army in Phrygia) to invade Caria. Calling all his forces from their winter quarters, he divides them into four columns: the first is sent to take Miletus; the second, under his nephew Ptolemy, campaigns through central Caria from east to west; a third marches to and takes Theangela; Antigonus himself with the main army campaigns from north to south capturing Tralles, Iasus and Kaunos. Caria is taken in the space of weeks.

title: 312 BC

section: Events › By place › Asia Minor

year_label: 279 BCE

text: The aggression of Ptolemy II of Egypt continues to cause friction with Antiochus as he takes Miletus in south-western Asia Minor from him.

title: 279 BC

section: Events › By place › Egypt

year_label: 272 BCE

text: The Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter is defeated by Egypt's Ptolemy II during the First Syrian War. Ptolemy II annexes Miletus, Phoenicia and western Cilicia from Antiochus. As a result, Ptolemy II extends Egyptian rule as far as Caria and into most of Cilicia.

title: 272 BC

section: Events › By place › Seleucid Empire

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

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

year_label: 200 BCE

text: Philip V of Macedon's fleet defeat the Rhodians at Lade. His forces then advance into Pergamum, plundering Pergamese territory and attacking cities in Caria.

title: 200 BC

year_label: 160 BCE

text: Timarchus, Seleucid nobleman, possibly from Miletus in Anatolia, appointed governor of Media in western Iran by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and who has rebelled against his successor, Demetrius I Soter, until he is killed in a battle with Demetrius' forces

title: 160 BC

year_label: 75 BCE

text: Julius Caesar travels to Rhodes to study under Apollonius Molon. On his way across the Aegean Sea, he is kidnapped by Cilician pirates and held prisoner in the Dodecanese islet of Pharmacusa. The young Caesar is held for a ransom of twenty talents, but he insists they ask for fifty. After his release Caesar raises a fleet at Miletus, pursues and crucifies the pirates in Pergamon.

title: 75 BC

year_label: 35 BCE

text: Marcus Titius arrives in Syria with a large army and marches to Asia Minor. Sextus is caught in Miletus and executed without trial.

title: 35 BC

date: April 21

text: April 21 – Bardas, the regent of the Byzantine Empire, is murdered by Basil the Macedonian at Miletus, while conducting a large-scale expedition against the Saracen stronghold of Crete.

title: 866


slug: military-alliance

label: Military alliance

description: alliance between different states with the purpose to cooperate militarily

year_label: 656 BCE

section: Conflict & Security

text: King Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon forms a secret alliance with Arabs, Aramaeans, Elamites, Persians, and Egyptians against his half brother Ashurbanipal.

title: 656 BC

section: Events › By place › Assyria

year_label: 652 BCE

text: Elam withdraws from her alliance with king Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon, who launches a premature attack on his half brother Ashurbanipal at year's end without waiting for reinforcements that have been promised by the Egyptian king Psamtik I.

title: 652 BC

section: Events › Middle East

year_label: 71 BCE

text: Marcus Antonius is defeated by the Cretans, who have made an alliance with the pirates. He is compelled to concede a humiliating peace. Antonius dies in office the same year and is awarded, posthumously, with the cognomen Creticus.

title: 71 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: 36 BCE

text: Publius Canidius Crassus invades Armenia and Iberia (Georgia); he forces Parnavaz II into an alliance against Zober, king of Albania.

title: 36 BC

text: Huneric, eldest son of Genseric, is sent as a child hostage to the court at Ravenna to secure the alliance with the Western Roman Empire.

title: 435

section: Events › By place › Africa

section: Culture & Society

text: Eudocia, daughter of Emperor Valentinian III, marries Huneric in Ravenna. The engagement serves to strengthen the alliance between the Western Roman Empire and the Vandal Kingdom.

title: 451

section: Events › By place › Europe

text: Theodoric II succeeds his brother Thorismund as king of the Visigoths, Thorismund having been murdered after he violated the alliance with the Western Roman Empire.

title: 453

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: Euric sends an embassy to the Eastern Roman Empire for recognition of the Visigoth sovereignty. He forms an alliance with the Suebi and the Vandals.

title: 466

text: Emperor Justin II, facing an empty treasury, breaks the treaty with the Gepids that has existed since 565. King Alboin of the Lombards makes an alliance with the Avars under Bayan I, at the expense of tough conditions. They demand a tenth of the Lombards' cattle and half of the war booty.

title: 566

section: Events › By place › Byzantine Empire

text: Palace coup in Austrasia: New advisors break the peace treaty with King Guntram, and make a new alliance with his half brother Chilperic I, in which Childebert II, age 11, is recognized as Chilperic's heir.

title: 581

text: King Liuvigild lays siege to Seville (Southern Spain), and forms an alliance with the Byzantines. He summons his rebellious son Hermenegild back to Toledo, and forces him to abandon the Chalcedonian Faith.

title: 583

text: Battle of Raith: An invading force of Angles lands on the Fife coast near Raith (Kirkcaldy) and defeats an alliance of Scots, Britons and Picts, under King Áedán mac Gabráin of Dál Riata (Scotland).

title: 596

section: Events › By place › Britain

text: Visigoths, Austrasians, Neustrians and Lombards form an alliance against King Theuderic II of Burgundy, whose grandmother and sister have murdered Theuderic's wife Ermenberga, daughter of Witteric, king of the Visigoths. Fighting takes place around Narbonne, but little is known of the details or outcome (approximate date).

title: 607

text: King Penda of Mercia besieges Exeter in southwest England. King Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd lands with a force nearby, and negotiates an alliance with Penda.

title: 630

text: Emperor Heraclius makes an alliance with Kubrat, ruler (khagan) of Great Bulgaria, to break the power of the Avars on the Balkan Peninsula.

title: 635

date: June 24

text: June 24 – Battle of Mag Rath: King Oswald of Northumbria sends troops to Ireland, to assist Domnall Brecc King of Dál Riata in his alliance with King Congal Cáech of Ulaid against Domnall mac Áedo High King of Ireland, during the Irish dynastic wars. Domnall Brecc, Congal and their forces are defeated near Moira. At the Mull of Kintyre (southwest Scotland), Domnall mac Áedo's fleet destroys Domnall Brecc's naval force of Dál Riata.

title: 637

text: Baekje in southwestern Korea is conquered by an alliance of the Tang dynasty and Silla, led by general Su Dingfang and King Munmu of Silla. The Japanese envoys detained in Chang'an are paroled.

title: 660

section: Events › By place › Korea

text: King Liutprand of the Lombards builds a close alliance with Charles Martel, and attacks the Bavarian castles on the River Adige, maintaining strategic control of the Alpine passes in the Italian Alps (approximate date).

title: 718

section: Events › By place › Western Europe

text: Duke Eudes of Aquitaine seeks an alliance with Munuza, governor of Cerdagne (eastern Pyrenees), currently in rebellion against the central Umayyad government at Córdoba in Andalusia (probably not cemented until 729).

title: 725

text: King Liutprand contracts an alliance with Eutychius, exarch of Ravenna, and agrees to support him in his attack on Rome, while subjugating the independent southern Lombard duchies of Benevento and Spoleto.

title: 730

section: Religion & Belief

text: Ragenfrid, ex-mayor of the palace of Neustria, meets Duke Eudes of Aquitaine, to accept his rule and independence from the Frankish Kingdom. Fearing an alliance against him, Charles Martel exiles Ragenfrid's supporter Wandon of Fontenelle, and imprisons bishop Aimar of Auxerre.

title: 731

text: Charles Martel, Merovingian mayor of the palace, forms local alliances with the Burgundians, and imposes Frankish domination on Provence. He defeats Muslim forces at Sernhac and Beaucaire in Septimania (Southern France).

title: 736

text: Duke Thrasimund II recovers the duchy of Spoleto and kills Hilderic with Papal-Beneventian aid. He does not return the confiscated papal cities, and his alliance with Pope Gregory III ruptures.

title: 740

text: Grifo, Frankish duke and illegitimate son of Charles Martel, rebels against King Pepin III ("the Short") (his half-brother), in alliance with the Bretons. He flees to Italy to join King Aistulf of the Lombards, but is caught and killed while passing the Alps.

title: 753

text: Saxon Wars: Widukind and his close followers return to Saxony from Denmark. He probably makes alliances with the Danes and the northwestern Slav tribes. Saxon rebels destroy the fortress of Karlsburg and sack Deutz (near Cologne), but are unable to cross the Rhine. They are driven back by the garrison of Koblenz, but then ambush and defeat the Frankish pursuers. Counter-attacking Frankish forces pursue the Saxons up the Lahn Valley, and defeat them near Leisa.

title: 778

date: October

text: October – Charlemagne marries Fastrada, the 18-year-old daughter of a Frankish count named Rudolph, and makes her his queen at Worms. The probable reason behind the marriage is to solidify a Frankish alliance east of the Rhine, against the Saxons in Lower Saxony (modern Germany).

title: 783

section: Exploration & Expansion

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: Battle of Bornhöved: King Charlemagne forms an alliance with the Obodrites. Together with Prince Drożko (Thrasco), he defeats the Nordalbian Saxons near the village of Bornhöved (modern-day Neumünster), obliging these 'northerners' to submit and give hostages against their future good behavior. In the coming years they are granted areas of present-day Hamburg.

title: 798

text: The Vikings land on the Cornish coast, and form an alliance with the Cornish to fight against Wessex.

title: 807

text: King Godfred of the Danes forms an alliance with the Wiltzi and other Wendic tribes, against the pagan but pro-Frankish Abodrites. Godfred builds earthworks (Danevirke) across the isthmus of Schleswig-Holstein, separating Jutland from the northern extent of the Frankish Empire.

title: AD 808

text: Kings Hyfaidd of Dyfed, Elisedd of Brycheiniog and Hywel of Glywysing, being harassed by the armies of King Anarawd in Wales, seek the protection of Alfred the Great, and submit to his overlordship. Anarawd seeks an alliance with King Guthred of York.

title: 885

text: Boris I, ruler (khan) of the Bulgarian Empire, abdicates the throne after a 37-year reign, and retires to a monastery. He is succeeded by his eldest son Vladimir, as monarch of Bulgaria. Vladimir falls under the influence of the old boyars; many remain anti-Christian and anti-Byzantine. He attempts to restore the former Frankish alliance, and to reestablish paganism.

title: 889

text: Vladimir, ruler (khan) of the Bulgarian Empire, is dethroned by his father Boris I, with help from loyal boyars. He is blinded, and succeeded by his brother Simeon I, as prince of Bulgaria; the capital is moved from Pliska to Preslav. Simeon makes an alliance with the Pechenegs (or Patzinaks), a semi-nomad Turkic tribe from the Central Asian steppes.

title: 893

text: Prince Klonimir, pretender to the throne of the Serbian Principality, is defeated by his ruling cousin, Petar. He is recognized as sole ruler of Serbia by Simeon I, resulting in a 20-year peace and alliance (approximate date).

title: 896

text: Spring – Atenulf I, Lombard prince of Capua, conquers the Duchy of Benevento. He deposes Duke Radelchis II and unites the two southern Lombard duchies in Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy). The Byzantines offer a strategic alliance to Atenulf who directs a campaign against the Saracens. They establish themselves on the banks of the Garigliano River. From here, Arab warbands launch frequent raids in Campania.

title: 900

text: Summer – Lady Æthelflæd of Mercia cements an alliance with King Constantine II of Scotland against Norse York. She captures the fortress at Derby (belonging to the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw), while her brother, King Edward the Elder, takes Towcester. Æthelflæd's armies also ravage Brycheiniog (Wales) in revenge for killing the Mercian abbot Ecbryht (see 916).

title: 917

text: Fall – Hugh of Provence makes a truce with the Moors of Fraxinet, after hearing the news that a Swabian army is about to descend on Italy. He allows the Moors to attack the Alpine passes for his own political ends in his struggle with Berengar of Ivrea. The Byzantines cry foul and end their alliance with Hugh.

title: 942

text: Boleslaus I (the Cruel), duke of Bohemia, expands his territory into the Polish territories of Upper Silesia and Lesser Poland. By occupying the city of Kraków, he controls important trade routes from Prague to Kiev and Lviv. Prince Mieszko I of Poland makes an alliance with Boleslaus and marries his daughter Dobrawa.

title: 965


slug: milky-way

label: Milky Way

description: galaxy containing our Solar System

year_label: 385 BCE

section: Science & Discovery

text: Democritus announces that the Milky Way is composed of many stars.

title: 385 BC

section: Events › By topic › Astronomy

text: Chinese and Japanese astronomers observe what has come to be understood as supernova SN 1181. One of only eight supernovae in the Milky Way observed in recorded history. It appears in the constellation Cassiopeia and is visible in the night sky for about 185 days. The radio source 3C58 was thought to be the remnant from this event, but opinion is shifting towards the recently discovered nebula Pa 30 (ref : Arxiv 2105.12384).

title: 1181

section: Events › By topic › Science

date: October 9

text: October 9 – Kepler's Supernova (SN 1604) is first observed from the northern parts of the Italian Peninsula. Beginning on October 17, Johannes Kepler begins a year's observation of it from Prague. There won't be another supernova visible to the "naked-eye" until 1987. , this is the last supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.

title: 1604

section: Events › October–December

date: February 23

text: February 23 – Messier 83 (M83), the "Southern Pinwheel Galaxy" and the first to be cataloged outside the "Local Group" of galaxies nearest to Earth's galaxy, the Milky Way, is discovered by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille. Lacaille, who observes M83 during a research voyage in the Southern Hemisphere, is the first to identify the body as a nebulous object rather than a star. M83, 15 million light-years away, is the most distant object to be identified up to that time.

title: 1752

section: Events › January–March

date: August 19

text: August 19 – S Andromedae, the only supernova seen in the Andromeda Galaxy so far by astronomers, and the first ever noted outside the Milky Way, is discovered.

title: 1885

section: Events › August

date: December 30

text: December 30 – American astronomer Edwin Hubble announces that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe.

title: 1924

section: Events › December

date: May 5

text: May 5 – The detection by Karl Jansky of radio waves from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy is reported in The New York Times. The discovery leads to the birth of radio astronomy.

title: 1933

section: Events › May

date: March 7

text: March 7 – NASA's Kepler Mission, a space photometer that will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA.

title: 2009

section: Events › March

date: April 28

text: April 28 – A fast radio burst is detected from the Magnetar SGR 1935+2154, the first ever detected inside the Milky Way, and the first to be linked to a known source.

title: 2020

section: Events › April

date: May 12

text: May 12 – The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration reveals its first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

title: 2022


slug: min-ten-kingdoms

label: Min (Ten Kingdoms)

description: one of the Ten Kingdoms of 10th-century China, controlling an area around present-day Fujian Province

section: Births

text: Wang Shenzhi, founder of Min (Ten Kingdoms) (d. 925)

title: 862

section: Culture & Society

date: April 27

text: April 27 – The Min Kingdom (modern-day Fujian province) is established by governor Wang Shenzhi (Prince of Langye), with Fuzhou (known as Changle) as its capital. Wang Shenzhi tries to attract scholars who will help to construct an efficient bureaucracy and tax system.

title: 909

section: Events › By place › China

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: September 5

text: September 5 – The Great Yue Kingdom, later renamed Southern Han, is founded by Liu Yan, former governor and military advisor, in Panyu (modern Guangdong) and Guangxi. Liu Yan declares himself emperor, and gives his niece Liu Hua in marriage to Wang Yanjun, a son of his rival Wang Shenzhi (Prince of Min), to cement a relationship between the two states.

title: 917

section: Events › By place › Asia

section: Deaths

text: December 30 — Wang Shenzhi, the Chinese ruler of the Min Kingdom (now part of the Fujian province, with a capital of Fuzhou), dies after a long illness and is succeeded by his eldest son, Wang Yanhan.

title: 925

section: Events › By date › July – December

text: December 30 – Wang Shenzhi, founder of Min (b. 862)

title: 925

date: January 14

text: January 14 – Wang Yanhan, king of Min (Ten Kingdoms)

title: 927

text: Wang Yanbing, prince of Min (Ten Kingdoms)

title: 931

date: August 29

text: August 29 – Li Chunyan, empress of Min (Ten Kingdoms)

title: 939

text: Li, empress of Min (Ten Kingdoms)

title: 944

date: April 8

text: April 8 – Wang Yanxi, emperor of Min (Ten Kingdoms)

title: 944

section: Conflict & Security

text: Autumn – The Min Kingdom is destroyed by the Southern Tang. Emperor Yuan Zong expands its domains beyond those of the former Wu Kingdom. He annexes Min territory into its own boundaries.

title: 945

date: February 14

text: February 14 – Zhu Wenjin, emperor of Min (Ten Kingdoms)

title: 945

text: Wang Yanzheng, emperor of Min (approximate date)

title: 951


slug: ming-dynasty

label: Ming dynasty

description: imperial dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644

text: Zhu Shizhen, Chinese founder of the Ming dynasty (d. 1344)

title: 1281

text: After years of begging and being a Buddhist monk, the penniless Chinese peasant Zhu Yuanzhang joins the Red Turban Rebellions against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China; he will later become the first emperor of the Ming dynasty.

title: 1352

section: Events › Date unknown

date: October 10

text: October 10 – Zhu Biao, eldest son of the Hongwu Emperor and crown prince of the Ming dynasty (d. 1392)

title: 1355

text: Zhu Yuanzhang, one of the leaders in the Red Turban Rebellion, captures the city of Nanjing from the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty in China; from then on it becomes his base of power, and the capital of a new dynasty he would establish in 1368, the Ming dynasty.

title: 1356

text: Zhu Yuanzhang, leader of the Red Turban Rebellion that will overthrow the Yuan dynasty and establish the Ming dynasty two years later, begins building the walls for a new capital city at Nanjing.

title: 1366

date: January 23

text: January 23 – Zhu Yuanzhang establishes the Ming dynasty with himself as the Emperor Hongwu. The new dynasty will last until 1644. The Emperor immediately orders every county magistrate to set up four granaries, and halts government taxation on books. Work begins later year on restoring the surviving Great Wall of China.

title: 1368

text: The Hongwu Emperor of the Chinese Ming dynasty issues a decree ordering every country magistrate in the empire to open a Confucian school of learning.

title: 1369

section: Events › Dates unknown

date: July 20

text: July 20 – In the continued conquest of Yuan dynasty China by the Ming dynasty, General Chang Yuchun captures the Yuan capital, Shangdu, forcing the Yuan Emperor Huizong to flee further northward.

title: 1369

section: Events › July–September

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: The city of Xi'an in Ming dynasty China is given a new defensive city wall.

title: 1370

date: June 6

text: June 6 – At Yingchang, now part of the Hexigten province of China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Biligtü Khan Ayushiridara is crowned as Emperor of the Northern Yuan, the remaining portion of the Chinese territory that had been ruled by the Yuan dynasty prior its overthrow in 1368 by the rulers of the Ming dynasty. Prince Ayushiridara is the son of the late Emperor Huizong of Yuan.

title: 1370

section: Events › April–June

text: The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty in China introduces the census registration system of lijia, or the hundreds-and-tithing system, throughout the Yangzi Valley. This system groups households into units of ten and groups of one hundred, whereupon their capacities for paying taxes and providing the state with corvée labor service can be assessed. The system becomes fully operational in 1381, when it counts 59,873,305 people living in China (the historian Timothy Brook asserts that the number was much higher, somewhere between 65 million and 75 million).

title: 1371

date: May

text: May – Under the direction of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Emperor Hongwu, the Ming conquest of Xia begins as troops from China, led by Generals Fu Youde and Tang He invade what is now the Sichuan province from the north, while Admiral Liao Yongzhong leads an attack on Xia's east coast and along the Yangtze river.

title: 1371

date: November 18

text: November 18 – Shen-Chi and Chang-Jhing-Chi, diplomatic envoys from China, land in Java to deliver a message from the Chinese Emperor to Muhammad Shah of Brunei.

title: 1371

text: The Kingdom of Chūzan, ruled by King Satto on the island of Okinawa, in Japan) enters tributary relations with Ming dynasty China by way of an envoy, Yang Zai, sent by the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.

title: 1372

text: The Chinese emperor of the Ming dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor, suspends the traditional civil service examination system after complaining that the 120 new jinshi degree-holders are too incompetent to hold office; he instead relies solely upon a system of recommendations, until the civil service exams are reinstated in 1384.

title: 1373

text: King U of Goryeo adopts the Ming calendar and begs to be invested by the Hongwu Emperor.

title: 1377

date: August

text: August – The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty of China scraps the Office of Reports Inspection (established in 1370) for a new Office of Transmission, in his efforts to create a more efficient communicatory system in the empire. A month before this he noted that anyone could send memorials to the throne; commoners often did, although the only times their petitions were read aloud to the emperor were when they called for the impeachment of local officials who were not up to par with their official duties.Wilkinson, 534–535.

title: 1377

text: The Hongwu Emperor purges the chancellor of China, Hu Weiyong, and abolishes that office, as he imposes direct imperial rule over the six ministries of central government, for the Ming Empire.

title: 1380

date: February 12

text: February 12 – Hu Weiyong, the Grand Chancellor of Ming dynasty China, is accused of treason and executed as the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (Emperor Hongwu) begins a purge of over 30,000 people perceived as opponents of the Imperial government.

title: 1380

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: The Ming dynasty of China annexes the areas of the old Kingdom of Dali, in modern-day Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, inhabited by the Miao and Yao peoples. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese (including military colonists) will migrate there from the rest of China.

title: 1381

section: Events › Date not known

section: Health & Medicine

text: In Ming dynasty China, the lijia census registration system begun in 1371 is now universally imposed, during the reign of the Hongwu Emperor. The census counts 59,873,305 people living in China in this year. This depicts a drastic drop in population since the Song dynasty, which counted 100 million people at its height in the early 12th century. A modern historian states that the Ming census is inaccurate, as China at around this time has at least 65,000,000 inhabitants, if not 75,000,000.

title: 1381

date: April 9

text: April 9 – Ming dyansty China, ruled by the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, completes the conquerst of Yunnan the remaining portion of China still occupied by the Yuan dyansty in what is now the Yunnan province. General Fu Youde leads 250,000 Ming Chinese troops overwhelming the smaller Yunnan force of Mongol and Chinese Muslim troops.

title: 1382

date: January 6

text: January 6 – Basalawarmi, the Yuan dynasty Prince of Liang (now in the Henan province), commits suicide at his palace in Kaifeng after having been forced to retreat from the Ming dynasty armies.

title: 1382

section: Crime & Justice

date: August 16

text: August 16 – The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China hears a case of a couple who tore paper money notes, while fighting over them. Under the law, this is considered an act of destroying stamped government documents, which is to be punished by a caning with a bamboo rod of 100 strokes. However, the Emperor decides to pardon them, on the grounds that it was unintentional.

title: 1384

text: The Hongwu Emperor of China's Ming dynasty relents after eighteen tribute missions over the previous eight years, and agrees to invest King U of Goryeo.

title: 1385

text: November 18 – Uskhal Khan Tögüs Temür, the Emperor of the Northern Yuan dynasty in Mongolia, is killed by the Ming Chinese General Jorightu Khan Yesüder , who becomes the new Emperor.

title: 1388

date: January 19

text: January 19 – In Ming dynasty China, General Lan Yu is rewarded by the Emperor Zhu Chongba of the Hongwu era for his victory over Mongol invaders in 1388. Lan Yu is given the title Duke of Liang, with rule over what is now the Gansu province.

title: 1389

date: September 24

text: September 24 – Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor of Ming dynasty China, declares that all males must wear the queue hairstyle.

title: 1392

text: The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty in China orders the Ministry of Public Works to issue a public notice, that every 100 households in the lijia system are to set aside 2 mu (1,390 m 2 ) of land, for planting mulberry and jujube trees.

title: 1394

text: The Ming dynasty court of China sends two envoys, Qian Guxun and Li Sicong, to the Ava Kingdom of Burma and the Tai polity of the Mong Mao, in order to resolve a dispute between these two. The travels of the Chinese ambassadors are recorded in the historical text of the Baiyi Zhuan.

title: 1396

text: Japan re-enters into a tributary relationship with China.

title: 1401

text: The Joseon dynasty in present-day Korea officially enters into a tributary relationship with Ming dynasty China.

title: 1401

date: July 15

text: July 15 – Jingnan campaign: Chinese Empire troops, led by Fang Zhao, launch a raid on the Yan principality capital at Beiping, forcing Yan PrinceZhu Di to bring his troops back north.

title: 1401

text: June 24 – (13th day of 5th month Ōei 8) The shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu dispatches a mission to Ming Dynasty China as the first step of opening trade between the two nations.

title: 1401

date: July 17

text: July 17 – The Ming dynasty prince Zhu Di of Yan is formally crowned as the Emperor Cheng Zu of Ming at Nanjing, marking the end of the Jingnan campaign.

title: 1402

date: July 11

text: July 11 – Ming Dynasty fleet commander Zheng He sets sail from Suzhou, to explore the world for the first time.

title: 1405

text: Construction of the Forbidden City begins in Beijing during the Chinese Ming dynasty.

title: 1406

date: May 11

text: May 11 – Ming conquest of Đại Ngu: China's Emperor Chengzu sends two battalions to invade the Kingdom of Dai Ngu (now Vietnam) under the command of the Duke Zhu Neng.

title: 1406

text: Zheng He delivers 300 virgins from Korea to the Chinese Emperor Cheng Zu.

title: 1408

text: August 20 – Abdul Majid Hassan, the Sultan of Brunei, sets off on a voyage to China at the invitation of the Emperor Cheng Zu and arrives in the capital, Nanjing, by September, becoming the first foreign monarch to make a peaceful visit to the Chinese Empire. While visiting, the Sultan becomes ill and dies on October 19.

title: 1408

text: Cheng Ho (or Zheng He), admiral of the Ming empire fleet, deposes the king of Sri Lanka.

title: 1409

text: Under the reign of Emperor Cheng Zu of Ming China, work begins to reinstate the ancient Grand Canal of China, which fell into disuse and dilapidation during the previous Yuan dynasty. Between 1411 and 1415, a total of 165,000 laborers dredge the canal bed in Shandong, build new channels, embankments, and canal locks. Four large reservoirs in Shandong are also dug, in order to regulate water levels, instead of resorting to pumping water from local tables. A large dam is also constructed, to divert water from the Wen River southwest into the Grand Canal.

title: 1411

text: July 6 – Ming dynasty Chinese Admiral Zheng He returns to Nanjing after his third voyage, and presents the ruler Vira Alakesvara, captured during the Ming–Kotte War, to China's Emperor Cheng Zu.

title: 1411

text: Years after its publication in the 14th century, the Ming dynasty Chinese artillery officer Jiao Yu adds the preface to his classic book on gunpowder warfare, the Huolongjing.

title: 1412

text: December 18 – China's Emperor Cheng Zu orders the fourth of the Ming treasure voyages, to be led by Admiral Zheng He.

title: 1412

text: March 31 – Trùng Quang Đế, Emperor of Vietnam (at the time Đại Việt), surrenders the Kingdom to the control of China. The Chinese occupying force installs Trần Cảo as the figurehead king.

title: 1413

text: March 30 – The rebellion by Vietnamese Emperor Tran Quy Khoang against the Ming dynasty Chinese occupying armies comes to an end when Tran is captured and imprisoned by General Zhang Fu, marking a turning point in the Ming–Việt War.

title: 1414

text: The Grand Canal of China is reinstated by this year after it had fallen out of use; restoration began in 1411, and was a response by the Emperor Cheng Zu of the Ming Dynasty to improve the grain shipment system of tribute traveling from south to north, towards his new capital at Beijing. With this action, the food supply crisis is solved by the end of the year.

title: 1415

text: November 14 – China's Emperor Cheng Zu and his fleet return to Nanjing from his fourth expedition for treasure after having been away since 1413.

title: 1416

text: October 28 – Beijing ("Northern Capital") is officially designated the capital of Ming dynasty China by the Yongle Emperor, replacing Nanjing, during the same year that the Forbidden City, the seat of government, is completed and construction begins on the Temple of Heaven in the new capital city.

title: 1420

text: August – China's Emperor Cheng Zu launches his fourth campaign against the Northern Yuan.

title: 1423

text: September 7 – Prince Zhu Gaochi of China becomes the Hongxi Emperor (Emperor Renzong) of the Ming dynasty, beginning the Hongxi era, after the August 12 death of his father, the Emperor Zhu Di.

title: 1424

text: Beijing, capital of China, becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from Nanjing (estimated date).

title: 1425

text: June 27 – Zhu Zhanji is formally enthroned as the Ming dynasty Emperor of China as the Emperor Xuanzong, beginning the Xuande Era.

title: 1425

text: Eunuch-dominated secret police start to control the palace guards and imperial workshops, infiltrate the civil service, and head all foreign missions in China.

title: 1426

text: March 29 – In Vietnam, the Ming dynasty China army invades a second time, bringing 120,000 reinforcement troops led by General Mu Sheng to crush the Lam Sơn uprising.

title: 1427

text: Lam Sơn uprising: Lê Lợi, founder of the Lê dynasty in Vietnam, liberates Annam (the territory occupied by Ming dynasty China in 1407) and restores the kingdom as Đại Việt.

title: 1428

text: A series of seven customs offices and barriers are installed along the Grand Canal of China, during the reign of the Ming Dynasty's Yongle Emperor.

title: 1429

text: July 22 – Admiral Zheng He and the crew of the seventh Ming Chinese overseas expedition return to China, arriving at Beijing two and one half years after their departure on January 19, 1411 from Nanjing. With the completion of the maritime expedition, the fleet is dispersed, altering the balance of power in the Indian Ocean, and making it easier for Portugal and other Western naval powers to gain dominance over the seas.

title: 1433

text: September 14 – Emperor Xuanzong of Ming dynasty China welcomes the envoys of 11 foreign nations that had sent representatives to travel back to China with Admiral Zheng He's fleet. Present at the Imperial Court as guests are envoys of the kings of Samudera, Kingdom of Kotte, Kingdom of Cochin, Calicut, Dhofar, Aden, Coimbatore, Hormuz, Jayile and Mecca.

title: 1433

text: In Ming Dynasty China, a long episode of drought, flood, locust infestation, and famine cripple agriculture and commerce in areas throughout the country, until 1448.

title: 1434

text: China returns to a policy of isolation.

title: 1435

text: In Ming dynasty China, the inauguration of the Zhengtong-era Emperor Yingzong of Ming takes place.

title: 1436

text: Just two years after the Ming dynasty court of China allowed landowners paying the grain tax to pay their tax in silver instead, the Ming court now decides to close all silver mines and prohibit all private silver mining in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. This is a concerted effort to halt the increase of silver circulating into the market. The illegal mining of silver is now an offense punishable by death; although it becomes a dangerous affair, the high demand for silver also makes it very lucrative, and so many chose to defy the government and continue to mine.

title: 1438

text: December 8 – In Ming dynasty China, the Emperor Yingzong gives the order to his General, Mu Sheng, to go to war against the state of the Dai people (on the border with the Burmese Kingdom of Ava)and their ruler, King Möng Mao.

title: 1438

text: Zhu Quan writes the Cha Pu ("Tea Manual") in China.

title: 1440

text: The Buddhist Zhihua Temple (智化寺) is built in Beijing, at the order of Wang Zhen, chief eunuch at the court of the Emperor Yingzong of Ming Dynasty China.

title: 1443

text: After a long episode of drought, flood, locust infestation and famine in Ming dynasty China since the year 1434, these natural afflictions finally wane, and agriculture and commerce return to a state of normality.

title: 1448

text: September 1 – Battle of Tumu Fortress: The Oirat Mongols defeat the Ming dynasty army, and capture the Emperor Xingzong of China on September 3. The Emperor is officially deposed, while his brother Zhu Qiyu ascends as the Jingtai Emperor the next year.

title: 1449

text: January 19 – The Jingtai Era begins in China under the Emperor Daizong, and the Zhengtong Era ends after 14 years.

title: 1450

text: September 19 – China's Emperor Yingzong returns to Beijing after having been held as a prisoner of war by the Mongols since September 1, 1449. Upon returning, he is held under house arrest in the Forbidden City along with his wife, the Empress Qian, on orders of his younger brother Emperor Daizong.

title: 1450

text: February 11 – In Ming dynasty China, the Emperor Yingzong of Ming is returned to the throne by General Cao Jixiang and other officers who had staged a coup d'etat and overthrown his brother, the Emperor Daizong. Yingzong, whose first reign was the Zhengtong era, proclaims the Tianshun era.

title: 1457

text: August 7 – The Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor; after setting fire to the eastern and western gates of the Imperial City, Beijing (which are doused by pouring rains during the day-long uprising), Cao Qin finds himself hemmed in on all sides by imperial forces, loses three of his own brothers in the fight, and instead of facing execution, he flees to his home in the city, and commits suicide by jumping down a well located within his walled compound.

title: 1461

text: In China, a small rebellion occurs in the interior province of Huguang, during the Ming Dynasty; a subsequent rebellion springs up in Guangxi, where a rebellion of the Miao people and Yao people forces the Ming throne to respond, by sending 30,000 troops (including 1,000 Mongol cavalry) to aid the 160,000 local troops stationed in the region, to crush the rebellion that will end in 1466.

title: 1464

text: February 23 – Prince Zhu Jianshen becomes the new Ming dynasty Emperor of China, taking the regnal name Emperor Xianzong upon the death of his father, the Emperor Yingzong of Ming. His reign is subsequently designated as the Chenghua Era.

title: 1464

text: Massive flooding in central and southern China motivates the initial construction of hundreds of new bridges.

title: 1465

text: December 7 – During the war between Dai Viet and Lan Xang (now the northern part of Vietnam and the entire nation of Laos), Emperor Xianxong of Ming dynasty China is informed by his envoys that Dai Viet had subdued Lan Xang and was preparing to invade Lan Na

title: 1480

text: March or April – 1490 Qingyang event, a presumed meteor shower or air burst over Qingyang in the Gansu province in Ming dynasty China. Some later accounts lists casualties of more than 10,000 people. The only date given for the Qingyang event is that it was in "the third lunar month" on the Chinese lunar calendar coinciding with a period beginning on March 12 and ending on April 19, 1490.

title: 1490

text: In Ming dynasty China, the commercial transportation of grain to the northern border, in exchange for salt certificates, is monetized.

title: 1492

text: October 28 – In the Chinese Empire, two days after being blamed by the Emperor Zhu Youcheng for bringing misfortunes to the Empire by having built a pavilion in the imperial gardens that disregarded feng shui principles, royal administrator Li Guang commits suicide. The Emperor's daughter Princess Taikang had died suddenly on October 1, and a fire had broken out in one of the palaces in Beijing's Forbidden City on October 26.

title: 1498

text: June 19 – Zhu Houzhao, the 13-year-old son of the late Hongzhi Emperor of Ming Dynasty China, is enthroned as the Zhengde Emperor upon his father's death.

title: 1505

text: In Ming dynasty China, the costs of the courier system are met by a tax in silver on land, instead of corvée labor service.

title: 1506

text: May 12 – The Prince of Anhua rebellion begins when Zhu Zhifan, Prince of Anhua, kills all the officials invited to a banquet, and declares his intent on ousting the powerful Ming dynasty eunuch Liu Jin, during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor in China.

title: 1510

text: Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of the wife of Christopher Columbus, commands an expedition from Portuguese Malacca to land on the shores of mainland southern China, and trade with Chinese merchants at Guangzhou, during the Ming Dynasty.

title: 1516

text: August 15 – Portuguese merchant Fernão Pires de Andrade meets Ming Dynasty Chinese officials through an interpreter, at the Pearl River estuary and lands, at what is now in the jurisdiction of Hong Kong. Although the first European trade expeditions to China took place in 1513 and 1516 by Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello, respectively, Andrade's mission is the first official diplomatic mission of a European power to China, commissioned by a ruler of Europe (Manuel I of Portugal).

title: 1517

text: August 20 – Ming Dynasty Chinese philosopher and general Wang Yangming, governor of Jiangxi, defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion. Wang has expressed the intention of using fo–lang–ji cannons in suppressing the rebellion, probably the earliest reference in China to the breech-loading Frankish culverin.

title: 1519

text: July 10 – The Prince of Ning rebellion begins, after Zhu Chenhao declares the Ming dynasty's Zhengde Emperor a usurper, and leads his army north in an attempt to capture Nanjing.

title: 1519

text: May 27 – After the death of his cousin, Prince Zhu Houcong became the new Ming dynasty Emperor of China, taking the imperial name of the Emperor Jiajing<.

title: 1521

text: Chinese Ming dynasty War Ministry official He Ru is the first to acquire the Portuguese breech-loading culverin, while copies of them are made by two Westernized Chinese at Beijing, Yang San (Pedro Yang) and Dai Ming.

title: 1522

text: The Ming dynasty Chinese navy captures two Western ships with Portuguese breech–loading culverins aboard, which the Chinese call a fo–lang–ji (Frankish culverin). According to the Ming Shi, these cannons are soon presented to the Jiajing Emperor by Wang Hong, and their design is copied in 1529.

title: 1523

text: May 31 – Following the Battle of Sincouwaan at sea between the ships of the Chinese Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal, the Malay ambassador to China reluctantly departs from Guangzhou to present letters to the Portuguese governors of the occupied Malacca Sultanate, demanding the restoration of the deposed Sultan. Though fearing execution by the Portuguese, the messengers are allowed to leave. They return in September with a plea for help from the Malay Sultan, whose territory is under attack from the Europeans.

title: 1523

text: The Chinese Ministry of War under the Ming dynasty orders ships having more than one mast sailing along the southeast coast to be seized, investigated, and destroyed; this in an effort to curb piracy and limit private commercial trade abroad.

title: 1525

text: The Ming dynasty government of China greatly reduces the quotas for taking grain, severely diminishing the state's capacity to relieve famines through a previously successful granary system.

title: 1527

text: In Henan province, China, during the mid Ming dynasty, a vast drought deprives the region of harvests for the next two years, killing off half the people in some communities, due to starvation and cannibalism.

title: 1528

text: January 8 – Zhang Qijie becomes the most powerful woman in Ming dynasty China as the primary wife of the Jiajing Emperor, shortly after the death of the Empress Xiaojiesu.

title: 1529

text: The first in a decade-long series of severe famines and epidemics sweep central and southeastern China during the Ming dynasty, made worse by a decision of 1527 to cut back on the intake of grain quotas for granaries.

title: 1538

text: November 27 – Palace plot of Renyin year: A group of Ming dynasty palace women fail to murder the Jiajing Emperor, and are executed by slow-slicing.

title: 1542

text: Mongols, led by Anda, burn the suburbs of Beijing in China.

title: 1544

text: In China, a large failure of the harvest in Henan province occurs due to excessive rainfall, which drives up the price of wheat, and forces many to flee their rural counties; those who stay behind are forced to survive by eating leaves, bark, and human flesh.

title: 1545

text: April 15 – General Zhu Wan of Ming dynasty China dispatches a fleet of ships, commanded by Lu Tang, to destroy smugglers and pirates at Shangyu, a port on Liuheng Island. The fleet sets off from Wenzhou and makes its attack in June.

title: 1548

text: Although trade existed between the two beforehand, in this year the Portuguese begin to send regular seasonal maritime trade missions to Ming dynasty China, at Sao João Island (also known as Shangchuan Island) near Macau.

title: 1549

text: In Henan province, China, during the Ming dynasty, a severe frost in the spring destroys the winter wheat crop. Torrential rains in mid summer cause massive flooding of farmland and villages (by some accounts submerged in a metre of water). In the fall, a large tornado demolishes houses and flattens much of the buckwheat in the fields. Famine victims either flee, starve, or resort to cannibalism. This follows a series of natural disasters in Henan in the years 1528, 1531, 1539, and 1545.

title: 1551

text: Luso-Chinese agreement: Portugal reaches an agreement with the Ming Dynasty of China, to be allowed to legally trade in the province of Guangdong. This agreement is often seen as a starting point of the Portuguese colony of Macau.

title: 1554

text: With the permission of the Ming dynasty government of China, and for the benefit of both Western and Eastern merchants, the Portuguese settle in Macau (retroceded in 1999). Direct Sino-Portuguese trade has existed since 1513, but this is the first official legal treaty port on traditional Chinese soil, that will form a long-term Western settlement.

title: 1557

text: April 24 – Xu Guangqi, Ming Dynasty Chinese politician, agronomist, astronomer, mathematician and lay Catholic leader (d. 1633)

title: 1562

text: Although sparse maritime trade existed since its founding, the Ming dynasty government of China officially revokes the haijin maritime trade ban, reinstating foreign trade with all countries except Japan.

title: 1567

text: February 4 – Prince Zhu Zaiji, son of the Jiajing Emperor, ascends the throne of Ming dynasty China as the Longqing Emperor.

title: 1567

text: April 21 – In China, General Altan Khan is granted authority to rule the western provinces by the Ming dynasty Emperor Longqing in return for his payment of a tribute.

title: 1571

text: The first Spanish galleon, laden with silver for the porcelain and silk trade with the Ming Dynasty of China, lands at Manila in the Philippines. This occasion marks the beginning of the Spanish silver trade to China, that will trump that of the Portuguese, the latter of whom acted as an intermediary between the silver mines of Japan, and the luxury items in China to be purchased with that silver. Most of the silver entering China comes from what is now Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru in the New World.

title: 1573

text: February 2 – The Wanli Era begins in Ming dynasty China on the first New Year after 9-year-old Zhu Yijun ascends the throne.

title: 1573

text: The Ming Dynasty Chancellor of China, Chief Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, imposes the Single Whip Reform, by which taxes are assessed on properties recorded in the land census, and paid in silver, as the accepted medium of exchange.

title: 1581

text: Belgian cartographer and geographer Abraham Ortelius features Ming dynasty-era Chinese carriages with masts and sails, in his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum; concurrent and later Western writers also take note of this peculiar Chinese invention.

title: 1584

text: A severe famine breaks out in Ming dynasty China.

title: 1587

text: July 20 – The Japanese capture the Korean capital Hanyang, causing Seonjo to request the assistance of Ming dynasty Chinese forces, who recapture the city a year later.

title: 1592

text: 12 million pesos of silver cross the Pacific. Although it is unknown just how much silver flowed from the Spanish base of Manila in the Philippines to the Ming Dynasty of China, it is known that the main port for the Mexican silver trade—Acapulco—shipped out 150,000 to 345,000 kg (4 to 9 million taels) of silver annually from this year to 1602.

title: 1597

text: Illustrations of Ottoman Turkish and European riflemen, with detailed illustrations of their firearms, appear in Zhao Shizhen's book Shenqipu in this year, during the Ming Dynasty of China.

title: 1598

text: Jesuit Matteo Ricci becomes the first European to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, being invited by the Ming Dynasty Emperor.

title: 1601

text: February 4 – Shi Kefa, Chinese Ming Dynasty official (d. 1645)

title: 1601

text: Copies are printed of the geographical map of East Asia created by Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit stationed in Ming dynasty Beijing, China, with Chinese-written labeling and map symbols.

title: 1602

text: The iconoclast and Confucian scholar Li Zhi commits suicide while in a Chinese prison, during the late Ming dynasty; he had taught that women were the intellectual equals of men and should be given equal opportunity in education; he was charged with spreading "dangerous ideas".

title: 1602

text: April 5 – Invasion of Ryukyu in Japan: Soldiers of the Shimazu clan capture the castle on Ryukyu Island, beginning to make the Ryukyu Kingdom a vassal of Satsuma Han, but Ryukyu is still allowed to keep itself a tribute state of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

title: 1609

text: The Manchu tribal leader Nurhaci breaks his relations with the Ming dynasty of China, at this time under the aloof and growingly negligent Wanli Emperor; Nurhaci's line later becomes the emperors of the Qing dynasty, which overthrows the short-lived Shun dynasty in 1644, and the remnants of the Ming throne in 1662.

title: 1610

text: The Ming Chinese embassy of the Wanli Emperor presents tea to the Russian tsar.

title: 1618

text: April 18 – Battle of Sarhu: Manchu leader Nurhaci is victorious over the Ming forces.

title: 1619

text: February 10 – Battle of Ningyuan: In Xingcheng in China, after an 8-day battle, Ming dynasty commander Yuan Chonghuan defeats the much larger force of Manchu leader Nurhaci, who dies soon after and is succeeded by Huang Taiji.

title: 1626

text: March 3 – After the First Manchu invasion of Korea, the Joseon dynasty of Korea becomes a tributary state of the Manchus, but still pays respects to the Ming dynasty of China. After rejecting a Manchu alteration to the original diplomatic terms in 1636, the Manchus invade again in 1637.

title: 1627

text: February 5 – The Chongzhen Era begins in Ming dynasty China after the October 2 ascension of Zhu Youjian, the Chongzhen Emperor, on the first day of the Chinese New Year, and the Tianqi era formally ends.

title: 1628

text: Chongzhen, the Chinese emperor of the Ming dynasty, reiterates the state prohibition against female infanticide, while the empire and the Chinese economy begins to crumble. In the same year, a third of the courier stations are closed down due to lack of government funds to sustain them.

title: 1629

text: October 22 – Battle of Liaoluo Bay: A large Ming dynasty fleet under Zheng Zhilong defeats a Dutch East India Company fleet at the island of Quemoy.

title: 1633

text: June 27 – The first English venture to China is attempted by Captain John Weddell, who sails into port in Macau and Canton during the late Ming dynasty with six ships. The voyages are for trade, which is dominated here by the Portuguese (at this time combined with the power of Spain). He brings 38,421 pairs of eyeglasses, perhaps the first recorded European-made eyeglasses to enter China.

title: 1637

text: The Peking Gazette makes an official switch in its production process of newspapers, from woodblock printing to movable type printing (private newspapers in Ming dynasty China were first mentioned in 1582).

title: 1638

text: A massive epidemic breaks out in northern and central China, just three years before the fall of the Ming dynasty. It races south down along the Grand Canal of China and the densely populated settlements there, from the northern terminus at Beijing, to the fertile Jiangnan region. In some local areas and towns it wipes out 90% of the local populace.

title: 1641

text: April 25 – The Battle of Songjin begins in the modern-day North Korean city of Kimch'aek, at the time part of the Chinese Empire controlled by the Ming dynasty. The Ming, led by General Wu Sangui, defeat the Qing rebels.

title: 1641

text: November 27 – Hong Taiji (known in the West as Abatai) begins a 60-day march of Manchu warriors southwards from the Great Wall through Ming Chinese provinces of Zhili and Shandong, before returning northward on January 27. (Two years later Beijing falls to rebels, the Chongzhen Emperor commits suicide, and the Shunzhi Emperor becomes the first Qing Emperor to rule over China proper.)

title: 1642

text: April 25 – A popular Chinese rebellion led by Li Zicheng sacks Beijing, prompting Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming dynasty, to commit suicide.

title: 1644

text: June 6 – The invading Qing army, with the help of Ming general Wu Sangui, captures Beijing in China, marking the beginning of Manchu rule over China proper, which will last until 1912.

title: 1644

text: May 25 – Ming general Wu Sangui forms an alliance with the invading Manchus and opens the gates of the Great Wall of China at Shanhaiguan Pass, letting the Manchus through towards the capital Beijing.

title: 1644

text: November 8 – The Shunzhi Emperor, the second emperor of the Qing dynasty, is enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper.

title: 1644

text: December 21 – General Wu Sangui of China arrives in Burma with 20,000 troops and demands that the Burmese surrender Yongli, the last of the Ming dynasty rulers of Southern China before the Qing dynasty consolidated its rule. Burma's King Pye Min hands Yongli over to General Wu on January 15, and Yongli is subsequently executed.

title: 1661


slug: minnesota

label: Minnesota

description: state of the United States of America

date: July 4

text: July 4 – In the United States, the Iowa Territory is formally established, following the signing of a bill by President Martin Van Buren on June 12. In addition to Iowa, which will become a state on December 28, 1846, the Territory also includes most of what will become the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Robert Lucas, former Governor of Ohio, takes office as the first Territorial Governor.

title: 1838

section: Disasters & Accidents

date: March 5

text: March 5 – Saint Paul Fire and Marine, as predecessor of The Travelers Companies, a worldwide insurance service, founded in Minnesota, United States.

title: 1853

section: Events › January–March

date: March 8

text: March 8 – 12 – Spirit Lake Massacre, near Okoboji and Spirit lakes in the northwestern territory of Iowa near the Minnesota border.

title: 1857

text: May 11 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.

title: 1858

date: August 17

text: August 17 – The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota, as Dakota Sioux attack white settlements along the Minnesota River. They are overwhelmed by the U.S. Army six weeks later.

title: 1862

section: Events › August

date: August 19

text: August 19 – Dakota War of 1862: During an uprising in Minnesota, Dakota warriors decide not to attack heavily defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.

title: 1862

date: November 5

text: November 5 – American Indian Wars: In Minnesota, more than 300 Santee Sioux are found guilty of rape and murder of white settlers, and are sentenced to hang.

title: 1862

section: Events › November

date: September 8

text: September 8 – Saint Thomas Academy is founded in Minnesota.

title: 1885

section: Events › September

date: June 13

text: June 13 – A large log jam forms on the St. Croix River near Taylors Falls, Minnesota

title: 1886

section: Events › June

section: Climate & Environment

date: January 12

text: January 12 – The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory and the states of Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas, leaving 235 dead, many of them children on their way home from school.

title: 1888

section: Events › January

date: July 13

text: July 13 – In Minnesota, storms result in the Sea Wing disaster on Lake Pepin, killing 98.

title: 1890

section: Events › July

date: October 5

text: October 5 – At the Battle of Sugar Point in the Indian Wars, some Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians (a group of Ojibwe, referred to at the time as Chippewa) warriors, led by Bugonaygeshig, defeat U.S. Army infantry troops in northern Minnesota, with seven U.S. troops killed and 19 wounded. Bugonayegeshig, whom the American soldiers were sent to capture, escapes and is never apprehended.

title: 1898

section: Events › October

section: Economy & Finance

text: Daniels Linseed, predecessor of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a global livestock, commodities trading, food processing brand, is founded in Minnesota, United States.

title: 1902

date: October 7

text: October 7 – Baudette fire of 1910, a wildfire that burns ca. 350,000 square miles in Minnesota and Ontario, including several towns.

title: 1910

date: August 24

text: August 24–27 – The Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City nominates incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson for a full term, and U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate.

title: 1964

date: November 6

text: November 6 – 1984 United States presidential election: Republican President Ronald Reagan defeats Democratic former Vice President Walter F. Mondale with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon's 61% popular vote victory in 1972. Reagan carries 49 states in the electoral College; Mondale wins only his home state of Minnesota (by a mere 3,761 vote margin) and the District of Columbia.

title: 1984


slug: mircea-i-of-wallachia

label: Mircea I of Wallachia

section: Conflict & Security

date: September 23

text: September 23 – Dan I of Wallachia (modern-day southern Romania) is killed in battle against the Bulgarians and is succeeded by Mircea the Elder, one of the greatest rulers of Wallachia.

title: 1386

section: Events › July–September

text: Mircea I of Wallachia takes control of the region of Dobruja, thus preventing its occupation by the Ottomans.

title: 1388

section: Events › Date unknown

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: Mircea I of Wallachia and Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło sign their first treaty, to protect their countries against Ottoman expansion.

title: 1389

date: May 17

text: May 17 – Battle of Rovine: With the help of the Hungarians, Wallachia resists an invasion by the Ottomans and their Serb and Bulgarian vassals. But Mircea I of Wallachia has to temporarily flee to Transylvania, and Vlad I Uzurpatorul is placed on the throne by the Ottomans.

title: 1395

text: Mircea I takes back the throne of Wallachia.

title: 1397

text: Wallachia reaches its maximum extent under Mircea cel Bătrân.

title: 1404

text: Mihail I becomes co-ruler of Wallachia, with his father Mircea cel Bătrân.

title: 1408

text: Mircea cel Bătrân of Wallachia successfully defends Silistra against the Ottomans

title: 1409

text: Mircea cel Bătrân loses Dobruja to the Ottomans and pays them tribute, thus preventing Wallachia from becoming an Ottoman province.

title: 1417

section: Deaths

date: January 31

text: January 31 – Mircea I, Prince of Wallachia (now part of southern Romania), dies after a reign of 21 years and is succeeded by his son, Mihail I.

title: 1418

text: January 31 – Mircea I of Wallachia, ruler of Wallachia (b. 1355)

title: 1418


slug: missionary

label: Missionary

description: member of a religious group sent to do evangelism

text: The Sasanian Persians conquer the independent kingdom of Caucasian Albania, a state converted to Christianity in the 4th century by Armenian missionaries (approximate date).

title: 510

section: Events › By place › Persian Empire

section: Religion & Belief

text: Justinian I outlaws pagan religious practices in Egypt, and dispatches Byzantine missionaries to southern territories (approximate date).

title: 527

section: Events › By topic › Religion

text: The Nubian kingdom of Alodia is converted to Christianity by Byzantine missionaries (according to John of Ephesus).

title: 569

text: Gregorian Mission: Augustine of Canterbury lands with a group of missionaries on the Isle of Thanet (South East England). He is welcomed by King Æthelberht of Kent, who accepts baptism along with the rest of his court at the behest of his Christian Frankish wife, Bertha. Æthelbert assigns Augustine and his 40 monks a residence at Canterbury (Kent), where they found a Benedictine monastery that will make the town a centre of Christianity (or 597).

title: 596

text: Gregorian Mission: Augustine of Canterbury lands with a group of missionaries on the Isle of Thanet (South East England). He is welcomed by King Æthelberht of Kent, who accepts baptism (along with the rest of his court) at the behest of his Christian Frankish wife, Bertha. Æthelbert assigns Augustine and his 40 monks a residence at Canterbury, where they found a Benedictine monastery that will make the town a centre of Christianity (or 596).

title: 597

text: Missionaries begin to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity throughout much of what will later be the British Isles (approximate date).

title: 598

text: King Sæberht of Essex dies after a 12-year reign, and is succeeded by his son Sexred. He rules conjointly with his two brothers Sæward and Sigeberht; they throw out the Christian missionaries and return to paganism.

title: 616

section: Events › By place › Britain

date: April 24

text: April 24 – St. Justus is appointed as the new Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Boniface V upon the death of Archbishop Mellitus., receiving the pallium — symbol of the jurisdiction entrusted to archbishops. He oversees the dispatch of missionaries to Northumbria in northern England to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.

title: 624

section: Events › By date › January–June

text: Heraclius invites the Croats, a Slavic tribe living in Galicia, Silesia, and Bohemia, to settle in Illyricum. They are given the land between the Drava River and the Adriatic Sea for ridding of Avars. The Serbs are allowed to move from their homeland north of the Carpathians to a territory east of the Croats. Heraclius asks Pope Honorius I to send missionaries to both groups.

title: 626

section: Events › By place › Byzantine Empire

text: At the request of Porga of Croatia, one of the first dukes or princes (Croatian: knez) of Dalmatian Croatia, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius sends Christian missionaries to the Croatian Provinces (approximate date).

title: 640

section: Events › By place › Europe

text: Northumbrian missionaries under St. Cedd are despatched to Essex, to found the monastery at Bradwell-on-Sea.

title: 653

text: Synod of Whitby: King Oswiu of Northumbria calls for a meeting at Whitby Abbey to settle the church practices in his kingdom—those of the Celtic Church (of Wales, Scotland and the north of England – preached by Irish missionaries) or the Roman Church (of the south of England). The matters discussed include how to calculate the date of Easter. It is decided to follow the practice of Rome. As a result, many Irish clergy leave Northumbria and return to Ireland.

title: 664

text: Jaruman, bishop of Mercia, is dispatched with Christian missionaries to reconvert Saxon tribes, which have returned to paganism.

title: 665

date: July 8

text: July 8 – Irish missionaries, apostles to Franconia, martyred (approximate date)

title: 689

text: A group of four Basra-educated missionaries, including 'Abd al-Rahman Iban Rustam, proclaim the Ibadi imamate. Followers conquer the city of Kairouan (modern Tunisia), and massacre the Kharijites.

title: 758

section: Events › By place › Africa

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: King Pepin of Italy conquers Istria on the Adriatic, ignoring Byzantine protests. He establishes a tributary march, and sends missionaries.

title: 789

section: Health & Medicine

text: Ethiopia deports Portuguese diplomats and missionaries.

title: 1650

date: January 8

text: January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are killed for trespassing by the Waorani people of Ecuador, shortly after making contact with them.

title: 1956


slug: mississippi-river

label: Mississippi River

description: primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States

date: May 8

text: May 8 – Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River, naming it the Rio de Espiritu Santo ("River of the Holy Spirit").

title: 1541

section: Events › April–June

date: March 7

text: March 7 – Massive flooding of the Mississippi River and the Arkansas River begins in southeastern North America over a 40 day period while Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his team are passing through. The event is noted by the chronicler of the DeSoto Expedition, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.

title: 1543

section: Events › January–March

date: June 17

text: June 17 – French explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet reach the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and descend to Arkansas.

title: 1673

text: May 17 – In America, trader Louis Joliet and Jesuit missionary-explorer Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.

title: 1673

date: December 3

text: December 3 – French explorers René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (commonly called "La Salle") and Henri de Tonti set off from their fort near Niagara Falls in North America on the first European expedition to explore the upper Mississippi River.

title: 1679

section: Events › October–December

date: April 7

text: April 7 – René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, exploring rivers in America, reaches the mouth of the Mississippi River.

title: 1682

section: Culture & Society

date: April 9

text: April 9 – At the mouth of the Mississippi River, near modern Venice, Louisiana, Robert de La Salle buries an engraved plate and a cross, claiming the territory as La Louisiane for France.

title: 1682

date: July 24

text: July 24 – René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle sails again from France, with a large expedition designed to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

title: 1684

date: February 20

text: February 20 – René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, intending to establish a colony near the mouth of the Mississippi River, lands with 200 surviving colonists at Matagorda Bay on the Texas coast, believing the Mississippi to be near. He establishes Fort St. Louis.

title: 1685

date: March 19

text: March 19 – The men under explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle mutiny, while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. Pierre Duhaut murders La Salle, near what is now Navasota, Texas.

title: 1687

date: May 1

text: May 1 – Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founds the first European settlement in the Mississippi River Valley, at Fort Maurepas (Ocean Springs, Mississippi).

title: 1699

date: August 3

text: August 3 – Natchez, one of the oldest towns on the Mississippi River, is founded by French civilians at the site of Fort Rosalie.

title: 1716

date: March 20

text: March 20 – After the British victory in the French and Indian War, the first post-war British expedition to explore the newly acquired territories east of the Mississippi River comes under attack by Tunica warriors. The 340 British Army men, under the command of Major Arthur Loftus, were at a spot south of Natchez, Mississippi and were forced to flee in their boats back toward the port of New Orleans while under fire from an unknown number of Tunicas firing from both banks.

title: 1764

section: Events › January–June

date: March 14

text: March 14 – Antonio de Ulloa, the Colonial Governor of Spanish Louisiana (Luisiana), dispatches Captain Francisco Ríu y Morales up the Mississippi River to establish two forts, one at San Luis (now St. Louis, Missouri) and to set up a colony for displaced French-speaking Acadians and protect shipping on the river.

title: 1767

date: June 22

text: June 22 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Quebec Act, setting out rules of governance for the colony of Quebec in British North America, enlarging its territory as far south as the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi River, in the area now occupied by the U.S. states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio and granting freedom of religion for Roman Catholics.

title: 1774

section: Disasters & Accidents

date: October 16

text: October 16 – The port of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi River are closed to American traffic by order of the city's Spanish administrator, Juan Ventura Morales, threatening the economy in the western United States, and prompting the need for the Louisiana Purchase.

title: 1802

section: Births

date: July

text: July full date unknown – Bass Reeves, one of the first black Deputy U.S. Marshals west of the Mississippi River (d. 1910)

title: 1838

section: Births › July–September

date: February 11

text: February 11 – The University of Missouri is established, becoming the first public university west of the Mississippi River.

title: 1839

text: Saint Louis University School of Law becomes the first law school west of the Mississippi River.

title: 1843

section: Climate & Environment

date: June 12

text: June 12 –In the United States, after nine days of heavy rains, the Missouri River and the Mississippi River overflow their banks as the Great Flood of 1844 begins. The water begins to recede by June 28 and the rivers return to their normal level by mid-July.

title: 1844

date: May 3

text: May 3 – The Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse breaks, flooding much of New Orleans.

title: 1849

section: Technology & Infrastructure

date: June

text: June – The Grand Excursion takes prominent Eastern United States inhabitants from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois, by railroad, then up the Mississippi River to Saint Paul, Minnesota, by steamboat.

title: 1854

date: January 23

text: January 23 – The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in modern-day Minneapolis, a predecessor of the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.

title: 1855

date: August 10

text: August 10 – American Civil War: The first major battle west of the Mississippi River, the Battle of Wilson's Creek, is fought, with a Confederate victory.

title: 1861

section: Events › August

date: August 5

text: August 5 – Battle of Baton Rouge – Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.

title: 1862

date: August 6

text: August 6 – Confederate ironclad is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering damage in a battle with , near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

title: 1862

date: April 27

text: April 27 – The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,800, mostly Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison.

title: 1865

section: Events › April

date: September 12

text: September 12 – Francis Howell High School (Howell Institute) in St. Charles, Missouri, and Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas, open on the same day, putting them in a tie for the title of the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi River.

title: 1881

section: Events › September

text: January 12 – Bass Reeves, one of the first African-American Deputy U.S. Marshals west of the Mississippi River (b. 1838)

title: 1910

section: Deaths › January

text: May 8 – African-American Tom Lee rescues 32 people from the sinking steamboat M.E. Norman on the Mississippi River.

title: 1925

section: Events › May

date: October 20

text: October 20 – The Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, Louisiana to Luling, Louisiana, killing 78 passengers and crew.

title: 1976

section: Events › October

date: April

text: April–October – Great Flood of 1993: The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest.

title: 1993


slug: mississippi

label: Mississippi

description: state of the United States of America

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: The third oldest settlement in Mississippi, Port Gibson, is founded by French settlers.

title: 1729

section: Events › Date unknown

section: Conflict & Security

date: November 29

text: November 29 – The Natchez revolt, the worst Native American massacre to take place on Mississippi soil, occurs when Natchez people kill 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie (near modern-day Natchez, Mississippi).

title: 1729

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: April 4

text: April 4 – At Fort Tombecbe, near what is now the town of Epes, Alabama, representatives of the British Empire and of the Choctaw Indian tribe in Mississippi sign a peace treaty in the wake of French cession of claims to the British. A boundary is fixed between land to be occupied by the Choctaws and for lands which British settlers can use; in addition, the British agree to provide a police official and a gunsmith at Fort Tombecbe for the Choctaws to use for trespassing complaints and for weapons repairs. By 1775, however, the Choctaws are outnumbered in Mississippi.

title: 1765

date: November 19

text: November 19 – The United States and Great Britain sign the Jay Treaty (coming into effect in 1796), which attempts to clear up some issues left over from the American Revolutionary War and secures a decade of peaceful trade between the two nations. Britain agrees to evacuate border forts in the Northwest Territory (roughly the area north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi) and thereby end British support for the Indians.

title: 1794

date: August 15

text: August 15 – By act of the U.S. Congress (March 3), the Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, on the day the Mississippi constitution is drafted, four months before Mississippi becomes a U.S. state.

title: 1817

section: Events › July–September

date: December 10

text: December 10 – Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, formerly the Mississippi Territory.

title: 1817

text: Battle of Brice's Crossroads – Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force, led by General Samuel D. Sturgis, in Mississippi.

title: 1864

section: Events › June

date: May 4

text: May 4 – American Civil War: Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, commanding all Confederate forces in Alabama, Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana, surrenders his forces to Union General Edward Canby at Citronelle, Alabama, effectively ending all Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi River.

title: 1865

date: February 23

text: February 23 – Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.

title: 1870

section: Events › February

date: March 17

text: March 17 – A white mob storms a courthouse in Carroll County, Mississippi, killing 23 African Americans.

title: 1886

section: Events › March

date: July 8

text: July 8 – The last official bare-knuckle boxing title fight is held (under London Prize Ring Rules): Heavyweight Champion John L. Sullivan, the Boston Strong Boy, defeats Jake Kilrain in a world championship bout, lasting 75 rounds, in Mississippi.

title: 1889

section: Events › July

section: Health & Medicine

date: February 12

text: February 12 – A devastating tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama kills 45 people and injures 427 others.

title: 1945

date: September 17

text: September 17–21 – The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane in southeastern Florida, and also in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana causes widespread damage, and kills 50 people.

title: 1947

date: June 14

text: June 14 – Freedom Summer, a volunteer Civil Rights project in the United States intended to promote voter registration for as many African Americans as possible in Mississippi, begins with orientation sessions for the 300 volunteers at Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio.

title: 1964

date: August 17

text: August 17 – Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast of the United States, killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 USD).

title: 1969

date: February 21

text: February 21 – Between February 21 and 22, an outbreak of nineteen tornadoes rages across the Mississippi Delta in Mississippi and Louisiana, killing 123 people.

title: 1971

date: February 10

text: February 10 – Severe weather spawns eight tornadoes across southern Mississippi and southwest Alabama, including an EF4 tornado which struck the city of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

title: 2013


slug: mlb-hall-of-fame

label: MLB Hall of Fame

section: Deaths

date: March 7

text: March 7 – Pud Galvin, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1856)

title: 1902

section: Deaths › January–June

date: July 2

text: July 2 – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1867)

title: 1903

section: Deaths › July–December

date: April 1

text: April 1 – Rube Waddell, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1876)

title: 1914

section: Deaths › April

date: April 14

text: April 14 – Cap Anson, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1852)

title: 1922

date: November 7

text: November 7 – Sam Thompson, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1860)

title: 1922

section: Deaths › November

date: September 15

text: September 15 – Frank Chance, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1877)

title: 1924

section: Deaths › September

date: October 7

text: October 7 – Christy Mathewson, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1880)

title: 1925

section: Deaths › October

date: February 24

text: February 24 – Eddie Plank, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1875)

title: 1926

section: Deaths › January–March

date: February 1

text: February 1 – Hughie Jennings, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1869)

title: 1928

section: Deaths › February

date: November 14

text: November 14 – Joe McGinnity, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1871)

title: 1929

date: September 25

text: September 25 – Miller Huggins, American baseball manager, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1879)

title: 1929

date: January 4

text: January 4 – Roger Connor, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1857)

title: 1931

date: November 6

text: November 6 – Jack Chesbro, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1874)

title: 1931

date: August 2

text: August 2 – Dan Brouthers, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1858)

title: 1932

section: Deaths › July – August

date: August 8

text: August 8 – Wilbert Robinson, American baseball manager and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1863)

title: 1934

section: Deaths › August

text: April 14 – Ned Hanlon, American baseball manager, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1857)

title: 1937

date: June 2

text: June 2 – Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (New York Yankees), MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1903)

title: 1941

section: Deaths › June

date: August 14

text: August 14 – Joe Kelley, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1871)

title: 1943

text: December 10 – Walter Johnson, American baseball player (Washington Senators), MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1887)

title: 1946

section: Deaths › December

date: January 20

text: January 20 – Josh Gibson, African-American baseball player, MLB Hall of Fame member (b. 1911)

title: 1947

date: March 28

text: March 28 – Johnny Evers, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs), MLB Hall of Fame member (b. 1881)

title: 1947

section: Deaths › March

date: July 27

text: July 27 – Joe Tinker, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Fame member (b. 1880)

title: 1948

section: Deaths › July

date: November 23

text: November 23 – Hack Wilson, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs), MLB Hall of Fame member (b. 1900)

title: 1948

date: November 4

text: November 4 – Grover Cleveland Alexander, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies), MLB Hall of Fame member (b. 1887)

title: 1950

date: July 9

text: July 9 – Harry Heilmann, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1894)

title: 1951

date: October 19

text: October 19 – Hugh Duffy, American baseball player (Boston Braves) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1866)

title: 1954

date: December 6

text: December 6 – Honus Wagner, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1874)

title: 1955

text: November 4 – Cy Young, American baseball player (Cleveland Spiders) and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1867)

title: 1955

date: February 8

text: February 8 – Connie Mack, American baseball executive and manager (Philadelphia Athletics) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1862)

title: 1956

date: November 3

text: November 3 – Bobby Wallace, American baseball player (St. Louis Browns) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1873)

title: 1960

date: June 28

text: June 28 – Frank Baker, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1886)

title: 1963

date: July 21

text: July 21 – Jimmie Foxx, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics) and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1907)

title: 1967

date: July 17

text: July 17 – Dizzy Dean, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1910)

title: 1974


slug: mobile-alabama

label: Mobile, Alabama

description: county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States

section: Technology & Infrastructure

date: January 12

text: January 12 – In North America, ships from Fort Maurepas arrive at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff to build Fort Louis de la Mobile (future Mobile, Alabama), to become the capital of French Louisiana.

title: 1702

section: Events › January–March

section: Culture & Society

date: February

text: February – Soldiers at Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrate Mardi Gras in Mobile, starting the tradition for Mobile, Alabama.

title: 1703

text: February – In America, Mardi Gras is celebrated with the Masque de la Mobile in the capital of Louisiana (New France), Mobile, Alabama.

title: 1704

text: February – In America, Mardi Gras is celebrated one more time with Masque de la Mobile in the capital of French Louisiana, Mobile, Alabama, before Mobile is moved 27 miles (43 km) down the Mobile River to Mobile Bay in 1711.

title: 1709

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: Louis Juchereau de St. Denis establishes Fort St. Jean Baptiste, at the site of present day Natchitoches, Louisiana (the first permanent European settlement in the Louisiana Territory, after Biloxi (1699) and Mobile, Alabama (1702) were separated).

title: 1714

section: Events › Date unknown

section: Conflict & Security

date: May 14

text: May 14 – In Louisiana (New France), Bienville, from Mobile, captures Pensacola, but Pensacola is later recaptured by the Spanish, and again re-taken by Bienville.

title: 1719

section: Events › April–June

date: December 31

text: December 31 – Men, women and children of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes begin a 23-day encampment at Mobile, part of the British colony of West Florida, at the invitation of British Southern Indian superintendent John Stuart, as their leaders negotiate a treaty.

title: 1771

section: Events › October–December

date: August 5

text: August 5 – American Civil War: Battle of Mobile Bay – At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses, and seals one of the last major Southern ports.

title: 1864

section: Events › August


slug: modena

label: Modena

description: Italian city and municipality

year_label: 183 BCE

text: Roman colonies are established at Mutina (later Modena), Pisa and Parma in northern and central Italy.

title: 183 BC

section: Events › By place › Roman Republic

year_label: 72 BCE

text: Spartacus moves north again, to cross the Alps into Gaul and then to Thracia. Outside Mutina on the plain of the River Po he defeats the Roman forces under Gaius Cassius Longinus, governor of Gallia Cisalpina.

title: 72 BC

year_label: 43 BCE

text: Consuls: Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus and Aulus Hirtius. The Roman Senate confirms Octavian as propraetor with joint responsibility for the campaign against Antony. Hirtius and Octavian mobilize troops for the march to Mutina, while Pansa continues the levy. Embassy dispatched to treat with Antony.

title: 43 BC

text: The Franks again invade Italy; they capture Modena and Mantua. Several Lombard dukes defect: Gisulf I, duke of Friuli, is defeated and replaced by his son Gisulf II.

title: 590

section: Events › By place › Europe

text: Plato, exarch (imperial governor) of Ravenna, invades the southern Po Valley. The Lombards under King Rothari defeat him on the banks of the Panaro River (near Modena); 8,000 imperial troops are killed.

title: 645

section: Deaths

date: March 5

text: March 5 – Adelard becomes the new Duke of Spoleto upon the death of his father, Suppo I, who ruled much of Italy including Brescia, Parma, Piacenza, Modena, and Bergamo. Adelard reigns for only five months before dying in August.

title: 824

section: Events › By date

date: July 8

text: July 8 – Pope Adrian III dies after a 1½ reign near Modena (Lombardy), while en route to an Imperial Diet, summoned by Charles the Fat at Worms. He is succeeded by Stephen V, as the 110th pope of the Catholic Church.

title: 885

section: Events › By topic › Religion

section: Religion & Belief

date: January 30

text: January 30 – In Italy Cesare d'Este moves the capital of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio to the city of Modena, after the Duchy of Ferrara is declared by Pope Clement VIII to be at an end.

title: 1598

text: February–March – Revolts in Modena, Parma and the Papal States are put down by Austrian troops.

title: 1831


slug: moesia

label: Moesia

description: historical region of the Balkans

year_label: 6 CE

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: AD 6 – Iudaea and Moesia become Roman provinces.

title: 0s

section: Events › Roman Empire

year_label: 15 CE

text: Varna (Odessus), on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, is annexed to the Roman province of Moesia.

title: 10s

section: Events › 15 AD › Roman Empire

year_label: 46 CE

text: Dobruja is annexed into Roman Moesia.

title: 40s

section: Timeline › AD 46

year_label: 69 CE

text: The Danubian legions of Raetia and Moesia proclaim Vespasian as emperor.

title: AD 69

section: Events › By place › Roman Empire

year_label: 85 CE

text: Emperor Domitian repulses a Dacian invasion of Moesia.

title: AD 85

text: Marcomannic Wars: Germanic tribes invade the frontiers of the Roman Empire, specifically the provinces of Raetia and Moesia.

title: AD 169

text: Emperor Maximinus Thrax campaigns against the Carpians on the Danube in Moesia (Balkans). In spite of the payment of a tribute, the Romans fail to persuade the Goths and the Germanic tribes.

title: 238

text: The revolts of Pacatianus in Moesia and Iotapianus in Syria are put down by Senator Trajan Decius, by order of Emperor Philip the Arab.

title: 248

text: Trajan Decius puts down a revolt in Moesia and Pannonia. Loyal legionaries proclaim him emperor, and he leads them into Italy.

title: 249

text: The Goths under King Cniva invade Moesia. They cross the Danube and lay siege to Novae and Marcianopolis.

title: 250

date: July 1

text: July 1 – Battle of Abritus: The Goths defeat Emperor Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus, on swampy ground in the Dobruja (Moesia).

title: 251

text: Aemilianus is murdered at Spoletium and Publius Valerianus, age 60, is recognised as the new emperor by the Rhine legions. He gives his son Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus the title Augustus. Valerianus I dispatches him to the Danube where the Goths have violated the treaty signed with Rome and invaded Moesia.

title: 253

text: First Gothic invasion: The Goths, originally from Scandinavia, with the Sarmatians (from modern Iran), invade the Balkans and Greece. They ravage Moesia and Thrace.

title: 267

text: Emperor Probus travels with his army west across the Sea of Marmara (Turkey), and through the provinces of Thrace, Moesia, and Pannonia to defeat the Goths along the lower Danube. He acquires from the troops the title of Gothicus.

title: 277

text: Diocletian watches over the Syrian provinces while Caesar Galerius makes preparations for a campaign against the Persian king Narseh. He recruits veterans from Illyria and Moesia, recruits new soldiers, and strengthens his army with Gothic mercenaries and the Armenian units of Tiridates III.

title: 297

text: Emperor Constantine I and his son Constantine II, aged 16, defeat the Goths in Moesia. The Goths become Roman allies and protect the Danube frontier.

title: 332

text: Wulfila escapes religious persecution by the Gothic chieftain Athanaric, obtains permission from Constantius II to migrate with his flock of converts to Moesia, and settles near Nicopolis ad Istrum (Bulgaria).

title: 348

text: Gothic War: Emperor Valens permits the Visigothic chieftain Fritigern and his people to cross the Danube from Thrace (later Romania), and settle on Roman soil in Lower Moesia, on the condition that they provide soldiers to the legions. The Visigoths embark by troops on boats and rafts, and canoes made from hollowed tree trunks. The river is swollen by frequent rains; a large number try to swim and are drowned in their struggle against the force of the stream.

title: 376

section: Climate & Environment

text: Gothic War: Famine in Lower Moesia (occupied by the Goths) takes a fearsome toll. Fritigern and his followers appeal for help, but the governors Lupicinus and Maximus regard them as second-class citizens. Little help is forthcoming, and thousands starve to death. The pressure on the Roman frontier is still severe, with the Taifali and other hostile bands of Goths on the Danube. In addition, groups of Huns and Alans have also moved up to the river.

title: 377

date: October 3

text: October 3 – Emperor Theodosius I commands his general Saturninus to conclude a peace treaty with the Visigoths, allowing them to settle south of the Danube. They are installed as foederati in Moesia and Thrace with the title of "Allies of the Roman People", in exchange for furnishing a contingent of auxiliary troops to defend the borders.

title: 382

text: By the order of Theodosius I, Eunomius of Cyzicus is banished to Moesia.

title: AD 383

text: The Huns under Attila reappear in force, along the frontier of the Western Roman Empire. They attack merchants on the north bank of the Danube and cities in Illyricum, including (according to Priscus) Viminacium, city of Moesia.

title: 440

text: Battle of the Utus: Attila defeats the Roman army near the river Utus (Vit, Bulgaria). The Huns are forced to abandon the siege of Constantinople. They march north and plunder the defenseless Balkan provinces (including Thrace, Scythia, Moesia, Dacia and Illyricum).

title: 447

section: Events › By place › Byzantium

text: Theodoric the Great, age 17, succeeds his father Theodemir as king of the Ostrogoths, settling his people in lower Moesia (Balkans).

title: 471

section: Health & Medicine

text: The Ostrogoths leave Pannonia, and migrate to Macedonia and Moesia, from whence they ravage the Balkans.

title: 473

section: Events › By place › Balkans

text: King Theodoric the Great starts a 4-year campaign against the Byzantine Empire. The Ostrogoths ravage the Roman provinces (Moesia and Thrace), and threaten the capital of Constantinople itself.

title: 479

section: Crime & Justice

text: Vitalian accepts the receipt of ransom money and gifts worth 5,000 pounds of gold for the release of Hypatius, a nephew of Anastasius I who has been a prisoner since the attack at Acris (see 513). Vitalian retreats back to Lower Moesia.

title: 514

section: Events › By place › Byzantine Empire

text: An earthquake destroys the city of Scupi (modern-day Skopje, North Macedonia), in what once was the Roman province of Moesia Superior.

title: 518

text: Justin, Byzantine general (magister militum), dies in battle against the Bulgars on the frontier of the Danubian limes in Moesia. He is succeeded by Constantiolus.

title: 528

text: A Byzantine army, under command of Baduarius, assists the Gepids in their war against the Lombards. The Byzantines win the first battle in the lower Danube (Moesia), but Gepid King Cunimund refuses to hand back the fortress city of Sirmium (modern Serbia), as he had promised.

title: 566

text: Emperor Maurice decides to end the annual tribute to the Avars, a mounted people who have swept across Russia and threatened the Balkan Peninsula. They capture the cities of Singidunum (modern Belgrade) and Viminacium (Moesia).

title: 583

text: Balkan Campaign: The Slavs invade the Byzantine provinces of Moesia and Macedonia again; during their pillaging the towns of Aquis, Scupi and Zaldapa in Dobruja are destroyed.

title: 594

text: Summer – Balkan Campaign: The Byzantine generals Priscus and Comentiolus join their forces at Singidunum (modern Belgrade), and move downstream to the fortress city of Viminacium (Serbia). The Byzantines cross the Danube River and invade Upper Moesia, where they defeat the Avars in open battle.

title: 599

text: Asparukh, leader of the Utigurs, leaves the Ongal area to Kotrag, and leads his people into Moesia in Northern Bulgaria (approximate date).

title: 668

text: Byzantine–Bulgarian War: Emperor Constantine IV is forced to acknowledge the Bulgar state in Moesia, and to pay protection money to avoid further inroads into Byzantine Thrace. Consequently, Constantine creates the Theme of Thrace of the Byzantine Empire (located in the south-eastern Balkans).

title: 681

text: Spring – Allied with the Rus', a Hungarian army raids Moesia and Thrace. Emperor Romanos I buys peace, and accepts to pay a yearly tribute (protection money) to the Hungarians. His frontiers now 'protected' on the Balkan Peninsula, Romanos sends a Byzantine expeditionary force (80,000 men) led by general John Kourkouas (his commander-in-chief) to invade northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

title: 943

text: John I returns in triumph to Constantinople. He brings along Boris II, ruler (tsar) of the Bulgarian Empire, and his family, together with the contents of the Bulgarian imperial treasury. Boris is given the Byzantine 'court title' of magistros as compensation. The Bulgarian lands in Thrace and Lower Moesia become part of the Byzantine Empire.

title: 971