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North Sea

marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean

40 dated entries naming North Sea, drawn from 34 separate years between 56 BCE and 1989 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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1st century BC

  • 56 BCEAutumn – Julius Caesar leads an attack on the Morini and the Menapii tribes of the Belgae on the North Sea. They withdraw into their forests, creating difficulties for Caesar's supply lines. The onset of bad weather forces him to pull back into Gallia Belgica.source
  • 13 BCEDrusus is granted governor of Gaul and mobilises a Roman army to beat the Germans back across the Rhine. He travels to the North Sea and pays tribute to the Frisii.source

3rd century

  • 288Far from Carausius' fleet, in the rivers of Gaul, Maximian builds a fleet to contest control of the North Sea and re-take Britain.source

7th century

  • 697Radbod, king of the Frisians, retreats to the island of Heligoland in the North Sea (approximate date).source

8th century

  • 797King Charlemagne issues the Capitulare Saxonicum, making Westphalian, Angrian and Eastphalian Saxons equal to other peoples in the Frankish Kingdom. The Nordalbian Saxons revolt; a Frankish fleet is sent to the North Sea coast of Germany. It lands in Hadeln, a marshy coastal region between the Weser and Elbe estuaries, near modern-day Cuxhaven. Charlemagne invades northern Saxony, and again accepts the submission of the Saxons.source

11th century

  • 1099November 11 – Great floods around the North Sea and English Channel.source

12th century

  • 1134The Zeeland archipelago is created by a massive storm in the North Sea.source
  • 1189Frederick I grants Hamburg the status of a free imperial city and tax-free access (or free-trade zone) up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea. He also grants the right to fish, to cut trees and the freedom of military service.source

13th century

  • 1287December 14 – A huge storm and associated storm tide in the North Sea and English Channel, known as St. Lucia's flood in the Netherlands, kills thousands and reshapes the coastline of the Netherlands and England. In the Netherlands, a fringing barrier between the North Sea and a shallow lake collapses, causing the fifth-largest flood in recorded history – which creates the Zuider Zee inlet, and kills over 50,000 people. It also gives sea access to Amsterdam, allowing its development as an important port city.source

14th century

  • 1362January 16 – The "Grote Mandrenke" storm tide strikes the Netherlands, England, Germany and Denmark, destroying the Danish settlement of Rungholt in the Duchy of Schleswig, and the Humber estuary port of Ravenser Odd in England. The East Frisian island of Buise is broken into two by North Sea floods.source
  • 1370May 24 – The Treaty of Stralsund ends the second war between Denmark and the Hanseatic League, an alliance of market towns across northern Europe along the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.source
  • 1385May 14 – The two-day Battle of Sluys concludes on the North Sea off of the coast of the Netherlands as England's Royal Navy, led by the Admiral, Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester attempts to blockade the Flemish port of Sluis and more than 100 ships stationed there. Jean de Vienne, Admiral of France, makes a successful counter-attack and the Royal Navy ships sail back to England to defend London.source

15th century

  • 1404November 19 – The St. Elizabeth's flood of the North Sea devastates parts of Flanders, Zeeland and Holland.source
  • 1421November 17–19 – St. Elizabeth's flood: The coastal area near Dordrecht in the Netherlands is flooded, due to the extremely high tide of the North Sea; 72 villages are drowned, killing about 10,000 people, and the course of the Meuse is changed.source

17th century

  • 1651February 22 – St. Peter's Flood: A first storm tide in the North Sea strikes the coast of Germany, drowning thousands. The island of Juist is split in half, and the western half of Buise is probably washed away.source
  • 1652October 8 – First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Kentish Knock – In a battle fought near the shoal called the Kentish Knock in the North Sea, about 30 km from the mouth of the River Thames, the Dutch are forced to withdraw.source
  • 16528 October – First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Kentish Knock fought in the North Sea about 30 km from the mouth of the river Thames; the Dutch are forced to withdraw.source
  • 16661–4 June (11–14 June New Style) – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Four Days' Battle – The Dutch Republic fleet under Michiel de Ruyter defeats the English in the North Sea in one of the longest naval engagements in history.source
  • 1666June 14 (June 4 Julian calendar) – The Four Days' Battle between the Dutch Republic fleet (84 ships under the command of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter) and the English Royal Navy (79 ships led by the Duke of Albemarle) in the North Sea, one of the longest naval engagements in history, ends with a retreat by the English after having started on June 11. A part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the battle ends with a Dutch victory, but heavy losses are sustained on both sides: the English lose 1,000 men and 10 ships are sunk, while the Dutch lose four ships and 1,550 men. Damaged, but not destroyed, the English fleet sets about repairs and refitting, and meets the Dutch fleet again on July 25 in the St. James's Day Battle.source

18th century

  • 1709January to March – unusually cold weather (the Great Frost of 1709) brings floating ice into the North Sea.source
  • 1709January 6 – Western Europe's Great Frost of 1709, the coldest period in 500 years, begins during the night, lasting three months, with its effects felt for the entire year. In France, the Atlantic coast and Seine River freeze, crops fail, and 24,000 Parisians die. Floating ice enters the North Sea.source
  • 17096 January – Western Europe's Great Frost of 1709, the coldest period in 500 years, begins during the night, lasting three months, with its effects felt for the entire year. In France, the Atlantic coast and Seine River freeze, crops fail, and 24,000 Parisians die. Floating ice enters the North Sea.source
  • 1717December 24–25 – Christmas flood: A disastrous flood hits the North Sea coast, between the Netherlands and Denmark; thousands die or lose their houses.source
  • 1783August 18 – The 1783 Great Meteor passes on a 1,000-mile track across the North Sea, Great Britain and France, prompting scientific discussion.source

19th century

  • 186824 April – The Port of Esbjerg construction act provides for the construction of a new export port at Esbjerg, until then a tiny community, as a replacement for the harbour in Altona, which had previously been Denmark's most important North Sea harbour.source
  • 187110 February – Great Gale in the North Sea: 28 ships wrecked and total fatalities are estimated at over fifty, including six crew of Bridlington life-boat Harbinger.source
  • 1895June 21 – The Kiel Canal, connecting the North Sea to the Baltic across the base of the Jutland peninsula in Germany, is officially opened.source
  • 1899June 15 – Sweden's Department of Foreign Affairs hosts a conference for delegates from Germany, Denmark, Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, Russia and Sweden to make agreements on fishing in the Arctic Ocean, the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.source

20th century

  • 1904October 21 – Russo-Japanese War: Dogger Bank incident – The Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats, in the North Sea.source
  • 190421 October – Dogger Bank incident: the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy, heading for the Russo-Japanese War, mistakes British fishing trawlers in the North Sea for Japanese torpedo boats and opens fire, sinking one, and causing serious diplomatic conflict between Russia and Britain.source
  • 1913September 9 – Helgoland Island air disaster: The first fatalities aboard a German airship occur, when the Imperial German Navy Zeppelin dirigible LZ 14 is forced down into the North Sea off Heligoland during a thunderstorm, killing 16 of the 22 men on board.source
  • 1916May 31–June 1 – WWI: Battle of Jutland, between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet in the North Sea, the war's only large-scale clash of battleships. The result is tactically inconclusive, but British dominance of the North Sea is maintainedsource
  • 19171 May – Imperial German Navy Zeppelins L 43 and L 45 conduct reconnaissance patrols over the North Sea off the coast of Scotland, above the Firth of Forth and Aberdeen, respectively.source
  • 1944December 24 – WWII: Fifty German V-1 flying bombs, air-launched from Heinkel He 111 bombers flying over the North Sea, target Manchester in England, killing 42 and injuring more than 100 in the Oldham area.source
  • 1962February 17 – Heavy storms and high tides result in the North Sea flood of 1962 on Germany's North Sea coast, mainly around Hamburg; more than 300 people die and thousands lose their homes.source
  • 1962December 15 – Storm over the North Sea: Belgian pirate radio station Radio Uylenspiegel is knocked off the airwaves, never to operate again.source
  • 1969December 24 – The oil company Phillips Petroleum made the first oil discovery in the Norwegian sector of North Sea.source
  • 1971June 14 – Norway begins oil production in the North Sea.source
  • 1988July 6 – The Piper Alpha production platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires, killing 165 oil workers and 2 rescue mariners. 61 workers survive.source
  • 1989September 8 – Partnair Flight 394 crashes into the North Sea with the loss of 125 lives. The accident was due to the structural failure of the rudder of the Convair 580 caused by the use of counterfeit aircraft parts.source

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