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Vatican City

Holy See's independent state, an enclave within Rome, Italy

27 dated entries naming Vatican City, drawn from 22 separate years between 469 CE and 2023 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.

Also written as Vatican City State in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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5th century

  • 469The Vatican makes a pact with the Salian Frankish king Childeric I, agreeing to call him "the new Constantine" on condition that he accept conversion to Christianity.source

16th century

  • 1506January 22 – The Swiss Guard arrives at the Vatican, to serve as permanent ceremonial and palace guards under Pope Julius II.source

17th century

  • 1626November 18 – The new St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican is consecrated, on the 1,300th anniversary of the previous church in 326.source

19th century

  • 1861July 1 – The first issue of the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano is published.source
  • 188811 October — German Emperor Wilhelm II in Rome on an official state visit. Visiting the Italian King Umberto I in Rome would be regarded as recognizing his right to rule the Holy City, while the Vatican did not recognise the Italian king's right to rule in Rome. To appease the situation, Wilhelm II also met Pope Leo XIII the next day.source

20th century

  • 1929February 11 – The Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See of the Catholic Church sign the Lateran Treaty, to establish the Vatican City as an independent sovereign enclave within Rome, resolving the "Roman Question".source
  • 1929June 7 – The Lateran Treaty, making Vatican City a sovereign state, is ratified.source
  • 1932February 11 – Pope Pius XI meets Benito Mussolini in Vatican City.source
  • 1943November 5 – First Bombing of the Vatican – Four bombs are dropped on the neutral Vatican City; the aircraft responsible is never certainly identified.source
  • 1949August 21 – The Vatican announces that bones uncovered in its catacombs could be those of the apostle Peter; 19 years later, Pope Paul VI announces confirmation that the bones belong to this first pope.source
  • 1950November 1 – Pope Pius XII witnesses the "Miracle of the Sun" at the Vatican and defines a new dogma of Roman Catholicism, the Munificentissimus Deus, which says that God took Mary's body into Heaven after her death (the "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary").source
  • 1966April 27 – Pope Paul VI and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko meet in the Vatican (the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Soviet Union).source
  • 1972May 21 – In St. Peter's Basilica (Vatican City), Laszlo Toth attacks Michelangelo's Pietà statue with a geologist's hammer, shouting that he is Jesus Christ.source
  • 1980December 12 – During a meeting in the Vatican City, Pope John Paul II announces to the representatives of Chile and Argentina his proposed resolution of the Beagle Conflict.source
  • 1981January 15 – Pope John Paul II receives a delegation led by Polish Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa at the Vatican.source
  • 1981May 13 – Pope John Paul II assassination attempt: Pope John Paul II is shot by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman, as he enters St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to address a general audience. The Pope recovers.source
  • 1983January 6 – Pope John Paul II appoints a bishop over the Czechoslovak exile community, which the Rudé právo newspaper calls a "provocation." This begins a year-long disagreement between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Vatican, leading to the eventual restoration of diplomatic relations between the two states.source
  • 1983March 25 – Sweden re-establishes diplomatic ties with the Vatican after a 450-year interruption. Sweden broke off relations in 1534 in keeping with the rise of Lutheranism.source
  • 1983June 22 – Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Vatican girl, mysteriously disappears in Rome while returning home from a music lesson. The disappearance of the girl led to many speculations involving international terrorism, Italian organized crime, and even a plot inside the Vatican to cover a sexual scandal inside the Holy See. Because of all these theories, the Orlandi case would later become Italy's most famous mystery.source
  • 1984January 10 – The United States and the Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations.source
  • 1994May 22 – Pope John Paul II issues the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis from the Vatican, expounding the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men alone".source

21st century

  • 20028 June – Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad visits Vatican City and meets Pope John Paul II for the first time.source
  • 2007January 25 – Vietnam's prime minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng becomes the first leader of the communist nation to meet and hold talks with the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Prime Minister Dũng met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican City in Rome.source
  • 2012October 21 – Pedro Calungsod is canonized in the Vatican City. He is the second Filipino saint.source
  • 20138 November – President Chinchilla met Pope Francis in the Apostolic Palace Library in the Vatican, accompanied by a presidential delegation of thirteen people including the Minister of Communications, Carlos Roverssi; the Foreign Minister, Enrique Castillo; foreign policy chief, Javier Díaz; Deputy Ileana Brenes Jiménez of the National Liberation Party; the Costa Rican ambassador to the Vatican, Fernando Sánchez; the President's personal assistant, Alejandra Fonseca; Secretary of the Governing Council, Marta Monge; the chief of protocol, Ludwig Sibaja; and the President's husband. During their 25-minute meeting, Chinchilla gave the Pope a handmade stole made by indigenous women from Costa Rica. He gave her a copy of the Aparecida Document (the master plan for the New Evangelization in Latin America), and a medal of his pontificate. The President told the Pope that she would not be attending the canonization of Pope John Paul II. Chinchilla, who visited Pope Benedict XVI on 28 May 2012, invited Pope Francis to visit her country (John Paul II visited Costa Rica in 1983).source
  • 2023January 5 – The funeral of Pope Benedict XVI is held at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican City. The funeral was attended by an estimated 50,000 people.source
  • 202318 October – Nicaragua releases 12 Catholic priests, critical of President Daniel Ortega's regime, and sends them to Rome, Italy, following an agreement with Vatican City.source

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