May 3752 – Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico, assumes the throne. 1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties. 1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I. 1568 – Angered by the brutal onslaught of Spanish troops at Fort Caroline, a French force burns the San Mateo fort and massacres hundreds of Spaniards. 1616 – Treaty of Loudun ends a French civil war.
2001The year's most prominent event were the September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan after the Taliban government did not extradite Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Internal conflicts, political or otherwise, caused shifts in leadership in multiple countries, which included the assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Second EDSA Revolution in the Philippines, the massacre of the royal family by the crown prince in Nepal, and civil unrest in Argentina.
January 18474 – Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later. 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople fail. 1126 – Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong. 1486 – King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York. 1562 – Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session. 1586 – The magnitude 7.
February 29February 29 is a leap day or "leap year day", an intercalary date added periodically to leap years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the 60th day of a leap year in both calendars, and 306 days remain until the end of the leap year. It is also the last day of February on leap years with the exception of 1712 in Sweden. It is also the last day of meteorological winter in Northern Hemisphere and the last day of meteorological summer in the Southern Hemisphere on leap years.
May 8453 BC – Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeats the house of Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin. 413 – Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, which were plundered by the Visigoths. 589 – Reccared I opens the Third Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church.
December 28418 – A papal election begins, resulting in the election of Pope Boniface I. 457 – Majorian is acclaimed as Western Roman emperor. 484 – Alaric II succeeds his father Euric and becomes king of the Visigoths. He establishes his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour (Southern Gaul). 893 – An earthquake destroys the city of Dvin, Armenia. 1065 – Edward the Confessor's Romanesque monastic church at Westminster Abbey is consecrated. 1308 – The reign of Emperor Hanazono of Japan begins.
August 27410 – The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ends after three days. 1172 – Henry the Young King and Margaret of France are crowned junior king and queen of England. 1232 – Shikken Hojo Yasutoki of the Kamakura shogunate promulgates the Goseibai Shikimoku, the first Japanese legal code governing the samurai class. 1557 – The Battle of St. Quentin results in Emmanuel Philibert becoming Duke of Savoy. 1593 – Pierre Barrière failed an attempt to assassinate Henry IV of France.
December 24502 – Chinese emperor Xiao Yan names Xiao Tong his heir designate. 640 – Pope John IV is elected, several months after his predecessor's death. 759 – Tang dynasty poet Du Fu departs for Chengdu, where he is hosted by fellow poet Pei Di. 1144 – The capital of the crusader County of Edessa falls to Imad ad-Din Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo. 1294 – Pope Boniface VIII is elected, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned. 1500 – A joint Venetian–Spanish fleet captures the Castle of St.
March 141074 – Battle of Mogyoród: Dukes Géza and Ladislaus defeat their cousin Solomon, King of Hungary, forcing him to flee to Hungary's western borderland. 1590 – Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under Charles, Duke of Mayenne, during the French Wars of Religion. 1647 – Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm. 1663 – According to his own account, Otto von Guericke completes his book Experimenta Nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de Vacuo Spatio, detailing his experiments on vacuum and his discovery of electrostatic repulsion.
September 336 BC – In the Battle of Naulochus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, admiral of Octavian, defeats Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey, thus ending Pompeian resistance to the Second Triumvirate. 301 – San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, is founded by Saint Marinus. 590 – Consecration of Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great). 673 – King Wamba of the Visigoths puts down a revolt by Hilderic, governor of Nîmes (France) and rival for the throne.