1958January 1958 January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. January 4 Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third overland journey to the South Pole, the first to use powered vehicles. Sputnik 1 (launched on October 4, 1957) falls to Earth from its orbit, and burns up. January 13 – Battle of Edchera: The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol.
February 27380 – Edict of Thessalonica: Emperor Theodosius I and his co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II declare their wish that all Roman citizens convert to Nicene Christianity. 425 – The University of Constantinople is founded by Emperor Theodosius II at the urging of his wife Aelia Eudocia. 907 – Abaoji, chieftain of the Yila tribe, is named khagan of the Khitans. 1560 – The Treaty of Berwick is signed by England and the Lords of the Congregation of Scotland, establishing the terms under which English armed forces were to be permitted in Scotland in order to expel occupying French troops.
February 19197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies. 356 – The anti-paganism policy of Constantius II forbids the worship of pagan idols in the Roman Empire. 1594 – Having already been elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1587, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592.
December 131294 – Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit. 1545 – The Council of Trent begins as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation. 1577 – Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage. 1623 – The Plymouth Colony establishes the system of trial by 12-men jury in the American colonies. 1636 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians, a date now considered the founding of the National Guard of the United States.
July 14982 – King Otto II and his Frankish army are defeated by the Muslim army of al-Qasim at Cape Colonna, Southern Italy. 1223 – Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II. 1420 – Battle of Vítkov Hill, decisive victory of Czech Hussite forces commanded by Jan Žižka against Crusade army led by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor. 1430 – Joan of Arc, taken by the Burgundians in May, is handed over to Pierre Cauchon, the bishop of Beauvais.
July 81099 – Some 15,000 starving Christian soldiers begin the siege of Jerusalem by marching in a religious procession around the city as its Muslim defenders watch. 1283 – Roger of Lauria, commanding the Aragonese fleet, defeats an Angevin fleet sent to put down a rebellion on Malta. 1497 – Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India. 1579 – Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.
January 1January 1 or 1 January is the first day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the year. TOC 153 BC – For the first time, Roman consuls begin their year in office on January 1. 45 BC – The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Empire, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year. 42 BC – The Roman Senate posthumously deifies Julius Caesar.
June 8218 – Battle of Antioch: With the support of the Syrian legions, Elagabalus defeats the forces of emperor Macrinus. 452 – Attila leads a Hun army in the invasion of Italy, devastating the northern provinces as he heads for Rome. 793 – Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of Norse activity in the British Isles. 1042 – Edward the Confessor becomes King of England – the country's penultimate Anglo-Saxon king. 1191 – Richard I arrives in Acre, beginning the Third Crusade.
December 4771 – Austrasian king Carloman I dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne as sole king of the Frankish Kingdom. 963 – The lay papal protonotary is elected pope and takes the name Leo VIII, being consecrated on 6 December after ordination. 1110 – An army led by Baldwin I of Jerusalem and Sigurd the Crusader of Norway captures Sidon at the end of the First Crusade. 1259 – Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
November 14332 BC – Alexander the Great is crowned pharaoh of Egypt. 1680 – German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope. 1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile. 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: At the Battle of Smoliani, French Marshals Victor and Oudinot are defeated by the Russians under General Peter Wittgenstein. 1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA.
