Choose a date and follow its stories through time. Browse the calendar
Choose a day and discover what happened.
The spacecraft Clementine by BMDO and NASA is launched.
Clementine is a partially failed joint space project between the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and NASA, launched on January 25, 1994. Its objective was to test sensors and spacecraft components in long-term exposure to space and to make scientific observations of both the Moon and the near-Earth asteroid 1620 Geographos.
Richard Strauss's opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.
Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer and conductor known for his tone poems and operas. He was a leading figure of the late Romantic and early Modern era.
Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.
Henry VIII was King of England and Ireland from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547.
Coronation of Francis I of France takes place at Reims Cathedral, where the new monarch is anointed with the oil of Clovis and girt with the sword of Charlemagne.
The accession of the King of France to the royal throne was legitimized by a ceremony performed with the Crown of Charlemagne at the Reims Cathedral. In late medieval and early modern times, the new king did not need to be anointed in order to be recognized as French monarch but ascended upon the previous monarch's death with the proclamation "Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!" French queens were crowned either together with their husband at Reims or alone at Sainte-Chapelle or the Basilica of Saint-Denis.
Born: Anne of Brittany (probable; died 1514).
Anne of Brittany was suo jure Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and again from 1499 to her death. She was the only woman to have been queen consort of France twice.
Died: Antipope Anacletus II.
Anacletus II, born Pietro Pierleoni, was an antipope who ruled in opposition to Pope Innocent II from 1130 until his death in 1138. After the death of Pope Honorius II, the college of cardinals was divided over his successor. Unusually, the election was entrusted to eight cardinals, who elected Gregorio Papareschi as Innocent II. A larger body of cardinals then elected Pierleoni, which led to a major schism in the Roman Catholic Church. Anacletus had the support of most Romans, including the Frangipani family, and Innocent was forced to flee to France. North of the Alps, Innocent gained the crucial support of the major religious orders, in particular Bernard of Clairvaux's Cistercians, the abbot of Cluny Peter the Venerable; and Norbert of Xanten, the archbishop of Magdeburg who established the Premonstratensians and held a high rank in the court of Emperor Lothar III.
In the Battle of the Zab, the Abbasid rebels defeat the Umayyad Caliphate, leading to the overthrow of the dynasty.
The Battle of the Zab, also referred to in scholarly contexts as Battle of the Great Zāb River, took place on January 25, 750, on the banks of the Great Zab in what is now the modern country of Iraq. It spelled the end of the Umayyad Caliphate and the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate, which would last from 750 to 1258.
After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman emperor by the Senate.
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, or simply Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 until his death in AD 54. The fourth ruler of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus the Elder, the brother of Emperor Tiberius, and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy.