january-1-to-december-31

1143 - King Fulk of Jerusalem

2009-11-13T01:23:00.000-08:00

Famous Death on this Day in History

Fulk (1089/1092 in Angers – 13 November 1143 in Acre), also known as Fulk the Younger, was Count of Anjou (as Fulk V) from 1109 to 1129, and King of Jerusalem from 1131 to his death. He was also the paternal grandfather of Henry II of England.

Fulk was born in Angers between 1089 and 1092, the son of Count Fulk IV of Anjou and Bertrade de Montfort. In 1092, Bertrade deserted her husband and bigamously married King Philip I of France.

He became count of Anjou upon his father's death in 1109, at the age of approximately twenty. In that year, he married Erembourg of Maine, cementing Angevin control over the County of Maine.

He was originally an opponent of King Henry I of England and a supporter of King Louis VI of France, but in 1127 he allied with Henry when Henry arranged for his daughter Matilda to marry Fulk's son Geoffrey of Anjou. Fulk went on crusade in 1120, and became a close friend of the Knights Templar. After his return he began to subsidize the Templars, and maintained two knights in the Holy Land for a year.

354 - [Christian] Aurelius Augustine, bp of Hippo in Roman Africa

2009-11-13T00:51:00.000-08:00

Famous Birthday on this Day in History

Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430), Bishop of Hippo Regius, also known as St. Augustine or St. Austin, was a Berber philosopher and theologian.

Augustine, a Latin church father, is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. Augustine was heavily influenced by the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus. He framed the concepts of original sin and just war. When the Roman Empire in the West was starting to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name) distinct from the material City of Man. His thought profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. Augustine's City of God was closely identified with the church, and was the community which worshipped God.

Augustine was born in the city of Thagaste, the present day Souk Ahras, Algeria, to a pagan father named Patricius and a Catholic mother named Monica. He was educated in North Africa and resisted his mother's pleas to become Christian. Living as a pagan intellectual, he took a concubine and became a Manichean. Later he converted to Christianity, became a bishop, and opposed heresies, such as the belief that people can have the ability to choose to be good to such a degree as to merit salvation without divine aid (Pelagianism).

In the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinian religious order; his memorial is celebrated 28 August. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the theological fathers of Reformation teaching on salvation and divine grace. In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is blessed, and his feast day is celebrated on 15 June, though a minority are of the opinion that he is a heretic, primarily because of his statements concerning what became known as the filioque clause. Among the Orthodox he is called Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed.

866 - Pope Nicholas I answers the envoys of Boris (Ad consulta vestra)

2009-11-13T00:21:00.000-08:00

Historical Event on this Day in History

Pope Saint Nicholas I, (Rome c. 820 – November 13, 867), or Nicholas the Great, reigned from April 24, 858 until his death. He is remembered as a consolidator of papal authority and power, exerting decisive influence upon the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe, and is considered a saint.

He refused to grant an annulment to Lothar II from Theutberga so that Lothar could marry his mistress Waldrada; when a Council pronounced in favor of annulment, Nicholas I declared the Council to be deposed, its messengers excommunicated, and its decisions void. Despite pressure from the Carolingians, who laid siege to Rome, his decision held. During his reign, relations with the Byzantine Empire soured over his support for Ignatius as Patriarch of Constantinople, who had been removed and Photius appointed to replace him.

930 - Daigo, Emperor of Japan (b. 885)

2009-10-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Famous Death on this Day in History

Emperor Daigo (醍醐天皇 Daigo-tennō) (January 18, 885– October 23, 930) was the 60th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from 897 to 930.[1] Emperor Daigo's mausoleum, known as Nochi no Yamashina no misasagi, is located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto.

Before his ascension of the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (his imina) was Atsuhito-shinnō (敦仁親王).

Atsuhito-shinnō was the eldest son of his predecessor, Emperor Uda. His mother was Fujiwara no Taneko, daughter of the minister of the center, Fujiwara no Takafui. He succeeded the throne after his father, the Emperor Uda, abdicated in 897.

Daigo had 21 empresses, imperial consorts, and concubines; he had 36 imperial sons and daughters.

1503 - Isabella of Portugal, queen of Spain and empress of Germany (d. 1539)

2009-10-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

Famous Birthday on this Day in History

Isabella of Portugal ( 24 October 1503 – 1 May 1539) was the daughter of Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon. By her marriage to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Isabella was also Holy Roman Empress and Queen consort of Aragon and Castile.

Isabel was the second child and eldest daughter of Manuel I of Portugal and his second wife, Infanta Maria of Castile and Aragon. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Isabella I of Castile and her aunt Isabella, Princess of Asturias, who had been her father's first wife.

Through her father, she was a granddaughter of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu (the second son of king Edward of Portugal and brother of Afonso V of Portugal) and Infanta Beatrice, the daughter of Infante João, Lord of Reguengos (brother of king Edward). Through her mother she was a granddaughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon.

Isabel was second-in-line to the throne until the birth of her brother Louis in 1505. However, as the oldest daughter of Manuel I of Portugal, she was a rather attractive party. She married her first cousin, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, the son of Joanna of Castile and Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, who as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Aragon and Castile, Archduke of the Habsburg dominions, titular Duke of Burgundy, and ruler of the Netherlands and the Spanish empire in the Americas and the Mediterranean and Italy was one of the most powerful men of his time.

425 - Valentinian III is elevated as Roman Emperor, at the age of 6.

2009-10-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

Historical Event on this Day in History

Flavius Placidius Valentinianus (July 2, 419 – March 16, 455), known in English as Valentinian III, was among the last Western Roman Emperors (425-455).

After the death of his father in 421, Valentinian followed his mother and his sister (Justa Grata Honoria) to Constantinople, when Galla Placidia broke with her half-brother, Emperor Honorius, and went to live at the court of Theodosius II.

In 423, Honorius died, and the usurper Joannes took the power in Rome. To counter this menace, Theodosius nominated Valentinian Caesar of the west (October 23, 424), and betrothed him to his own daughter Licinia Eudoxia (Valentinian would marry her in 437). In 425, after Joannes had been defeated in war, Valentinian was installed Western Emperor in Rome, on October 23, at the age of six.

Given his minority, the new Augustus ruled under the control first of his mother, and then, after 433, of the Magister militum Flavius Aëtius. Valentinian's reign is marked by the dismemberment of the Western Empire; the conquest of the province of Africa by the Vandals in 439; the loss of great portions of Spain and Gaul, in which the barbarians had established themselves; and the ravaging of Sicily and of the western coasts of the Mediterranean Sea by the fleets of Geiseric.

As an off-set against these calamities, there was the great victory of Roman general Aëtius over Attila the Hun in 451 near Chalons. Aëtius had also campaigned successfully against the Visigoths in southern Gaul (426, 429, 436), and against various invaders on the Rhine and Danube (428-431).

Charles Martel, ruler of the Franks, dies at 63

2009-10-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

Famous Deaths on this Day in History

Charles Martel (Latin: Carolus Martellus) (ca. 688 – 22 October 741), called Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum (737–43) at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks. In 739 he was offered the title of Consul by the Pope, but he refused. He is perhaps best remembered for winning the Battle of Tours in 732, in which he defeated an invading Muslim army and halted northward Islamic expansion in western Europe.

A brilliant general he lost only one battle in his career (the Battle of Cologne) -he is a founding figure of the Middle Ages, often credited with a seminal role in the development of feudalism and knighthood, and laying the groundwork for the Carolingian Empire.

Charles Martel died on October 22, 741, at Quierzy-sur-Oise in what is today the Aisne département in the Picardy region of France. He was buried at Saint Denis Basilica in Paris. His territories were divided among his adult sons a year earlier: to Carloman he gave Austrasia and Alemannia (with Bavaria as a vassal), to Pippin the Younger Neustria and Burgundy (with Aquitaine as a vassal), and to Grifo nothing, though some sources indicate he intended to give him a strip of land between Neustria and Austrasia.

Gibbon called him "the hero of the age" and declared "Christendom ... delivered ... by the genius and good fortune of one man, Charles Martel."

William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and poet (d. 1126)

2009-10-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

Famous Birthdays on this Day in History

William IX (Occitan: Guilhèm de Peitieus; 22 October 1071 - 10 February 1126), called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101 and the first troubadour, that is, vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language.

William was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife, Hildegarde of Burgundy. His birth was a cause of great celebration at the Aquitanian court, but the Church at first considered him illegitimate because of his father's earlier divorces and his parents' consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth to seek Papal approval of his third marriage and the young William's legitimacy.

Emperor Kammu repositions Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto).

2009-10-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

Historical Events on this Day in History

Emperor Kammu (桓武天皇, Kanmu-tennō?) (737–806) was the 50th imperial ruler of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 781 through 806.

During his reign, from 781 to 806, the Capital of Japan was moved from Nara (Heijō-kyō) -- first to Nagaoka (Nagaoka-kyō in 784, where the palace was named Nagaoka no Miya), and then to Heian-kyō in 794, where the palace was named Heian no Miya.[6] This marks the beginning of the Heian era in Japanese history.

Kammu was an active emperor who attempted to consolidate government hierarchies and functioning.

Kammu appointed Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758-811) to lead a military expedition against the Emishi.

1047 - Clemens II, [Suitger], Pope (1046-47), dies

2009-10-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

Famous Deaths on this Day in History

Clement II, real name Suidger, Earl of Morsleben and Hornburg, (* 1005 in Hornburg, Lower Saxony, † October 9 1047 at S. Tommaso at Aposella at Pesaro) was a German pope of 1046 to 1047th Seine Namenswahl nach dem heiligen Papst Clemens I. (1. Jahrhundert) war bereits ein Signal, welches seine Reformabsichten anzeigte: zurück zu den Ursprüngen der Kirche am Anfang der Zeiten. His choice of name for the Holy Pope Clement I (1. century AD) was already a signal, which announced his reform plans: back to the origins of the church at the beginning of time.

1201 - Robert de Sorbon, founded Sorbonne University, Paris

2009-10-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Famous Birthdays on this Day in History

Robert de Sorbon (October 9, 1201 - August 15, 1274) was a French theologian and founder of the Sorbonne college in Paris.

Born into a poor family in Sorbon, in what is now the Ardennes département, Robert de Sorbon entered the Church and was educated in Reims and Paris. He was noted for his piety and attracted the support of the Comte d'Artois and King Louis IX of France, known as Saint Louis. He became the canon of Cambrai around 1251 before being appointed canon of Paris and the king's confessor in 1258.

Sorbon began to teach around 1253 and in 1257 established the Maison de Sorbonne, a college in Paris originally planned to teach theology to twenty poor students. It was sponsored by King Louis and received the endorsement of Pope Alexander IV in 1259. It subsequently grew into a major centre of learning and became the core of what would become the University of Paris. Sorbon served as chancellor of the university, taught and moralize there from 1258 until his death in 1274.

680 - Husain ibn 'Ali, Shi'i spiritual leader, enters martyrdom

2009-10-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

Historical Events on this Day in History

Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (Arabic: حسين بن علي بن أﺑﻲ طالب‎)‎ (3rd Sha‘bān 4 AH - 10th Muharram 61 AH; 8 January 626 AD - 10 October 680 AD) was the son of ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (final Rashidun Caliph[6] and first Shī‘a Imām) and Fātimah Zahrā (daughter of Muhammad). Husayn is an main figure in Islām as he is a member of the Ahlul Bayt (the household of Muhammad) and Ahlul Kisā, as well as being a Shī‘a Imām, and one of The Fourteen Infallibles of Shī'a Twelvers.

"Behold; the illegitimate, son of the illegitimate [by birth], has settled between two, between unsheathing [the sword] and disgrace, and how impossible is humiliation from us! Allah refuses that for us, and his messenger, and the believers, and laps chastified and purified, and zealous noses [expression: heads that do not bow in humbleness], and repudiating souls [who repudiate/refuse oppression], that we desire obedience to the mean ones, than the killings of the honourable [martyrdom]. Behold that I move slowly with this family, despite the little number and deserting of helpers."

Today, the death of Hussein ibn Ali is commemorated during every Muharram by Shiite Muslims, with the most vital of these days being its tenth day, Ashura. Ashura is also commemorated by Sunni Muslims, but not like Shia.

472 - Olybrius, emperor of Westromeinse republic (472), dies

2009-10-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

Famous Deaths on this Day in History

Anicius Olybrius (ca. 430 – 23 October/2 November 472, Western Roman ruler from March 23 or July 11 to October 23 or November 2, 472, was a member of the Anicii family - related to Petronius Maximus - and a native of Rome. He was a son of Flavius Anicius Probus and wife Adelphia and granduncle of Flavius Anicius Probus Iunior.

After the sack of the city by the Vandal King Geiseric in 455, Olybrius fled to Constantinople, where in 464 he was made Consul, and about the same time ca 454 married Placidia, daughter of Valentinian III and Licinia Eudoxia. This afforded Geiseric, whose son Huneric had married Princess Eudocia, the elder sister of Placidia, the chance of claiming the empire of the West for Olybrius. In fact, Geiseric had attempted in 461 and again in 465 to get Olybrius made monarch. He was made Roman Consul in 464.

In 472 Olybrius was sent to Italy by the emperor Leo I to support the emperor Anthemius against his son-in-law Ricimer, but, having entered into discussions with the latter, was himself proclaimed emperor against his will, and on the murder of his rival ascended the throne unopposed. Because of his marriage to Placidia, Olybrius can be considered the last member of the House of Theodosius. His reign was otherwise as uneventful as it was brief. He died of hydropsy later in 472, being the only Emperor of his time to die of natural causes.

Olybrius was survived by his wife and their daughter, Anicia Juliana He appears, in a wholly unhistorical light, in the medieval Golden Legend as the persecutor of Saint Margaret the Virgin after she refused to marry him.

1452 - King Richard III, of England

2009-10-02T03:59:00.000-07:00

Famous Birthdays on this Day in History

Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 1483 until his death. He was the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty. His trounce at the Battle of Bosworth Field was the decisive clash of the Wars of the Roses, and is sometimes regarded as the end of the middle Ages in England. He is the central character of a well-known play by William Shakespeare.

After the death of his brother King Edward IV, Richard briefly governed the country on behalf of Edward's son King Edward V, but then seized the crown himself. Edward and his brother Richard seem to have disappeared shortly afterwards; there is a good deal of dispute over their alleged kill by Richard.

Two large-scale rebellions rose against Richard. The first, in 1483, was led by staunch opponents of Edward IV and, most famous able, Richard's own 'kingmaker', Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. The revolt collapsed and Buckingham was executed at Salisbury, near the Bull's Head Inn. However, in 1485, another revolt arose against Richard, headed by Henry Tudor, 2nd Earl of Richmond (later King Henry VII) and his uncle Jasper. The rebels landed troops and Richard fell in the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last English king to die in battle.

1187 - Sultan Saladin takes into custody of Jerusalem from Crusaders

2009-10-02T03:15:00.000-07:00

Historical Events on this Day in History

Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Arabic: صلاح الدين يوسف بن أيوب‎, Kurdish: سهلاحهدین ئهیوبی, Selah'edînê Eyubî) (c. 1138 - March 4, 1193), better known in the Western world as Saladin, was a Kurdish Muslim who became the Sultan of Egypt and Syria.

He led Islamic opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant.

At the height of his power, he ruled over Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Hejaz, and Yemen.

He led the Muslims against the Crusaders and finally recaptured Palestine from the Kingdom of Jerusalem after his victory in the Battle of Hattin. As such, he is a famous figure in Kurdish, Arab, Persian, Turkish and Muslim culture. Saladin was a strict practitioner of Sunni Islam.

His chivalrous behavior was noted by Christian chroniclers, particularly in the accounts of the siege of Kerak in Moab, and despite being the nemesis of the Crusaders he won the respect of many of them, including Richard the Lionheart; rather than becoming a detested figure in Europe, he became a celebrated example of the principles of chivalry, a rare distinction for a non-Christian.

959 - King Edwy of England

2009-10-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

Famous Deaths on this Day in History

Eadwig, more rarely Edwy (941? – 1 October 959), sometimes nicknamed All-Fair or the Fair, was King of England from 955 until his death four years later. The eldest son of King Edmund and Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, Eadwig was chosen by the dignity to succeed his uncle Eadred as King. His short reign was marked by ongoing conflicts with his family, thegns, and especially the Church, under the leadership of Saint Dunstan and Archbishop Odo.

1207 - Henry III, king of England (1216-72)

2009-10-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

Famous Birthdays on this Day in History

Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272) was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. His contemporaries know him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready. England prospered during his time in power and his greatest monument is Westminster, which he made the seat of his government and where he expanded the abbey as a holy place to Edward the Confessor.

He assumed the crown under the regency of the popular William Marshal, but the England he inherited had undergone several drastic changes in the reign of his father. He spent much of his reign combating the barons over Magna Carta and the royal rights, and was eventually forced to call the first "parliament" in 1264. He was also ineffective on the Continent, where he endeavoured to re-establish English control over Normandy, Anjou, and Aquitaine.

331 BC - Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.

2009-10-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

Historical Events on this Day in History

Alexander began his battle against the Persians in 334 BC. At the time the Macedonian leader was twenty-two years old. At his death eleven years later, Alexander ruled the major empire of the ancient world. His victory at the war of Gaugamela on the Persian plains was a important conquest that insured the defeat of his Persian rival King Darius III.

Darius was ready for battle having selected this spot to meet his enemy. After his defeat at Issus two years previously, Darius made sure that this battleground favored his soldiers and its tactics - mainly the use of his feared scythe-wheeled chariots. The ground here was flat, perfect for chariots. Darius made it even flatter by ordering the territory plowed and leveled. All was ready and on October 1, 331 BC the Persian army of probably 200,000 (ancient texts exaggerate the number up to 1 million) faced off against Alexander's 35,000. The Macedonian leader directly sized up the Persian's tactical advantage and countered by ordering his cavalry to shift to the right hopeful to move his enemy away from its flat field. Darius took the bait ordering his troops to follow. Soon the Persians found themselves on rough, rock-strewn landscape. Seeing the thinning Persian line, Alexander led the charge that crashed through to the Persian rear. As at the battle of Issus, Darius fled, leaving the field and win to Alexander.