On the 6th January 1066, Harold Godwinson was crowned king of England.
A succession crisis was sparked following the death of Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England.
American inventor Samuel Colt received the first government order for his revolver firearms from Captain Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers.
Although numerous suspension bridges had been built prior to the Brooklyn Bridge, nothing came close to the almost 1,600 foot span across the East River from Brooklyn to Manhattan.
On the 2nd January 1981, serial killer Peter Sutcliffe – otherwise known as the Yorkshire Ripper – was arrested by police.
The first traveller’s cheques, in the form of a ‘circular note’ issued by a bank, went on sale in London.
On the 31st December 1935, the board game Monopoly was patented.
Relations between Catholicism and Judaism cover a long, complex and violent history in which Christians revered the Jewish scriptures yet held Jews collectively responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.
On the 29th December 1170, Thomas Becket – the Archbishop of Canterbury – was murdered in front of the altar of Canterbury Cathedral.
Röntgen was experimenting with vacuum tubes at the University of Würzburg when he discovered the new ‘invisible light’ on 8 November 1895.
On the 27th December 537, Hagia Sophia was inaugurated by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and Patriarch Menas of Constantinople.
The Exorcist is one of the highest-grossing films of all time, but originally opened in just twenty-six American cinemas.
On the 25th December 1066, William of Normandy was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
Cadets sought to continue the annual tradition of drinking homemade eggnog on Christmas Eve.