The first traveller’s cheques, in the form of a ‘circular note’ issued by a bank, went on sale in London.
20th July 1807: The world’s first internal combustion engine is patented in France
20th July 2019
In the evening of the 9th November 1989, the East German government opened the Berlin Wall after central committee spokesman Guenter Schabowski mistakenly announced that GDR citizens could cross into West Berlin with immediate effect.
The shortest papacy in history ended after just twelve days following the death of Pope Urban VII, shortly after he introduced Europe’s first smoking ban.
The ‘Final Act’ of the Congress of Vienna was signed on the 9th June 1815, nine days before Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
On the 24th May 1956, the first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland.
On the 24th February 1848, amidst the revolutions that were beginning to sweep across the continent, King Louis Philippe of France abdicated the throne.
The Great Stand on the Ugra River marked the start of the decline of the Great Horde.
On the 5th September 1698, Tsar Peter I of Russia – otherwise known as Peter the Great – imposed a tax on beards.
On the 18th July 1925, the first volume of Adolf Hitler’s rambling racist manifesto Mein Kampf – which translates as My Struggle or My Battle – was first published.
In 1518 the English Cardinal Wolsey had negotiated the Treaty of London, a non-aggression pact that was signed by the twenty major European powers of the time.
24th January 41 CE: Emperor Caligula killed by the Praetorian Guard
24th January 2020
22nd January 1905: Bloody Sunday massacre in Saint Petersburg
22nd January 2020
11th November 1918: WW1 Armistice of Compiègne is signed
11th November 2018
1st September 1939: Nazi Germany invades Poland
1st September 2018