| 1066 | | 27 Sep:
William the Conqueror sets sail from France beginning the Norman Conquest of England.NI MotU |
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| 1512 | | 11 Apr:
French forces defeat the largely Spanish papal Holy League in the Battle of Ravenna in Italy.AIC WHN |
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| 1524 | | 17 Jan:
Giovanni da Verrazanno sets sail from Madeira, Portugal to explore North America - from North Carolina north to Newfoundland.MM&P AJ |
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| 1534 | | 20 Apr:
Jacques Cartier sets sail from France on his first exploration of the New World.PC LoC |
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| | 9 Jun:
French navigator Jacques Cartier begins exploring the St. Lawrence River.LoC WHP |
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| 1535 | | 19 May:
French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for North America.MM&P CMoH |
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| 1562 | | 1 Mar:
A massacre of Huguenots at Vassy, France begins the French Wars of Religion which lasts until 1598.GoogleBooks W&W |
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| 1565 | | 20 Sep:
Spanish forces capture the French Huguenot settlement of Fort Caroline in the first European battle on American soil.SIMag PG |
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| 1572 | | 24 Aug:
King Charles IX of France orders the assassination of Huguenot Protestant leaders in Paris that results in the massacre of tens of thousands of Huguenots all across France.MP CT |
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| 1582 | | 4 Oct:
The Gregorian calendar is introduced. The next day is October 15th.Britannica UFL |
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| 1603 | | 15 Mar:
Samuel de Champlain sets sail from France aboard the Bonne-Renommée on his first voyage to North America. MM&P OHT |
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| 1604 | | 26 Jun:
The French settle on Saint Croix Island in what is now Maine.tCE NPS |
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| 1608 | |
| 1618 | | 23 May:
The Thirty Years War, a series of wars fought by European nations for various reasons, is initiated when the Holy Roman Emperor attempts to force Catholicism on most of Europe, and ends with the Peace of Westphalia.OSU CT |
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| 1628 | |
| 1632 | | 23 Jul:
300 French colonists set sail for the new world.AdB Academic |
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| 1648 | | 24 Oct:
The Thirty Years War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia.LoC Avalon |
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| 1663 | |
| 1682 | |
| 1689 | | 17 May:
King William's War; England declares war on France which lasts until the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick.HoMA MB |
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| 1697 | | 20 Sep:
The Treaty of Ryswick settles the Nine Years War and ends hostilities in America, although that wouldn't happen for another two months.Jacobite theMet |
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| 1702 | |
| 1713 | | 11 Apr:
The Treaty of Utrecht is signed ending the War of the Spanish Succession, also known as Queen Anne's War in North America.CHNC CBC |
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| 1744 | |
| 1752 | | 10 May:
Thomas-François Dalibard validates Benjamin Franklin's conclusion that lightning is electricity.USNA APS |
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| 1754 | |
| 1758 | | 27 Jul:
British and colonial forces defeat French and Canadian forces at the Battle of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.BB CTHist |
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| | 25 Nov:
Fort Duquesne is captured from the French, which will later become Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.F&IWS |
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| 1762 | |
| 1763 | |
| 1781 | | 28 Sep:
The Siege of Yorktown begins. American and French forces surround British forces.BB MtVernon |
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| 1783 | | 4 Jun:
The Montgolfier Brothers give the first public demonstration of their balloon.Space Earth |
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| |
| | 15 Oct:
The world’s first manned hot-air balloon flight takes place.Space CoF |
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| 1784 | | 21 Aug:
Benjamin Franklin makes mention of, in letters, bi-focal eyeglasses he had invented earlier about 1780.eNotes AS |
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| 1785 | | 7 Jan:
The first international flight occurs when Blanchard and Jeffries fly a balloon across the English Channel.StratoCat SI |
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| 1789 | | 14 Jul:
Bastille Day! The Bastille prison is stormed - the start of the French Revolution.B B C TIME |
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| 1793 | | 21 Jan:
Louis XVI, the last King of France, is executed by guillotine.LEF LoC |
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| | 16 Oct:
Marie-Antoinette is beheaded.CdV SIMag |
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| 1794 | | 4 Feb:
France abolishes slavery in all of its colonies.GMU LoC |
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| 1797 | | 22 Oct:
Frenchman André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump.TiS LoC |
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| 1799 | | 19 Jul:
The Rosetta Stone is found.tST ET |
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| 1803 | |
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| 1816 | |
The previous year, Mt. Tambora erupted producing so much ash and gas the sunlight was blocked from warming the earth causing the "Year Without Summer".USGS |
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| 1831 | | 10 Mar:
The French Foreign Legion is created.FFL FFL2 |
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| 1846 | |
| 1854 | | 28 Mar:
Britain and France declare war on Russia beginning their involvement in the Crimean War.SLSA HK |
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| 1862 | | 20 Apr:
The first pasteurization test, aimed at disproving the theory of spontaneous generation and proving food could be preserved by applied heat, is completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.HP AZDHS |
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| 1869 | |
| 1879 | | 18 Feb:
A design patent is granted for the Statue of Liberty.GIZMODO MIT |
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| 1880 | | 6 Nov:
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, a French army surgeon, discovers the malaria parasite.CDC NIH |
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| 1884 | | 13 Oct:
The Greenwich meridian is officially adopted globally as the prime meridian, the imaginary north-south line where the longitude is 0 degrees.W I R E D MAA |
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| | 1 Nov:
Greenwich Mean Time is adopted universally when the International Meridian Conference meets in Washington, DC.GMT OFA |
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| 1888 | | 23 Dec:
Artist Vincent Van Gogh cuts off his ear.SIMag VGG |
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| 1889 | | 31 Mar:
The Eiffel Tower, at the time, the tallest man-made structure in the world, is opened.TE PCV |
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| 1895 | | 28 Dec:
The world's first commercial movie screening takes place in Paris. Variety |
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| 1897 | | 20 Aug:
World Mosquito Day marks the discovery of the malaria parasite.Mosquito EM |
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| 1898 | | 18 Dec:
The first recorded land speed record is set when Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat travels 39.252 miles per hour in a Jeantaud, a French electric automobile.WoS AC |
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| 1899 | | 2 Nov:
The Boxer Rebellion, an uprising against foreigners in China, occurs.TW GoogleBooks |
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| 1902 | | 20 Apr:
Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their laboratory in Paris.SN DTE |
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| 1906 | | 3 Nov:
The distress signal S.O.S. becomes the worldwide standard at the 2nd International Radiotelegraphic Convention.SIMag GA&C |
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| 1908 | | 3 Aug:
The first nearly complete skeleton of a Neanderthal is found.LS PNAS |
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| 1910 | | 28 Mar:
Engineer Henri Fabre takes off in the Canard, the first airplane to lift off from water under its own power.SI W I R E D |
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| 1914 | |
| |
| | 5 Oct:
The first recorded armed aerial victory of World War I occurs when a French reconnaissance aircraft shoots down a German reconnaissance aircraft.A&S WSJ |
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| 1916 | | 15 Sep:
Tanks are introduced into battle for the first time.SA MotAGI |
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| 1917 | | 15 Oct:
Mata Hari is executed for spying. PBS |
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| 1918 | | Feb:
The Spanish Flu pandemic kills at least 3% of the World's population.VLib npr |
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| | 21 Apr:
Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, is shot down and killed in the skies over the Somme River in France.PBS CoF |
|
| | 29 Sep:
Allied forces break through the Hindenburg Line.NCDCR AWM |
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| | 8 Oct:
Acting Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 Germans and takes 132 of them as prisoners in the Battle of the Argonne.GWPDA SgtYork |
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| 1919 | |
| 1927 | |
| 1939 | |
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| 1940 | |
| | 12 Sep:
The Lascaux Cave paintings are discovered.VVD YouTube |
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| 1944 | | 6 Jun:
D-Day - allied forces begin the invasion of continental Europe.USArmy IWM |
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| 1945 | | 7 May:
Germany unconditionally surrenders, effectively ending World War II in Western Europe. Soviet surrender terms were signed the next day.DoD USHMM |
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| |
| |
| | 24 Oct:
The United Nations is established.UN USState |
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| 1946 | | 5 Jul:
The world is introduced to the bikini swimsuit.WAPO CR |
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| 1949 | | 4 Apr:
NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is founded.USNA Avalon |
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| 1954 | | 29 Sep:
The CERN Convention is entered into force.CERN SA |
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| 1955 | |
| 1969 | | 2 Mar:
The Concorde takes off on its maiden flight.B B C PHYS |
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| 1978 | | 11 Aug:
The first successful transatlantic crossing in a balloon, the Double Eagle II, takes place.SI |
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| 1979 | | 12 Jun:
The Gossamer Albatross becomes the first fully human-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel.AVInc SI |
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| 1983 | | 20 May:
The discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS is first published in the journal Science.Science NIH |
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| |
| 2001 | |
| | 22 Dec:
Richard Reid fails in his attempt to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosive material in his shoes.CNN Flying |
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| 2005 | | 14 Jan:
The Huygens probe successfully lands on Saturn's largest moon Titan - the only landing to take place in the outer Solar System and the furthest from Earth.esa NASA |
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| | 18 Jan:
The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, is unveiled in France.Airbus AW |
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| 2015 | | 13 Nov:
Islamic extremists attack various places in Paris killing more than 100 innocent people.B B C NYTimes |
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