Religion & Philosophy
Religious origins, sacred texts, monasteries, meditation, and philosophy
History: January 1 (#5)
January 1, 1726 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16, his church cantata for New Year's Day to a libretto by Georg Christian Lehms.
Read commentary →History: January 9 (#1)
January 9, 1787 The nationally known image of the Black Nazarene in the Philippines is transferred from what is now Rizal Park to its present shrine in the minor basilica of Quiapo Church. This is annually commemorated through its Traslación (solemn transfer) in the streets of Manila and is attended by millions of devotees.
Read commentary →History: January 13 (#1)
January 13, 1435 Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement by the Spanish of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands who had converted, or were converting to, Christianity, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.
Read commentary →History: January 14 (#1)
January 14, 1957 Kripalu Maharaj is named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher) after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars.
Read commentary →History: January 15 (#1)
January 15, 1962 The Derveni papyrus, Europe's oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BC, is found in northern Greece.
Read commentary →History: January 25 (#5)
January 25, 1515 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.
Read commentary →History: February 11 (#1)
February 11, 1946 The New Testament of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first significant challenge to the Authorized King James Version, is published.
Read commentary →History: February 13 (#3)
February 13, 1322 The central tower of Ely Cathedral falls on the night of 12th–13th.
Read commentary →History: February 15 (#1)
February 15, 1852 The Helsinki Cathedral (known as St. Nicholas' Church at time) is officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.
Read commentary →History: February 23 (#2)
February 23, 1725 J. S. Bach leads his Tafel-Music Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels.
Read commentary →History: February 24 (#1)
February 24, 1822 The first Swaminarayan temple in the world, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Ahmedabad, is inaugurated.
Read commentary →History: February 26 (#3)
February 26, 1794 The first Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen burns down.
Read commentary →History: February 27 (#1)
February 27, 907 Abaoji, chieftain of the Yila tribe, is named khagan of the Khitans.
Read commentary →History: February 29 (#1)
February 29, 1504 Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Jamaican natives to provide him with supplies.
Read commentary →History: March 1 (#1)
March 1, 1956 The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Read commentary →History: March 5 (#2)
March 5, 1850 The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales is opened.
Read commentary →History: March 9 (#3)
March 9, 1009 First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
Read commentary →History: March 12 (#1)
March 12, 2009 Financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street's history.
Read commentary →History: March 15 (#2)
March 15, 351 Constantius Gallus is elevated as Caesar and then sent to Antioch to govern the Roman East.
Read commentary →History: March 22 (#1)
March 22, 1906 The first England vs France rugby union match is played at Parc des Princes in Paris.
Read commentary →History: March 22 (#2)
March 22, 1784 The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current location in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.
Read commentary →History: March 25 (#2)
March 25, 1725 Bach's chorale cantata "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1", is first performed on the Feast of the Annunciation, coinciding with Palm Sunday.
Read commentary →History: March 27 (#1)
March 27, 1309 Pope Clement V imposes excommunication and interdiction on Venice, and a general prohibition of all commercial intercourse with Venice, which had seized Ferrara, a papal fiefdom.
Read commentary →History: March 31 (#2)
March 31, 1717 A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, preached in the presence of King George I of Great Britain, provokes the Bangorian Controversy.
Read commentary →History: March 31 (#3)
March 31, 1492 Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile sign the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, ordering all Jews in their kingdoms to either convert to Christianity or leave the country.
Read commentary →History: April 2 (#2)
April 2, 1107 Seljuq sultan Muhammad I Tapar begins the siege of Shahdiz, a fortress of the Nizari Ismailis.
Read commentary →History: April 8 (#1)
April 8, 1730 Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in continental North America, is dedicated.
Read commentary →History: April 10 (#2)
April 10, 428 Nestorius becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Read commentary →History: April 11 (#1)
April 11, 1727 Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony (now Germany).
Read commentary →History: April 14 (#3)
April 14, 1858 The 1858 Christiania fire severely destroys several city blocks near Stortorvet in Christiania, Norway, and about 1,000 people lose their homes.
Read commentary →History: April 28 (#2)
April 28, 1253 Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō for the first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
Read commentary →History: April 28 (#3)
April 28, 1294 Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols with the reigning title Oljeitu.
Read commentary →History: April 29 (#1)
April 29, 1492 The Crown's decision to expel the Jews is announced in Zaragoza, Aragon, to the kingdom's procurators.
Read commentary →History: May 1 (#2)
May 1, 1492 The Edict of Expulsion is officially proclaimed in Castile, requiring all Jewish residents to leave within three months.
Read commentary →History: May 2 (#4)
May 2, 1611 The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker.
Read commentary →History: May 4 (#2)
May 4, 1256 The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.
Read commentary →History: May 7 (#3)
May 7, 1846 The Cambridge Chronicle, America's oldest surviving weekly newspaper, is published for the first time in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Read commentary →History: May 10 (#3)
May 10, 1294 Temür, Khagan of the Mongols, is enthroned as Emperor of the Yuan dynasty.
Read commentary →History: May 13 (#1)
May 13, 1373 Julian of Norwich has visions of Jesus while suffering from a life-threatening illness, visions which are later described and interpreted in her book Revelations of Divine Love.
Read commentary →History: May 14 (#1)
May 14, 1878 The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.
Read commentary →History: May 18 (#1)
May 18, 1926 Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears in Venice, California.
Read commentary →History: May 22 (#3)
May 22, 1377 Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
Read commentary →History: May 29 (#2)
May 29, 1825 The Coronation of Charles X of France takes place in Reims Cathedral, the last ever coronation of a French monarch.
Read commentary →History: June 1 (#3)
June 1, 1495 A monk, John Cor, records the first known batch of Scotch whisky.
Read commentary →History: June 8 (#1)
June 8, 1856 A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island.
Read commentary →History: June 10 (#2)
June 10, 1523 Copenhagen is surrounded by the army of Frederick I of Denmark, as the city will not recognise him as the successor of Christian II of Denmark.
Read commentary →History: June 17 (#4)
June 17, 1300 Turku Cathedral is consecrated by Bishop Magnus I in the city of Turku (Swedish: Åbo).
Read commentary →History: June 25 (#1)
June 25, 1900 The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China.
Read commentary →History: June 26 (#5)
June 26, 1409 Western Schism: The Roman Catholic Church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XIII in Avignon.
Read commentary →History: July 1 (#3)
July 1, 1766 François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.
Read commentary →History: July 11 (#1)
July 11, 1950 Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank.
Read commentary →History: July 12 (#3)
July 12, 1580 The Ostrog Bible, one of the early printed Bibles in a Slavic language, is published.
Read commentary →History: July 16 (#2)
July 16, 1916 Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem is first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.
Read commentary →History: July 16 (#3)
July 16, 1251 Celebrated by the Carmelite Order–but doubted by modern historians–as the day when Saint Simon Stock had a vision of the Virgin Mary.
Read commentary →History: July 17 (#1)
July 17, 180 Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
Read commentary →History: July 25 (#5)
July 25, 1137 Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Prince Louis, later King Louis VII of France, at the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux.
Read commentary →History: July 29 (#2)
July 29, 1565 The widowed Mary, Queen of Scots marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Duke of Albany, at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland, in a Catholic ceremony.
Read commentary →History: August 11 (#3)
August 11, 1858 The Eiger in the Bernese Alps is ascended for the first time by Charles Barrington accompanied by Christian Almer and Peter Bohren.
Read commentary →History: August 12 (#1)
August 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.
Read commentary →History: August 13 (#2)
August 13, 1536 Buddhist monks from Kyoto, Japan's Enryaku-ji temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in what will be known as the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance.
Read commentary →History: August 14 (#2)
August 14, 1880 Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.
Read commentary →History: August 15 (#3)
August 15, 1843 The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.
Read commentary →History: August 15 (#5)
August 15, 1248 The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid. (Construction is eventually completed in 1880.)
Read commentary →History: August 17 (#5)
August 17, 1488 Konrad Bitz, the Bishop of Turku, marks the date of his preface to Missale Aboense, the oldest known book of Finland.
Read commentary →History: August 18 (#2)
August 18, 1492 The first grammar of the Spanish language (Gramática de la lengua castellana) is presented to Queen Isabella I.
Read commentary →History: August 21 (#1)
August 21, 1879 The locals of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland report their having seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The apparition is later named "Our Lady of Knock" and the spot transformed into a Catholic pilgrimage site.
Read commentary →History: August 30 (#2)
August 30, 1574 Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.
Read commentary →History: August 30 (#3)
August 30, 70 Titus ends the siege of Jerusalem after destroying Herod's Temple.
Read commentary →History: September 1 (#1)
September 1, 1610 Claudio Monteverdi's musical work Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) is first published, printed in Venice and dedicated to Pope Paul V.
Read commentary →History: September 1 (#2)
September 1, 1355 King Tvrtko I of Bosnia writes In castro nostro Vizoka vocatum from the Old town of Visoki.
Read commentary →History: September 4 (#3)
September 4, 1774 New Caledonia is first sighted by Europeans, during the second voyage of Captain James Cook.
Read commentary →History: September 8 (#4)
September 8, 1264 The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews safety and personal liberties and giving battei din jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Bolesław the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland.
Read commentary →History: September 9 (#1)
September 9, 1493 Christopher Columbus, with 17 ships and 1,200 men, sails on second voyage from Cadiz.
Read commentary →History: September 24 (#1)
September 24, 1932 Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar agree to the Poona Pact, which reserved seats in the Indian provincial legislatures for the "Depressed Classes" (Untouchables).
Read commentary →History: September 30 (#3)
September 30, 1736 The Lebanese Council of 1736 begins, a major turning point in the reform of the Maronite Church. In the following three days, the assembled Maronite and Latin clergy presided by Yusuf ibn Siman as-Simani discuss various reforms and elaborate rules and canons.
Read commentary →History: September 30 (#4)
September 30, 1863 Georges Bizet's opera Les pêcheurs de perles, premieres in Paris.
Read commentary →History: October 10 (#2)
October 10, 1492 The crew of Christopher Columbus's ship, the Santa Maria, attempt a mutiny.
Read commentary →History: October 13 (#1)
October 13, 2013 A stampede occurs in India during the Hindu festival Navratri, killing 115 and injuring more than 110.
Read commentary →History: October 14 (#1)
October 14, 1956 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, leader of India's Untouchable caste, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 of his followers (see Neo-Buddhism).
Read commentary →History: October 22 (#1)
October 22, 1997 Danish fugitive Steen Christensen kills two police officers, Chief Constable Eero Holsti and Senior Constable Antero Palo, in Ullanlinna, Helsinki, Finland during his prison escape.
Read commentary →History: October 22 (#3)
October 22, 1883 The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Charles Gounod's Faust.
Read commentary →History: October 25 (#1)
October 25, 1868 The Uspenski Cathedral, designed by Aleksey Gornostayev, is inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.
Read commentary →History: November 1 (#4)
November 1, 996 Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi (Austria in Old High German).
Read commentary →History: November 5 (#1)
November 5, 1499 The Catholicon, written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc in Tréguier, is published; this is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary.
Read commentary →History: November 7 (#4)
November 7, 1504 Christopher Columbus returns from his fourth and last voyage.
Read commentary →History: November 12 (#4)
November 12, 954 The 13-year-old Lothair III is crowned at the Abbey of Saint-Remi as king of the West Frankish Kingdom.
Read commentary →History: November 23 (#2)
November 23, 2004 The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the largest religious building in Georgia, is consecrated.
Read commentary →History: November 28 (#2)
November 28, 1798 Trade between the United States and modern-day Uruguay begins when John Leamy's frigate John arrives in Montevideo.
Read commentary →History: November 30 (#2)
November 30, 1971 Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah.
Read commentary →History: November 30 (#4)
November 30, 1936 In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire.
Read commentary →History: December 2 (#2)
December 2, 1971 Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm al-Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.
Read commentary →History: December 8 (#1)
December 8, 1864 Pope Pius IX promulgates the encyclical Quanta cura and its appendix, the Syllabus of Errors, outlining the authority of the Catholic Church and condemning various liberal ideas.
Read commentary →History: December 8 (#2)
December 8, 1854 In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free of Original Sin.
Read commentary →History: December 8 (#3)
December 8, 1504 Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah writes his Oran fatwa, arguing for the relaxation of Islamic law requirements for the forcibly converted Muslims in Spain.
Read commentary →History: December 13 (#1)
December 13, 1294 Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
Read commentary →History: December 23 (#1)
December 23, 1936 Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
Read commentary →History: December 25 (#3)
December 25, 333 Roman Emperor Constantine the Great elevates his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.
Read commentary →History: December 25 (#4)
December 25, 336 First documented sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.
Read commentary →History: December 27 (#1)
December 27, 1521 The Zwickau prophets arrive in Wittenberg, disturbing the peace and preaching the Apocalypse.
Read commentary →History: December 27 (#2)
December 27, 537 The second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is consecrated.
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