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Calendar

On This Day in Dark History

One event for every day of the year, from executions and sieges to disasters and notorious deaths.

January

  • 1 January, 1776Norfolk Burned to Ashes in Revolutionary War
    Norfolk, Virginia, was reduced to ruins at the start of 1776. Royal Navy bombardment and the actions of Continental forces together left the colonial port town burned to the ground, and its people homeless in midwinter.
    Source
  • 2 January, 1680Rebel Prince Trunajaya Executed by Java's Sultan
    Amangkurat II of Mataram personally ordered the death of the rebel leader Trunajaya. The killing, carried out with the sultan's bodyguards present, ended the most dangerous revolt his troubled reign had faced.
    Source
  • 3 January, 1911Earthquake Destroys the City of Almaty
    A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Russian Turkestan and wrecked the city of Almaty. The quake levelled a provincial town on the edge of the Russian Empire.
    Source
  • 4 January, 1649Parliament Votes to Put a King on Trial
    The Rump Parliament resolved that Charles I should stand trial. It was an unprecedented step in English history, and it set in motion the legal proceedings that led, within weeks, to the monarch's public execution.
    Source
  • 5 January, 1757Damiens Stabs Louis XV in Versailles
    Robert-François Damiens attacked Louis XV of France with a knife. The king survived, but the assailant was condemned as a regicide and became the last man in France executed by drawing and quartering.
    From our archive, 1477: The Duke Who Fell In A Frozen Ditch
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  • 6 January, 1839The Night of the Big Wind Hits Ireland
    A storm described as the most damaging in three centuries swept across Ireland. It destroyed or damaged more than a fifth of the houses in Dublin and remained a byword for catastrophe for generations.
    Source
  • 7 January, 1950Soviet Air Force Hockey Team Lost in Crash
    An aircraft carrying the VVS Moscow ice hockey side crashed at Sverdlovsk. All nineteen on board died, including eleven players, a doctor and a masseur, wiping out almost the entire Soviet Air Force team.
    From our archive, 1355: The Lovers Portugal Crowned After Death
    From our archive, 1536: The Queen Whose Heart Turned Black
    Source
  • 8 January, 1811Charles Deslondes Leads Louisiana Slave Revolt
    Charles Deslondes led an uprising of enslaved people in the settlements of St Charles and St James, Louisiana. The revolt was one of the largest of its kind in North America, but it ultimately failed.
    From our archive, 1697: The Student Hanged for Mocking the Bible
    Source
  • 9 January, 1431Joan of Arc's Trial Opens at Rouen
    The trial of Joan of Arc began in Rouen, held by an ecclesiastical court under English control. Over the following months it would question the young soldier's visions and end in her death at the stake.
    From our archive, 1386: The Pig Put On Trial For Murder
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  • 10 January, 1645Archbishop Laud Beheaded on Tower Hill
    William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, was beheaded for treason at the Tower of London. Imprisoned for years by Parliament, he was a leading casualty of the English Civil War's religious and political conflict.
    Source
  • 11 January, 1943Anarchist Carlo Tresca Shot Dead in New York
    Italian-American anarchist and newspaper editor Carlo Tresca was assassinated in New York City. He had made enemies among fascists and communists alike, and his murder in the street shocked the city's Italian exiles.
    Source
  • 12 January, 1933Peasants Killed at Casas Viejas
    Security and Assault Corps officers killed twenty-two peasants in the Andalusian village of Casas Viejas. The incident shocked Spain, and the scandal badly damaged the government of the Second Republic.
    Source
  • 13 January, 532Nika Riots Erupt in Constantinople
    Discontent with Emperor Justinian I boiled over during the races at the Hippodrome in Constantinople. The Nika riots that followed brought the Byzantine capital close to revolution before the week was out.
    Source
  • 14 January, 1907Kingston Earthquake Kills Over a Thousand
    A powerful earthquake struck Kingston, Jamaica, killing more than 1,000 people. The disaster shattered much of the colonial capital, leaving the survivors to face ruined streets and a long, difficult recovery.
    From our archive, 1789: The Eleven-Year-Old Sentenced to Hang for a Frock
    Source
  • 15 January, 1947Black Dahlia Body Found in Los Angeles
    The dismembered body of Elizabeth Short was discovered in Los Angeles. Nicknamed the Black Dahlia by the press, the murder became one of the most notorious unsolved crimes in American history.
    Source
  • 16 January, 1862Hartley Colliery Disaster Traps Two Hundred Men
    Two hundred and four men and boys died in the disaster at Hartley Colliery, and the tragedy forced a change in the law requiring a second means of escape.
    From our archive, 1969: The Student Who Set Himself Alight In Protest
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  • 17 January, 1799Maltese Patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri Executed
    The Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri was executed, together with a number of other patriots. He is remembered in Malta as a national martyr, and his death came during the unrest of the French occupation.
    Source
  • 18 January, 1977Granville Rail Disaster Kills 83 in Sydney
    Eighty-three people were killed in a rail disaster at Granville, Sydney. It remains the worst such accident in Australian history, and it prompted lasting changes to rail safety across the country. It remains the worst rail disaster in Australian history.
    Source
  • 19 January, 1917Silvertown Munitions Blast Devastates East London
    An explosion at a munitions factory in Silvertown, London, killed seventy-three people and injured more than 400. The resulting fire caused vast damage, and the blast was heard across the south of England.
    Source
  • 20 January, 1973Independence Leader Amilcar Cabral Assassinated
    Amilcar Cabral, leader of the independence movement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, was shot dead in Conakry. He was killed in Guinea's capital, far from the battlefields of his own country's war.
    From our archive, 1936: The King's Death That Was A Secret For Fifty Years
    From our archive, 1793: The Last Farewell Of A Falling King
    Source
  • 21 January, 1793Louis XVI Guillotined After Treason Verdict
    Found guilty of treason by the National Convention, Louis XVI of France was executed by guillotine in Paris. It was the climax of the French Revolution's break with the monarchy.
    From our archive, 1854: The First White Star Wreck on Lambay Island
    From our archive, 1670: The Highwayman Who Danced With His Victims
    Source
  • 22 January, 1879Zulu Army Overwhelms British at Isandlwana
    A Zulu army inflicted a crushing defeat on a British column at Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War. Victory for the Zulu opened the war with a shock for Britain.
    From our archive, 1879: The Defence That Held At Rorke's Drift
    From our archive, 1552: The False Cry of Pardon at the Duke of Somerset's Execution
    From our archive, 1536: The Iron Cages Above Münster
    Source
  • 23 January, 1556Shaanxi Earthquake Strikes, History's Deadliest
    The Shaanxi earthquake struck northern China in 1556 and is regarded as the deadliest on record. The death toll may have reached 830,000, an almost unimaginable loss for the Ming empire.
    Source
  • 24 January, 41Caligula Assassinated by His Own Guard
    The Praetorian Guard assassinated Emperor Caligula and proclaimed his uncle Claudius ruler of Rome. The murder ended a short and notoriously violent reign and began a new chapter in imperial politics.
    From our archive, 1536: The Day a Horse Fell on Henry VIII
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  • 25 January, 1971Manson Family Found Guilty of Tate-LaBianca Murders
    Charles Manson and four Family members, three of them women, were found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders. The verdict closed the most publicised murder trial in California and ended a horrifying cult-driven killing spree.
    Source
  • 26 January, 1885Gordon Killed as the Mahdi Takes Khartoum
    Troops loyal to the Mahdi captured Khartoum and killed its governor-general, Charles George Gordon. The fall of the city, days before a relief force arrived, caused uproar in Victorian Britain.
    Source
  • 27 January, 1967Apollo 1 Fire Kills Three Astronauts
    Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were killed by fire inside their Apollo 1 spacecraft during a ground test at Kennedy Space Center. The accident forced a thorough redesign of the capsule.
    Source
  • 28 January, 1591Agnes Sampson Executed for Witchcraft in Edinburgh
    Agnes Sampson, a midwife and healer, was executed in Edinburgh after being accused of witchcraft. Her case unfolded in the reign of King James VI of Scotland.
    From our archive, 1393: The Ball of the Burning Men
    From our archive, 1596: The Dragon Spain Wanted Dead
    From our archive, 1547: The King's Corpse The Dogs Got To First
    From our archive, 1547: The Rotting Death of Henry VIII
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  • 29 January, 1863Bear River Massacre Kills Hundreds of Shoshone
    California Volunteers under Colonel Patrick Edward Connor attacked a Shoshone camp on the Bear River. Hundreds of men, women and children were killed, making it one of the deadliest massacres of Native Americans.
    Source
  • 30 January, 1945Wilhelm Gustloff Torpedoed in the Baltic
    The liner Wilhelm Gustloff, crowded with German refugees, was sunk in the Baltic by a Soviet submarine. Around 9,500 people are thought to have died, making it among the deadliest ship sinkings ever recorded.
    From our archive, 1606: The Corpse That Answered Back After Execution
    From our archive, 1649: The King Who Would Not Be Seen To Shiver
    From our archive, 1661: The Lord Protector Executed After Death
    Source
  • 31 January, 1606Gunpowder Plotters Executed for Treason
    Four conspirators, Guy Fawkes among them, were executed for treason by hanging, drawing and quartering. Their deaths followed the failed plot to destroy Parliament and King James, and ended the trial that began days earlier.
    From our archive, 1632: Aris Kindt, the Thief in Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson
    Source

February

  • 1 February, 1908Portuguese King Shot Dead in Lisbon
    King Carlos I of Portugal and his son and heir, Infante Luis Filipe, were shot dead in Lisbon in the event known as the Lisbon Regicide, a violent blow to the Portuguese monarchy.
    Source
  • 2 February, 1943Stalingrad Ends in German Surrender
    The Battle of Stalingrad ended when Soviet troops accepted the surrender of the last organised German forces in the city, closing one of the most destructive and costly battles of the Second World War.
    From our archive, 1709: Alexander Selkirk: The Castaway Behind Robinson Crusoe
    Source
  • 3 February, 1916Fire Guts Canada's Parliament Building
    A fire destroyed the Centre Block of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario, and seven people lost their lives. The blaze left the Canadian legislature without its principal home in the middle of the First World War.
    Source
  • 4 February, 1555First Protestant Martyr Burned Under Mary
    John Rogers was burned at the stake in England, becoming the first Protestant martyr to die under Queen Mary I. His death opened the Marian persecutions, in which hundreds of reformers would follow him to the fire.
    Source
  • 5 February, 1597Japanese Christians Put to Death
    A group of early Japanese Christians was killed on the orders of Japan's new government, which regarded the faith as a threat to the stability of Japanese society. The executions marked a turning point for Christianity there.
    From our archive, 1445: The Wheel Where Florence Left Its Babies
    Source
  • 6 February, 1958Munich Air Disaster Kills Manchester United Players
    Eight Manchester United players were among twenty-three people killed in the Munich air disaster. The tragedy struck one of the most celebrated young football sides in Europe and shocked the sporting world.
    From our archive, 1685: The King Who Took Four Days to Die
    Source
  • 7 February, 1497Savonarola's Followers Light the Bonfire
    Supporters of the friar Girolamo Savonarola gathered cosmetics, works of art and books in Florence and set them alight in the notorious Bonfire of the Vanities, a public act of religious zeal.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 8 February, 1587Mary, Queen of Scots Is Beheaded
    Mary, Queen of Scots was executed on suspicion of involvement in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I. Her death ended nearly two decades of captivity in England and shook the courts of Europe.
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  • 9 February, 1945Submarine Sinks Submarine Off Norway
    HMS Venturer sank the German U-boat U-864 off Fedje, Norway, in a rare case of one submarine destroying another while both were submerged. The engagement is still studied by naval historians.
    From our archive, 1555: The Parson Who Danced To His Own Burning
    Source
  • 10 February, 1567Lord Darnley Found Strangled After Blast
    Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, was found strangled after an explosion at the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh. His death was widely suspected to be an assassination and was never fully explained.
    From our archive, 1258: The Day The Mongols Drowned A Library
    From our archive, 1722: The Reluctant Pirate Who Became King
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  • 11 February, 1829Russian Ambassador Massacred in Tehran
    Alexander Griboyedov, the Russian ambassador to Tehran, and the rest of his embassy staff were massacred by an angry mob. The violence came amid fierce public resentment over the Treaty of Turkmenchay.
    From our archive, 1503: The Queen Whose Death Broke a King
    Source
  • 12 February, 1909Ferry Penguin Sinks at Wellington Harbour
    The inter-island ferry SS Penguin sank and exploded at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. It remains New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the twentieth century, with a heavy loss of life among passengers and crew.
    From our archive, 1554: The Nine Days' Queen Who Watched Her Husband's Body Pass
    Source
  • 13 February, 1542Catherine Howard Executed for Adultery
    Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, was executed for adultery. She had been queen for under two years, and her fall remains one of the best-known court scandals of the Tudor age.
    From our archive, 1542: The Madness That Could Not Save Her
    From our archive, 1542: The Teenage Queen Who Never Saw Him Again
    From our archive, 1542: The Woman Who Served Five Doomed Queens
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  • 14 February, 1929Seven Men Murdered in Chicago Garage
    Seven men, six of them gangland rivals of Al Capone's outfit, were murdered in Chicago in the St Valentine's Day Massacre. The killings became the best-known single act of violence of the Prohibition era.
    Source
  • 15 February, 706Byzantine Emperor Executes Rivals in Hippodrome
    Emperor Justinian II had his predecessors Leontios and Tiberios III publicly executed in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, a display of vengeance after he regained the throne of the Byzantine Empire.
    Source
  • 16 February, 1962North Sea Flood Devastates West Germany
    Flooding along the coast of West Germany killed 315 people and destroyed the homes of about sixty thousand more. The disaster prompted a major rethink of coastal defences in the region.
    Source
  • 17 February, 1600Giordano Bruno Gagged on His Way to the Fire
    On his way to be burned at the stake for heresy in Rome's Campo de' Fiori, the philosopher Giordano Bruno had a wooden vise placed on his tongue to stop him speaking to the crowd.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 18 February, 1873Bulgarian Revolutionary Hanged in Sofia
    Vasil Levski, the Bulgarian revolutionary leader, was executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities. He is remembered in Bulgaria as a national hero and a martyr for independence.
    From our archive, 1478: The Duke Drowned In A Barrel Of Wine
    From our archive, 1820: The Innkeeper Who Poisoned Her Guests at Tea
    Source
  • 19 February, 197Bloodiest Roman Battle at Lugdunum
    Emperor Septimius Severus defeated the usurper Clodius Albinus at the Battle of Lugdunum, described as the bloodiest clash ever fought between Roman armies. The victory left Severus the undisputed ruler of the empire.
    Source
  • 20 February, 1835Earthquake Destroys Concepción in Chile
    A powerful earthquake destroyed the Chilean city of Concepción, leaving the settlement in ruins. The disaster was among the most severe to strike the country in the nineteenth century.
    From our archive, 1437: James I of Scotland: The King Killed in a Perth Sewer
    Source
  • 21 February, 1916Battle of Verdun Begins
    The Battle of Verdun began in France. It would grind on for most of the year, becoming one of the longest and most punishing engagements of the First World War.
    From our archive, 1803: The Colonel Accused Of Plotting To Kill The King
    From our archive, 1930: The Hanging That Ended An Execution Method
    Source
  • 22 February, 1943White Rose Students Executed in Germany
    Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst, members of the White Rose resistance group, were executed in Nazi Germany. Their leaflets against the regime made them lasting symbols of conscience.
    From our archive, 1680: The Poisoner Of The Sun King's Court
    From our archive, 1943: The Student Who Faced Her Killers With Composure
    Source
  • 23 February, 1943Orphanage Fire Kills Girls in Cavan
    A fire at the Cavan Orphanage in Ireland killed thirty-five girls and an elderly cook. The blaze remains one of the worst fatal fires in the country's history and prompted lasting grief.
    From our archive, 155: The Bishop of Smyrna and the Fire That Would Not Burn
    From our archive, 1885: The Man The Gallows Refused To Kill
    Source
  • 24 February, 1942Refugee Ship Struma Torpedoed in Black Sea
    The MV Struma, carrying Romanian Jewish refugees, was torpedoed by the Soviet Navy. Seven hundred and ninety-one refugees and crew were killed, in one of the deadliest maritime tragedies of the Second World War.
    Source
  • 25 February, 1601Earl of Essex Beheaded at the Tower
    Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, once a favourite of Elizabeth I, was found guilty of treason and beheaded in the Tower of London. It took three strokes of the axe to sever his head.
    Source
  • 26 February, 1936Young Officers Rise in Tokyo
    Young nationalist officers of the Japanese army assassinated several statesmen and seized parts of central Tokyo in what became known as the February 26 Incident. The rebellion was put down within three days.
    From our archive, 1852: The Shipwreck That Gave The World A Drill
    Source
  • 27 February, 1902Breaker Morant Shot in Pretoria
    Australian soldiers Harry Morant and Peter Handcock were executed in Pretoria after being convicted of war crimes during the Second Boer War. Their case remains a subject of fierce debate.
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  • 28 February, 1525Last Aztec Emperor Executed by Cortés
    Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec king, was executed on the orders of the conquistador Hernán Cortés. His death marked the end of any independent Aztec rule.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 29 February, 1960Agadir Earthquake Flattens Moroccan City
    An earthquake of magnitude 5.7 struck coastal Morocco and destroyed the city of Agadir. About twelve thousand people died and another twelve thousand were injured, making it one of the country's worst disasters.
    From our archive, 1528: Scotland's First Protestant Martyr
    Source

March

  • 1 March, 1562Huguenots Massacred at Wassy
    A congregation of Huguenots was attacked at Wassy in France, and sixty-three of them were killed. The massacre is traditionally seen as the event that set off the French Wars of Religion, a long and ruinous struggle between Catholics and Protestants.
    From our archive, 1244: The Welsh Prince Who Fell From the Tower of London
    Source
  • 2 March, 1657Great Fire of Meireki Engulfs Edo
    A blaze began in Edo, now Tokyo, and spread for three days through the dry, crowded wooden city. Estimates put the dead above 100,000, making it one of the deadliest urban fires in recorded history.
    From our archive, 1316: Marjorie Bruce: Thrown From Her Horse as a Dynasty Was Born
    From our archive, 1879: The Skull That Took 131 Years To Find
    Source
  • 3 March, 1943Crush Kills 173 at Bethnal Green
    People crowding into the Bethnal Green tube station air-raid shelter in London were caught in a deadly crush at the entrance. One hundred and seventy-three died in the disaster, which happened during wartime and without any bomb striking the station itself.
    From our archive, 1323: The Earl Who Made Peace and Was Quartered For It
    Source
  • 4 March, 1908Collinwood School Fire Kills 174
    A fire broke out at a school in Collinwood, near Cleveland, Ohio, and spread quickly through the building. It killed 174 people, mostly children, and became one of the best-remembered school disasters in American history.
    Source
  • 5 March, 1940Stalin Signs the Katyn Execution Order
    Six members of the Soviet politburo, Stalin among them, signed an order to shoot about 25,700 Polish officers, officials and other prisoners. The killings that followed became known as the Katyn massacre, denied by Moscow for decades.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 6 March, 1836The Alamo Falls to Santa Anna
    After a siege of thirteen days, Mexican troops stormed the Alamo mission in Texas and killed its defenders, around 257 men including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. The defeat became a rallying cry in the Texas Revolution.
    Source
  • 7 March, 1799Napoleon's Troops Kill Prisoners at Jaffa
    Napoleon's army captured the Palestinian port of Jaffa and put it to the sack. Over two thousand prisoners, many of them Albanian soldiers, were then killed on the French commander's orders, an episode that long stained his Egyptian campaign.
    Source
  • 8 March, 1782Gnadenhutten Massacre of Christian Delaware
    Pennsylvania militiamen killed ninety-six Native Americans at Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity. The victims were targeted in retaliation for raids carried out by other tribes, though they had taken no part in them.
    Source
  • 9 March, 1946Burnden Park Disaster Kills 33 Fans
    A large crowd packed into Burnden Park for a football match at Bolton Wanderers' ground, and a crush developed. Thirty-three people were killed and hundreds more were injured, in one of the worst disasters in English football.
    From our archive, 1566: The Musician Slaughtered at the Queen's Table
    Source
  • 10 March, 1906Courrieres Mine Disaster Kills 1,099
    A catastrophic explosion in the coal mines at Courrieres in northern France killed 1,099 miners. It is counted as the worst mining disaster in the history of Europe, and the loss shocked the country.
    From our archive, 1777: John the Painter, Hanged From a Warship's Mast
    From our archive, 1762: The Merchant Voltaire Fought To Clear
    From our archive, 1748: The Slave Trader Who Wrote Amazing Grace
    Source
  • 11 March, 1864Great Sheffield Flood Sweeps the Valley
    A dam failed above Sheffield and released a flood of water into the city and the valley below. The Great Sheffield Flood killed 238 people and left much of the area in ruins.
    Source
  • 12 March, 1928St Francis Dam Bursts in California
    The St Francis Dam in California failed, and the floodwater that followed swept down the valley below. At least 431 people died, making it one of the worst civil engineering disasters in American history.
    Source
  • 13 March, 1884Siege of Khartoum Begins
    Mahdist forces began a siege of the Sudanese city of Khartoum. The siege dragged on for nearly a year, ending on 26 January 1885, and it became one of the most famous sieges of the Victorian age.
    Source
  • 14 March, 1757Admiral Byng Shot on His Own Quarterdeck
    Admiral Sir John Byng was shot by firing squad on the deck of HMS Monarch. He was executed for breaching the Articles of War, a sentence many contemporaries thought harsh for a commander who had merely lost.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 15 March, 44 BCCaesar Stabbed on the Ides of March
    Julius Caesar, dictator of the Roman Republic, was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March. His killing was meant to save the Republic, yet it helped bring about its collapse.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 16 March, 1190York Jews Perish at Clifford's Tower
    A massacre of the Jewish community took place at Clifford's Tower in York. The event is among the worst outbreaks of antisemitic violence in medieval England and is still remembered on the site today.
    From our archive, 1485: The Queen Who Was Hidden as a Kitchen Maid
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  • 17 March, 1891Emigrant Ship Utopia Sinks off Gibraltar
    The steamship Utopia collided with the warship HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar and sank. Of the 880 passengers aboard, 562 lost their lives, most of them emigrants hoping to start new lives abroad.
    Source
  • 18 March, 1314Jacques de Molay Burned at the Stake
    Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake. The order had been broken up by the French crown, and de Molay became a symbol of its destruction.
    From our archive, 978: The Boy King Stabbed at the Gap of Corfe
    From our archive, 1789: The Woman Burned So Men Could Be Hanged
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  • 19 March, 1687Explorer La Salle Murdered by His Men
    The French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who was seeking the mouth of the Mississippi River, was murdered by members of his own expedition. His death ended the ill-fated attempt to found a French colony on the Gulf coast.
    Source
  • 20 March, 1600The Linkoping Bloodbath in Sweden
    Five Swedish noblemen were publicly beheaded at Linkoping on Maundy Thursday. They were executed after the war against King Sigismund, and the killings are remembered as one of the bloodiest episodes in Swedish history.
    Source
  • 21 March, 1556Cranmer Burned at Oxford
    On the day of his execution in Oxford, Thomas Cranmer, former Archbishop of Canterbury, withdrew his earlier recantations and denounced the pope. He was burned for heresy during the reign of Mary I.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 22 March, 1622Powhatan Attack on Jamestown Settlers
    Algonquian warriors attacked English settlers around Jamestown in Virginia and killed 347 of them, roughly a third of the colony. The attack came during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.
    Source
  • 23 March, 1801Tsar Paul I Killed in His Bedroom
    Tsar Paul I of Russia was assassinated in his bedroom at St Michael's Castle. He was struck with a sword, strangled and trampled by conspirators, and his son took the throne.
    Source
  • 24 March, 1860Ii Naosuke Cut Down at Sakuradamon
    The Japanese chief minister Ii Naosuke was assassinated by rebel samurai outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle. The attack, known as the Sakuradamon Incident, shook the authority of the shogunate.
    From our archive, 1873: Britain's First Serial Killer's Domestic Method
    From our archive, 1890: The Real Peaky Blinders of Victorian Birmingham
    Source
  • 25 March, 1911Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
    Fire destroyed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City and killed 146 garment workers. It remains one of the deadliest industrial disasters in the city's history and led to major workplace safety reform.
    From our archive, 1586: The Pearl Of York, Pressed To Death
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  • 26 March, 1896Brunner Mine Explosion in New Zealand
    An explosion at the Brunner Mine near Greymouth killed sixty-five coal miners. It was the worst industrial accident in the history of New Zealand and devastated the local mining community.
    From our archive, 1306: The Countess Locked In A Cage For Crowning A King
    Source
  • 27 March, 1836Goliad Massacre of Texian Prisoners
    On orders from General Santa Anna, Mexican troops shot more than three hundred captured Texian soldiers at Goliad, Texas. The killings, a week after the fall of the Alamo, hardened resolve among those fighting for independence.
    Source
  • 28 March, 193Praetorians Auction the Roman Empire
    After the Roman Emperor Pertinax was assassinated, his Praetorian Guards put the throne up for auction. Didius Julianus was the winner, an episode that remains a byword for the corruption of imperial Rome.
    From our archive, 1757: The Last Man Drawn And Quartered In France
    Source
  • 29 March, 1792Gustav III Dies After Masked Ball Shooting
    King Gustav III of Sweden died of an infected wound thirteen days after being shot in the back at a masquerade at the Stockholm opera house. The plot was organised by nobles resentful of his royal power.
    From our archive, 1461: England's Bloodiest Snowbound Battle
    Source
  • 30 March, 1296Edward I Sacks Berwick
    King Edward I of England sacked the Scottish town of Berwick-upon-Tweed during the conflict between England and Scotland. The attack opened a long period of warfare between the two kingdoms.
    Source
  • 31 March, 1931Earthquake Destroys the City of Managua
    A powerful earthquake destroyed the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, and killed about two thousand people. The disaster left the city in ruins and was among the worst natural catastrophes in Central America in that decade.
    From our archive, 1922: The Footprints That Led To The Farm And Never Left
    Source

April

  • 1 April, 1873White Star liner Atlantic lost off Nova Scotia
    The steamer SS Atlantic of the White Star Line went down off the coast of Nova Scotia. Some 547 people died, making it one of the deadliest maritime disasters of the nineteenth century.
    Source
  • 2 April, 1801British fleet batters Denmark at Copenhagen
    A British Royal Navy squadron fought the smaller, hurriedly assembled Dano-Norwegian fleet at Copenhagen. Victory came at heavy cost and forced Denmark to withdraw from the Second League of Armed Neutrality.
    Source
  • 3 April, 1936Hauptmann executed for the Lindbergh kidnapping
    Bruno Richard Hauptmann was put to death in the United States for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh.
    Source
  • 4 April, 190Dong Zhuo burns the capital Luoyang
    The warlord Dong Zhuo ordered his troops to evacuate the capital, Luoyang, and then had the city burned to the ground, leaving the old imperial capital in ruins.
    Source
  • 5 April, 1242Alexander Nevsky's stand on frozen Lake Peipus
    On the frozen surface of Lake Peipus, Russian forces led by Alexander Nevsky repelled an attempted invasion by the Teutonic Knights, in an engagement remembered as the Battle on the Ice.
    From our archive, 1794: Betrayed By The Friend Who Stood At Their Wedding
    From our archive, 1794: Devoured By The Revolutionary Machine He Built
    Source
  • 6 April, 1453Mehmed II begins the siege of Constantinople
    Sultan Mehmed II opened his siege of Constantinople. The Byzantine capital held out for weeks before falling on 29 May, after which it passed into Ottoman hands and was renamed Istanbul.
    From our archive, 1199: The Crossbow Bolt That Killed A Crusader King
    From our archive, 1752: The Daughter Who Poisoned Her Father's Tea
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  • 7 April, 1945Battleship Yamato sunk during Operation Ten-Go
    Aircraft of the United States Navy sank the Japanese battleship Yamato, one of the two largest ever constructed, during Operation Ten-Go, ending the career of one of the heaviest battleships ever to put to sea.
    From our archive, 1739: The Horse-Thief Turned Into A Folk Hero
    Source
  • 8 April, 217Emperor Caracalla assassinated; Macrinus takes power
    The Roman emperor Caracalla was assassinated, and the prefect of his Praetorian Guard, Marcus Opellius Macrinus, was named as his successor. His murder placed the empire in the hands of a former guard commander.
    Source
  • 9 April, 1945Dietrich Bonhoeffer executed by the Nazis
    The Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazi regime, a stark penalty for his open opposition to the government and for his refusal to keep silent.
    From our archive, 1747: The Last Man Beheaded In Britain
    Source
  • 10 April, 1919Emiliano Zapata ambushed and shot dead
    The Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and shot dead by government forces in the state of Morelos, ending the life of a prominent revolutionary leader.
    From our archive, 1834: The Socialite Who Hid A House Of Horrors
    Source
  • 11 April, 1961The trial of Adolf Eichmann opens
    The trial of Adolf Eichmann opened in Jerusalem. The proceedings placed the former Nazi official before a court in Israel to answer for his part in the persecution of the Jews.
    From our archive, 1997: The Cloth Carbon-Dated to the Middle Ages
    From our archive, 1890: The Truth Behind The Elephant Man
    Source
  • 12 April, 1864Fort Pillow: surrendering Black soldiers cut down
    Confederate forces attacked Fort Pillow in Tennessee during the American Civil War and killed most of the African American soldiers who had surrendered there, an episode that became known as a massacre.
    From our archive, 1204: The Crusade That Sacked A Christian City
    Source
  • 13 April, 1919Jallianwala Bagh: troops fire on Amritsar crowd
    British Indian Army troops under Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar. Estimates of the dead range from 379 to about 1,000, with some 1,500 more wounded.
    Source
  • 14 April, 1865Lincoln shot at Ford's Theatre
    President Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre by the actor John Wilkes Booth. The wound proved fatal, and Lincoln died the following day, bringing his presidency to a sudden and violent end.
    From our archive, 1912: The Fire That Never Left Boiler Room Six
    From our archive, 1471: The Kingmaker Who Died By His Own Kings
    From our archive, 1912: The Ship That Watched And Did Nothing
    Source
  • 15 April, 1912The Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic
    The liner RMS Titanic went under at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after striking an iceberg. Only 712 of the 2,207 passengers and crew on board survived the disaster.
    From our archive, 1532: Boiled Alive for Poisoning a Bishop's Porridge
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  • 16 April, 1746Jacobites meet Cumberland's army at Culloden
    The French-supported Jacobites fought the British Hanoverian army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, at Culloden in Scotland, in a clash that decided the fate of the rising.
    From our archive, 1874: Six Went Into the Snow. Alferd Packer Came Out Alone.
    Source
  • 17 April, 1912Troops fire on striking Siberian goldfield workers
    Russian troops opened fire on striking goldfield workers in north-eastern Siberia, killing at least 150 of them. The shooting turned a labour dispute into a bloodbath.
    Source
  • 18 April, 1906San Francisco earthquake and fire
    A magnitude 7.9 earthquake, followed by fire, destroyed much of San Francisco. More than 3,000 people died, and the disaster ranks among the worst natural catastrophes in American history.
    Source
  • 19 April, 1506The Lisbon Massacre begins
    A mob of Portuguese Catholics began slaughtering Lisbon's Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity. The violence continued for three days and claimed roughly two thousand lives.
    From our archive, 1012: Saint Alphege, the Archbishop Who Refused to Be Ransomed
    Source
  • 20 April, 1914Ludlow Massacre in the Colorado coalfields
    Nineteen men, women and children taking part in a strike were killed at Ludlow during the Colorado Coalfield War, in an attack that became known as the Ludlow Massacre.
    From our archive, 1534: The Prophecy That Got Her Hanged
    From our archive, 1534: The Prophet Who Warned a King
    From our archive, 1810: The Pirate Widow Who Bargained With an Empire
    Source
  • 21 April, 1792Tiradentes hanged, drawn and quartered
    Tiradentes, a revolutionary who led a movement for Brazil's independence from Portugal, was hanged, drawn and quartered, the most brutal sentence the colonial authorities could impose.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 22 April, 1915Chlorine gas used at Second Ypres
    Chlorine gas was released as a chemical weapon during the Second Battle of Ypres. The attack marked a major escalation in the use of poison gas in the First World War.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 23 April, 1940Rhythm Club fire in Natchez
    A fire swept through the Rhythm Club, a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, and killed 198 people, turning an evening of music and dancing into a catastrophe.
    From our archive, 1014: The High King Killed Praying After Victory
    Source
  • 24 April, 1967Cosmonaut Komarov dies as Soyuz 1 plunges
    Vladimir Komarov was killed when the parachute of his Soyuz 1 capsule failed to open on return to Earth. He became the first human to die during a space mission.
    Source
  • 25 April, 1792First execution by guillotine
    The highwayman Nicolas Pelletier became the first person ever executed by guillotine, marking the first time the device was used to carry out a death sentence on a condemned prisoner.
    Source
  • 26 April, 1986The Chernobyl reactor explodes
    An explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic began a nuclear disaster that forced the evacuation of Pripyat and the surrounding area.
    From our archive, 1901: The Outlaw Whose Head Was Torn Off by the Rope
    From our archive, 1478: The Assassination Attempt During High Mass
    From our archive, 1901: The Outlaw Whose Hanging Tore His Head Off
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  • 27 April, 1521Magellan killed at the Battle of Mactan
    The explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines at the Battle of Mactan, struck down by warriors led by the local chief Lapulapu, while far from home on his voyage.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 28 April, 1859Clipper Pomona wrecked off the Irish coast
    The sailing ship Pomona was wrecked on the coast of Ireland. Of the 448 passengers and crew aboard, 424 lost their lives in the disaster.
    From our archive, 1192: The King Of Jerusalem Killed Days After His Crown
    From our archive, 1789: The Mutineers Who Burned the Bounty at Pitcairn
    Source
  • 29 April, 1916British Indian division surrenders at Kut
    The British Indian 6th Division surrendered to Ottoman forces at the Siege of Kut, one of the largest surrenders of British troops up to that point in the First World War.
    Source
  • 30 April, 1513Edmund de la Pole executed by Henry VIII
    Edmund de la Pole, a Yorkist claimant to the English throne, was executed on the orders of Henry VIII, and so ended the life of a man with a royal claim.
    From our archive, 535: The Gothic Queen Killed in a Bath on a Lake Island
    From our archive, 1945: The Dictator Who Tested Poison On His Own Dog
    From our archive, 1650: The Halifax Gibbet and the Law of Thirteen Pence
    Source

May

June

  • 1 June, 1962Eichmann Hanged in Israel for Nazi Crimes
    Adolf Eichmann, a former SS officer in Nazi Germany, was hanged in Israel after conviction for crimes against humanity, war crimes and other offences. The sentence was carried out after a long and widely reported trial.
    From our archive, 1310: The Book That Outlived Its Author's Pyre
    From our archive, 1660: The Quaker Who Hung Like A Flag
    Source
  • 2 June, 260A Puppet Emperor Killed Leading His Own Coup
    Cao Mao, the figurehead emperor of Wei in China, personally led an attempt to oust his regent Sima Zhao. The coup was crushed and the young emperor was killed in the attempt.
    From our archive, 1581: The Earl of Morton and the Maiden
    Source
  • 3 June, 1962Air France Jet Explodes on Orly Runway
    An Air France jet overran the runway at Paris Orly while the crew tried to abort its takeoff, and exploded. The crash killed 130 people.
    Source
  • 4 June, 1913Suffragette Trampled at the Epsom Derby
    Emily Davison, a suffragette, ran out in front of King George V's horse at the Derby and was trampled. She never regained consciousness and died four days later.
    Source
  • 5 June, 1893Lizzie Borden Goes on Trial for Murder
    The trial of Lizzie Borden opened in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where she was accused of murdering her father and stepmother. She was acquitted at the end of the trial.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 6 June, 1505Himalayan Earthquake Batters Nepal and Tibet
    A huge earthquake, estimated between magnitude 8.2 and 8.8, struck the Lo Mustang region, affecting Tibet and Nepal. It caused severe damage in Kathmandu and parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain.
    From our archive, 1832: The Philosopher Who Became His Own Monument
    Source
  • 7 June, 1692Port Royal Destroyed by Earthquake
    Port Royal in Jamaica was hit by a catastrophic earthquake. In just three minutes about 1,600 people were killed and a further 3,000 were seriously injured.
    From our archive, 1394: The Queen Whose Palace Her Husband Tore Down
    From our archive, 1954: The Man Who Saved Britain And Was Destroyed By It
    From our archive, 1594: The Queen's Physician on the Gallows
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  • 8 June, 1783Laki Volcano Begins Its Deadly Eruption
    The Laki volcano in Iceland began an eruption lasting eight months. It killed over 9,000 people and triggered a famine that lasted around seven years.
    From our archive, 1795: The Boy King Whose Heart Was Stolen from the Tower
    From our archive, 793: The Dragons That Came By Sea
    From our archive, 1743: The Iron Cages Built To Fit A Corpse
    Source
  • 9 June, 68Nero Takes His Own Life
    The Roman emperor Nero died by suicide after quoting a line from Virgil's Aeneid. His death ended the Julio-Claudian dynasty and began the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
    Source
  • 10 June, 1692Bridget Bishop Hanged at Salem
    Bridget Bishop was hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, convicted of witchcraft. She had been tried and found guilty on 2 June, becoming the first person condemned in the Salem witch trials.
    From our archive, 1840: The Pot Boy Who Fired Two Pistols at Queen Victoria
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  • 11 June, 1903Serbian Officers Murder the Royal Couple
    A group of Serbian army officers stormed the royal palace and assassinated King Alexander I of Serbia together with his wife, Queen Draga, in a violent overthrow of the ruling couple.
    Source
  • 12 June, 1418Parisians Slaughter Armagnac Sympathisers
    During the civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians, a Paris mob massacred supporters of Count Bernard VII of Armagnac. The victims included prisoners, foreign bankers, and students and teachers of the College of Navarre.
    From our archive, 1817: How A Volcano Gave Us The Bicycle
    Source
  • 13 June, 1381Rebels Burn the Savoy Palace
    As the Peasants' Revolt led by Wat Tyler reached its climax, rebels set fire to the Savoy Palace in London, the grand home of John of Gaunt, uncle of the young King Richard II.
    From our archive, 1782: The Last Woman Executed As A Witch In Europe
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  • 14 June, 1940First Prisoners Arrive at Auschwitz
    A transport of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnow became the first inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp, which the Nazis went on to use as a site of mass murder.
    From our archive, 1381: The Archbishop's Head That Still Survives
    From our archive, 1497: The Borgia Pope's Unsolved Family Murder
    From our archive, 1662: The Governor Whose Last Words Were Drowned by Trumpets
    Source
  • 15 June, 1904The General Slocum Burns in New York
    A fire broke out aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River. About 1,000 people died, making it one of the deadliest disasters in the city's history.
    From our archive, 1381: The Boy King Who Faced Down A Rebellion
    Source
  • 16 June, 1958Hungarian Uprising Leaders Executed
    Imre Nagy, Pal Maleter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising were executed in the aftermath of the revolt, which had been crushed two years earlier, in a reprisal that shocked observers abroad.
    Source
  • 17 June, 1462Vlad the Impaler's Night Attack
    Vlad the Impaler launched a surprise night raid on the Ottoman camp at Targoviste, aiming to assassinate Sultan Mehmed II. The attempt failed, though it forced the sultan to withdraw from Wallachia.
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  • 18 June, 1815Napoleon Crushed at Waterloo
    At Waterloo, the army of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by forces under Wellington and Blucher. The loss forced Napoleon to abdicate the French throne for the second and final time.
    Source
  • 19 June, 1867Emperor Maximilian Shot by Firing Squad
    Maximilian I, the emperor of the short-lived Second Mexican Empire, was executed by firing squad at Queretaro, ending the short-lived monarchy that had been imposed on Mexico.
    From our archive, 1767: The Beast of Gévaudan and the Wolf That Was Not It
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  • 20 June, 1756The Black Hole of Calcutta
    A British garrison was imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta, a small cell in which many prisoners were said to have died overnight. The episode became a notorious part of British Indian history.
    From our archive, 1941: The Tomb Opened Two Days Before Barbarossa
    From our archive, 1631: The Village Sold To Barbary Slavers
    Source
  • 21 June, 1621Twenty-Seven Czech Nobles Executed in Prague
    Twenty-seven Czech noblemen were executed in Prague's Old Town Square as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain, a public punishment for the failed Bohemian revolt against the Habsburgs.
    Source
  • 22 June, 1893HMS Victoria Sinks After Collision
    The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rammed the Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria, which sank with 358 men. Among the dead was the fleet commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
    From our archive, 1679: Bluidy Mackenzie and the Covenanters' Prison
    From our archive, 305: Saint Alban, the Townsman Who Wore a Fugitive's Cloak to His Death
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  • 23 June, 1565Dragut Dies During the Siege of Malta
    Dragut, commander of the Ottoman navy, died during the Great Siege of Malta, the Ottoman attempt to capture the island from the Knights of St John.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 24 June, 1374Dancing Mania Seizes Aachen
    An outbreak of what was called St John's Dance hit the streets of Aachen. People hallucinated and leapt and twitched uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion.
    From our archive, 1519: The Poisoner Legend That Was Almost Entirely False
    Source
  • 25 June, 1876Custer's Command Wiped Out at Little Bighorn
    At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, some 300 men of the US 7th Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel George Custer were wiped out by a far larger force of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors.
    Source
  • 26 June, 1541Pizarro Assassinated in Lima
    Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of Peru, was assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later rival Diego de Almagro. The killer was later caught and executed.
    From our archive, 1284: The 130 Children Who Followed a Piper out of Hamelin
    From our archive, 1718: The Son Peter The Great Had Beaten To Death
    Source
  • 27 June, 1556Thirteen Protestants Burned at Stratford
    The thirteen Stratford Martyrs were burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs, victims of the religious persecution of the sixteenth century, when belief could be punished by death.
    From our archive, 1777: The Macaroni Parson Hanged at Tyburn
    Source
  • 28 June, 1914Franz Ferdinand Shot in Sarajevo
    Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo. The killings set off the July Crisis and gave Austria-Hungary its pretext for the war that became the First World War.
    From our archive, 1654: Saint John Southworth, the Martyr You Can Still Stand Beside
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  • 29 June, 1072Byzantine Emperor Blinded on Command
    Romanos IV Diogenes, the former Byzantine emperor, was blinded on the command of the caesar John Doukas, a cruel mutilation carried out to remove him from the struggle for power in the empire.
    From our archive, 1860: The Detective Who Named the Killer and Was Disgraced
    Source
  • 30 June, 1882Guiteau Hanged for Killing President Garfield
    Charles Guiteau was hanged in Washington, D.C., for the assassination of President James Garfield, in one of the best-known presidential assassination cases of the nineteenth century.
    Source

July

  • 1 July, 1766Chevalier de la Barre tortured and beheaded
    A young French nobleman, François-Jean de la Barre, was tortured and beheaded at Abbeville. His body was then burnt on a pyre, with a copy of Voltaire's philosophical dictionary nailed to the torso.
    From our archive, 1976: The Exorcism That Killed Her
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  • 2 July, 1881President Garfield shot by Charles Guiteau
    Charles Guiteau shot and fatally wounded the American president, James Garfield. The wound did not kill him at once, and Garfield lingered until complications from it ended his life in September.
    Source
  • 3 July, 1778Wyoming Valley massacre of Patriot soldiers
    During the American Revolutionary War, Iroquois fighters allied with Britain massacred around 360 Patriot soldiers at the Battle of Wyoming. The engagement is remembered as one of the war's bloodiest frontier atrocities.
    Source
  • 4 July, 1898La Bourgogne sinks after Atlantic collision
    The French liner La Bourgogne, travelling from New York to Le Havre, collided with another ship and sank. A total of 549 lives were lost in the disaster.
    From our archive, 1862: The Unsettling Truth Behind Wonderland
    Source
  • 5 July, 1413Musa Çelebi captured and executed
    At the battle of Çamurlu, Mehmed Çelebi and his army defeated the forces of his brother Musa Çelebi. Musa was captured and then executed, ending the fratricidal struggle for the Ottoman throne.
    From our archive, 1530: The Reiver Hanged by the King He Came to Greet
    From our archive, 1677: The Squire Whose Tomb Was Barred on Dartmoor
    Source
  • 6 July, 1536Sir Thomas More executed for treason
    Henry VIII's former Lord Chancellor, Thomas More, was executed in London after being condemned on perjured evidence. He had refused to accept the king as supreme head of the English Church.
    From our archive, 1553: The Boy King's Hidden Collapse
    From our archive, 1553: The Boy King Whose Lungs Rotted Inside Him
    From our archive, 1535: The Chancellor Who Said No To A King
    From our archive, 1415: The Reformer Who Burned A Century Early
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  • 7 July, 1865Lincoln conspirators hanged at Washington
    Four of the conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln were hanged together in Washington, little more than two months after the president was shot.
    From our archive, 1865: Mary Surratt, the First Woman Hanged by the US Government
    Source
  • 8 July, 1892Great Fire devastates St. John's, Newfoundland
    A great fire devastated St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland, then a separate British colony. Much of the town was destroyed in what became known as the Great Fire of 1892.
    Source
  • 9 July, 1850The Báb executed at Tabriz
    The Persian prophet known as the Báb was executed in the city of Tabriz. He had founded a religious movement whose followers faced fierce persecution in Persia.
    Source
  • 10 July, 1584William of Orange assassinated at Delft
    Balthasar Gérard shot William I of Orange, leader of the Dutch revolt against Spain, at his home in Delft. Gérard was caught and put to death after a brutal execution.
    From our archive, 1584: The Bullet Holes Behind The Murder Hall Glass
    From our archive, 1099: The Warlord Whose Dead Body Never Rode Out of Valencia
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  • 11 July, 1906Chester Gillette kills Grace Brown
    Grace Brown was murdered by Chester Gillette in upstate New York. The case drew wide press attention and inspired Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy.
    Source
  • 12 July, 1562Bishop Landa burns the Maya books
    Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatán, ordered the burning of sacred Maya idols and books. The destruction wiped out much of the written record of a literate civilisation.
    From our archive, 1537: The Rebel Leader Hanged in Chains Over York
    Source
  • 13 July, 1402Nanjing falls and the Jianwen Emperor vanishes
    Nanjing surrendered to Zhu Di without a fight, ending the Jingnan campaign. The Jianwen Emperor disappeared in the aftermath, and his fate has been debated ever since.
    From our archive, 1793: The Woman Who Killed Marat in His Bath
    Source
  • 14 July, 1881Pat Garrett shoots Billy the Kid
    Sheriff Pat Garrett shot and killed the outlaw Billy the Kid in a house at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. His death turned a young gunman into one of the legends of the American West.
    Source
  • 15 July, 1381Peasants' Revolt priest John Ball executed
    John Ball, a leader of the Peasants' Revolt, was hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of Richard II of England. His fate was the usual punishment for treason.
    From our archive, 1685: The Botched Beheading That Named The Hangman
    From our archive, 1685: The Duke Who Paid The Headsman In Advance
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  • 16 July, 1942Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in Paris
    Vichy French authorities ordered the mass arrest of more than thirteen thousand Jews in the Paris area. Many were held in the Vélodrome d'Hiver before being sent on to the Nazi camps.
    From our archive, 1517: The Cardinal's Poisoned Bandage Plot
    From our archive, 1546: The Only Woman Tortured In The Tower
    Source
  • 17 July, 1918Tsar Nicholas II and family shot at Yekaterinburg
    The deposed Tsar Nicholas II and his immediate family and retainers were shot by Bolshevik secret police in the Ipatiev House at Yekaterinburg, ending three centuries of Romanov rule.
    From our archive, 1453: The English Achilles Killed by French Guns at Castillon
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  • 18 July, 1806Powder magazine explodes in Birgu, Malta
    A gunpowder magazine exploded in Birgu on Malta, killing around 200 people. The blast struck the old harbour town at the heart of the island's fortifications.
    From our archive, 1556: The Guernsey Martyr Who Burned With Her Baby
    Source
  • 19 July, 64Great Fire of Rome
    A fire broke out in Rome and raged for six days, destroying about half of the city. Later tradition blamed the emperor Nero, though the claim that he played music while it burned is a myth.
    From our archive, 1545: The Warship That Sank Before The King's Eyes
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  • 20 July, 1944Stauffenberg bomb fails to kill Hitler
    Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg led an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb. Hitler survived, and Stauffenberg and several fellow conspirators were executed the following day.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 21 July, 365Crete earthquake and Mediterranean tsunami
    A violent earthquake struck Crete, with an intensity placed at the top of the Mercalli scale. It set off a destructive tsunami that swept across the eastern Mediterranean and devastated coastal towns.
    From our archive, 1683: The Botched Beheading of Lord Russell
    From our archive, 1944: The Real Execution Behind Valkyrie
    Source
  • 22 July, 1209Massacre at Béziers opens the Albigensian Crusade
    Crusaders attacked the French city of Béziers in the first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade. The massacre that followed became a byword for religious violence against civilians.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 23 July, 1943Rayleigh bath chair murder
    A murder in Rayleigh, Essex, during the Second World War became known as the bath chair murder. The unusual case remains one of wartime Britain's better-known crimes.
    Source
  • 24 July, 1915SS Eastland capsizes in Chicago River
    The passenger steamer Eastland capsized while still tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew lost their lives, one of the worst disasters in Great Lakes history.
    Source
  • 25 July, 1668Great earthquake kills tens of thousands in China
    A magnitude 8.5 earthquake struck eastern China, killing more than 43,000 people. It ranks among the deadliest natural disasters in the country's history.
    From our archive, 1242: The Pirate Lord of Lundy Island
    Source
  • 26 July, 1184Erfurt latrine disaster
    At a Hoftag, an assembly of local notables organised by Henry VI, the building collapsed beneath the gathered nobles. The incident is remembered as the Erfurt latrine disaster.
    From our archive, 1533: The Ransom That Could Not Save An Emperor
    Source
  • 27 July, 1816Negro Fort destroyed by hot shot
    A hot shot cannonball fired by a US Navy gunboat exploded the powder magazine of Negro Fort in Spanish Florida, ending the Battle of Negro Fort. The blast caused catastrophic loss of life.
    From our archive, 1382: Joanna of Naples, the Queen Killed at Muro Lucano
    Source
  • 28 July, 1540Thomas Cromwell beheaded
    Thomas Cromwell, once Henry VIII's chief minister, was executed after being condemned untried by a bill of attainder. It was the same legal device he had earlier used against the king's enemies.
    From our archive, 1540: The Chief Minister's Botched Beheading
    From our archive, 1794: The Incorruptible Who Lost His Jaw
    Source
  • 29 July, 1900King Umberto I of Italy assassinated
    The Italian anarchist Gaetano Bresci assassinated King Umberto I of Italy. The king's son, Victor Emmanuel III, succeeded him on the throne, aged thirty-one.
    From our archive, 1030: The Defeated Viking King Who Became A Saint
    Source
  • 30 July, 1811Miguel Hidalgo executed at Chihuahua
    Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency against Spanish rule, was executed by the authorities at Chihuahua City, a martyr to the cause of independence.
    Source
  • 31 July, 1966Pleasure cruiser Darlwyne vanishes off Cornwall
    The pleasure cruiser Darlwyne disappeared off the Cornwall coast with the loss of all 31 people aboard, a sea mystery that has never been fully explained.
    Source

August

  • 1 August, 1798The Battle of the Nile Begins
    A British fleet attacked the French Revolutionary Navy in Aboukir Bay in 1798, in an unusual night action. The engagement opened the Battle of the Nile, part of the French Revolutionary Wars.
    From our archive, 1845: The Workhouse Where Starving Men Ate the Bones
    Source
  • 2 August, 1973Flash Fire at Summerland, Isle of Man
    A flash fire tore through the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas on the Isle of Man in 1973, killing 50 people and leaving the island in mourning.
    From our archive, 1557: Rose Allin: The Girl Whose Hand Was Burned Over a Candle
    From our archive, 1100: The King Killed By An Arrow And The Brother Who Profited
    From our archive, 1343: The Widow Who Became A Pirate For Revenge
    Source
  • 3 August, 1347Calais Surrenders to the English
    After a long siege, and following the defeat of a French relief fleet, the port of Calais surrendered to the English. It then stayed under English control for over two centuries.
    From our archive, 1916: The Diplomat Hanged As A Traitor And Honoured As A Saint
    Source
  • 4 August, 1892Lizzie Borden's Parents Found Murdered
    The bodies of Andrew Borden and his wife were discovered in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Daughter Lizzie was tried for the killings the following year and acquitted.
    From our archive, 1540: Betrayed by a Farmer's Grudge
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  • 5 August, 1939The Thirteen Roses Are Shot
    Thirteen young women, all members of the Unified Socialist Youth, were executed by Francoist forces in Madrid in 1939. They are remembered as the Thirteen Roses.
    From our archive, 1388: The Dead Earl Who Won the Battle of Otterburn
    Source
  • 6 August, 258Pope Sixtus II Beheaded Mid-Mass
    Pope Sixtus II was seized by Roman authorities while celebrating mass in AD 258. He was then beheaded, and several of his deacons were put to death alongside him.
    From our archive, 1890: The Man Who Proved The Electric Chair Wrong
    From our archive, 768: The Pope Blinded Instead Of Killed
    From our archive, 1945: The Shadow Burned Into The Steps
    Source
  • 7 August, 1890Sweden Executes Anna Månsdotter
    Anna Månsdotter, found guilty of the Yngsjö murder committed in 1889, was put to death in 1890. She was the last woman ever to be executed in Sweden.
    Source
  • 8 August, 1956The Marcinelle Mining Disaster
    A disaster at the Marcinelle coal mine in Belgium killed 262 miners in 1956, many of them Italian migrant workers, making it one of the largest mining accidents in Belgian history.
    Source
  • 9 August, 378Emperor Valens Falls at Adrianople
    At Adrianople in 378, a large Roman army under Emperor Valens was defeated by the Visigoths. Valens was killed, along with more than half of his army, a heavy defeat for Rome.
    From our archive, 1849: The Murder Dickens Turned Into Fiction
    Source
  • 10 August, 1792The Swiss Guards Massacred at the Tuileries
    Crowds stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris in 1792. King Louis XVI was arrested and taken into custody, while his Swiss Guards were massacred by the mob.
    From our archive, 991: The Ealdorman Who Let the Vikings Cross at Maldon
    From our archive, 1792: The Guards Who Died For A King Who Fled
    From our archive, 1757: The Massacre Behind The Last Of The Mohicans
    Source
  • 11 August, 1871Guncotton Explosion at Stowmarket
    An explosion of guncotton, a highly explosive material, struck Stowmarket in Suffolk in 1871 and killed 28 people, an early industrial disaster in an English market town.
    From our archive, 1492: The Pope Who Ran The Church Like A Crime Family
    Source
  • 12 August, 1944Sant'Anna di Stazzema Massacre
    Waffen-SS troops massacred some 560 people at Sant'Anna di Stazzema in Italy in 1944, during the Second World War, a notorious wartime atrocity against civilians.
    From our archive, 1952: The Night Stalin Silenced His Own Poets
    Source
  • 13 August, 1964The Last Hangings in Britain
    Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans were hanged for the murder of John Alan West. They were the last people to be executed in the United Kingdom.
    Source
  • 14 August, 1936Last Public Execution in America
    Rainey Bethea was hanged at Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1936 in what is recorded as the last known public execution carried out in the United States.
    Source
  • 15 August, 1057Macbeth Slain at Lumphanan
    King Macbeth of Scotland was killed at the Battle of Lumphanan in 1057 by the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, a death far plainer than the one Shakespeare later invented.
    From our archive, 1941: The Spy Who Gave Himself Away With A Gunshot
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  • 16 August, 1819Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, England
    Cavalry charged a vast crowd gathered at a public meeting on St Peter's Field in Manchester in 1819. Seventeen people died and more than 600 were injured in the Peterloo Massacre.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 17 August, 1918Bolshevik Moisei Uritsky Assassinated
    Moisei Uritsky, a prominent Bolshevik revolutionary leader, was assassinated in 1918. Days later Lenin was also shot and seriously wounded, and the two attacks are often linked.
    From our archive, 1571: The Captain Who Was Flayed After He Surrendered
    From our archive, 1510: The Lawyers Beheaded to Win a Young King Popularity
    Source
  • 18 August, 1612The Pendle Witch Trials Open
    The trials of the Pendle and Samlesbury witches opened at the Lancaster Assizes in 1612. They became among the most famous witchcraft proceedings in English history and are still told as one of the best-known witch trials in England.
    From our archive, 1746: The Jacobite Lord Who Faced The Axe Unbroken
    From our archive, 1634: The Priest Burned for the Devils of Loudun
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  • 19 August, 1692Five Executed in Salem Witch Trials
    Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Senior, John Proctor, John Willard and the clergyman George Burroughs were all executed at Salem in 1692 after being convicted of witchcraft during the notorious trials there.
    From our archive, 1626: The Count Beheaded by a Convict With a Carpenter's Adze
    From our archive, 1531: Little Bilney and the Fire He Rehearsed
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  • 20 August, 1191Richard I's Massacre at Ayyadieh
    Believing that Saladin had broken his ransom promises, Richard I of England ordered the massacre at Ayyadieh in 1191, beheading about 2,700 captured Muslim soldiers and a further 300 women and children.
    From our archive, 1672: The Brothers Torn Apart By Their Own Countrymen
    From our archive, 1612: The Girl Who Condemned Her Own Family
    Source
  • 21 August, 1983Benigno Aquino Shot at Manila Airport
    Benigno Aquino Junior, the Philippine opposition leader, was assassinated at Manila International Airport in 1983. The airport was later renamed in his honour and now carries his name.
    Source
  • 22 August, 1922Michael Collins Killed in an Ambush
    Michael Collins, commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army, was shot dead in an ambush in 1922 during the Irish Civil War, at the head of the new state's army.
    From our archive, 1485: The King Buried Beneath A Car Park
    From our archive, 1485: The Last King To Die In Battle, Buried In A Car Park
    Source
  • 23 August, 1572The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre
    Mob violence in Paris turned on thousands of Huguenots in the days after a royal wedding, in one of the bloodiest episodes of the French Wars of Religion.
    From our archive, 1305: The Slow Public Death Of Scotland's Guardian
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  • 24 August, 1349Mainz Jews Killed During the Plague
    Six thousand Jews were killed in Mainz in 1349 after being blamed for the bubonic plague, a massacre driven by fear and by the search for someone to blame.
    From our archive, 79: The Boathouses of Herculaneum
    From our archive, 79: The Naturalist Who Sailed Toward Vesuvius
    From our archive, 1572: The Wedding That Turned Into A Massacre
    Source
  • 25 August, 1939The IRA Coventry Bombing
    The Irish Republican Army carried out a bomb attack in Coventry in 1939 as part of its S-Plan campaign. Five civilians were killed in the blast.
    Source
  • 26 August, 1810Santiago de Liniers Executed
    Santiago de Liniers, former viceroy of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, was executed in 1810 after his counter-revolution against the new order collapsed in defeat.
    Source
  • 27 August, 1883Krakatoa Destroys Itself in Four Explosions
    Four enormous explosions almost completely destroyed the island of Krakatoa. Tsunamis and pyroclastic flows killed more than 36,000 people, and the climate effects were felt worldwide.
    Source
  • 28 August, 1988The Ramstein Air Show Disaster
    Three jets of the Frecce Tricolori display team collided at Ramstein, and the wreckage fell into the watching crowd. Seventy people died and 346 were seriously injured.
    Source
  • 29 August, 1526King Louis II Dies at Mohács
    At Mohács in 1526, an Ottoman army led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeated the Hungarian forces and killed Louis II, the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia, in a decisive battle.
    From our archive, 1782: The Royal George, the Warship That Rolled Under at Spithead
    Source
  • 30 August, 1791HMS Pandora Sinks off Australia
    HMS Pandora sank in 1791 after running aground on the outer Great Barrier Reef the previous day, a wreck that cost the Navy one of its ships.
    Source
  • 31 August, 1888Mary Ann Nichols, First Ripper Victim
    Mary Ann Nichols was murdered in 1888. She is counted as the first of the confirmed victims of Jack the Ripper, whose unsolved crimes became some of the most notorious in history.
    Source

September

  • 1 September, 1894Great Hinckley Fire Kills Over 400
    A forest fire swept through Hinckley, Minnesota, and killed more than 400 people. The blaze destroyed the town and remains remembered as a major American disaster of the nineteenth century.
    Source
  • 2 September, 1792The September Massacres Begin in Paris
    Mobs in revolutionary France began killing prisoners suspected of royalist sympathies. Three Catholic bishops and more than two hundred priests were among the dead as the killing spread through the city's prisons.
    From our archive, 1685: Beheaded For A Single Night's Shelter
    From our archive, 1685: The Hanging Judge's First Victim
    From our archive, 1348: The Princess Who Sailed Into the Black Death
    From our archive, 1724: The Woman Who Woke Up In Her Own Coffin
    Source
  • 3 September, 1878Princess Alice Sinks on the Thames
    The crowded pleasure steamer Princess Alice collided with the collier Bywell Castle in the River Thames. More than 640 people died in the collision, which happened on a river crowded with excursion traffic.
    From our archive, 1792: The Queen's Friend Whose Head Was Paraded on a Pike
    Source
  • 4 September, 1260Sienese Rout Florence at Montaperti
    Ghibelline forces from Siena, backed by troops of Manfred, King of Sicily, defeated the Guelph army of Florence at Montaperti. The battle was a bitter episode in the long Italian struggle between rival factions.
    Source
  • 5 September, 1887Theatre Royal Fire Kills 186 in Exeter
    A fire broke out at the Theatre Royal in Exeter and killed 186 people. It is recorded as the deadliest building fire in the history of the United Kingdom, and the blaze swept through the Victorian playhouse.
    From our archive, 1548: The Wife Who Survived Henry But Not Childbirth
    Source
  • 6 September, 1622Treasure Galleon Atocha Lost in Hurricane
    The Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha sank in a hurricane off Key West. Around 260 of the 265 people aboard died, and a cargo of gold and silver went down with her.
    Source
  • 7 September, 1736Porteous Lynched by Edinburgh Mob
    A crowd stormed the Tolbooth prison in Edinburgh, following the Porteous Riots, and lynched Captain John Porteous. The mob took the law into its own hands after the earlier disorder in the city.
    From our archive, 1695: The Pirate King Who Vanished With The Treasure
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  • 8 September, 1900Galveston Hurricane Devastates Texas Coast
    A powerful hurricane struck Galveston, Texas, and killed about 8,000 people. The storm devastated the island city on the Gulf coast, and the death toll made it a landmark American disaster.
    From our archive, 1560: The Fall That Kept Elizabeth Unmarried
    Source
  • 9 September, 1513James IV Falls at Flodden
    James IV of Scotland was defeated and killed at the Battle of Flodden, fought against an English army. His death ended Scottish involvement in the War of the League of Cambrai.
    From our archive, 1513: The Renaissance King Who Lost His Head For Honour
    Source
  • 10 September, 1419Duke of Burgundy Assassinated on a Bridge
    John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, was assassinated by followers of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France. The murder was a violent act in the long French conflict of the Hundred Years' War.
    From our archive, 1898: The Empress Who Walked Away From Her Own Murder
    From our archive, 1797: The Feminist Philosopher Killed by Childbirth
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  • 11 September, 1649Cromwell's Troops Storm Drogheda
    At the end of the siege of Drogheda, Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian troops took the town and executed its garrison. The episode remains a bitter memory of the Cromwellian campaign in Ireland.
    From our archive, 1599: The Noblewoman Rome Wept For And Executed Anyway
    Source
  • 12 September, 1857SS Central America Founders With Gold
    The steamship SS Central America sank about 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, carrying gold from the California gold rush. Some 426 people died in the sinking of the American steamer.
    From our archive, 1922: The Dial Painter Whose Bones Still Glowed
    From our archive, 1185: The Emperor Who Faced The Mob With A Prayer
    From our archive, 1642: The King's Favourite Who Bet Against Richelieu
    Source
  • 13 September, 1759Quebec Falls at the Plains of Abraham
    British forces defeated the French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, a conflict known in the United States as the French and Indian War. The short battle was fought outside the walls of the city.
    From our archive, 1848: The Iron Rod That Rewrote A Man's Personality
    Source
  • 14 September, 1812Fire Breaks Out in Napoleon's Moscow
    The French Grande Armée entered Moscow, and the Fire of Moscow began as soon as the Russian troops left the city. The blaze spread through the Russian capital while the invading army occupied it.
    From our archive, 1613: Poisoned in the Tower Over a Marriage
    From our archive, 1767: The Midwife Who Tortured Her Apprentices
    Source
  • 15 September, 1440Gilles de Rais Taken Into Custody
    Gilles de Rais was taken into custody on an accusation brought by the Bishop of Nantes. He is regarded as one of the earliest known serial killers, and the arrest led to his trial and execution.
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  • 16 September, 1732Storm Detonates Armoury at Campo Maior
    A storm struck the armoury at Campo Maior in Portugal and set off a violent explosion. About two thirds of the townspeople were killed in the blast, which devastated the frontier town.
    From our archive, 1368: The Knight Who Lay Uncorrupted in Lead for Six Centuries
    From our archive, 1920: The Wall Street Bomb Nobody Was Convicted Of
    Source
  • 17 September, 1862Antietam, the Bloodiest Day in America
    The Army of the Potomac halted Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North at Antietam in Maryland. The fighting is regarded as the bloodiest single day in United States military history.
    Source
  • 18 September, 96Emperor Domitian Murdered in a Palace Plot
    Domitian was assassinated in a plot led by his wife Domitia and two Praetorian prefects. The killing of the Roman emperor was followed by the naming of Nerva as his successor.
    Source
  • 19 September, 1902Stampede Kills 115 at Shiloh Baptist Church
    A stampede at Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killed 115 people. The crush happened inside the crowded church, and the large death toll made it a notorious tragedy.
    From our archive, 1356: The King of France Taken at Poitiers
    From our archive, 1370: The Sack of Limoges: The Black Prince Who Was Carried to the Breach
    From our archive, 1485: The Sickness That Killed in Hours and Vanished
    Source
  • 20 September, 1586Babington Plot Conspirators Hanged and Quartered
    A number of the conspirators in the Babington Plot were hanged, drawn and quartered. The sentence was the traditional punishment for treason in England and was carried out in public in the capital.
    From our archive, 1586: The Execution That Started a Riot
    From our archive, 1803: The Grave Ireland Never Found
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  • 21 September, 1921Oppau Silo Explosion Destroys German Works
    A storage silo exploded at Oppau in Germany and killed an estimated 500 to 600 people. The blast at the industrial site was one of the deadliest industrial disasters of the early twentieth century.
    From our archive, 1797: The Captain Who Flogged Dead Men
    Source
  • 22 September, 1692Last Hangings of the Salem Witch Trials
    Eight people, among them Martha Corey, Mary Eastey and Samuel Wardwell, were hanged at Salem. They were the final group executed in the Massachusetts witch trials.
    Source
  • 23 September, 1459Yorkists Win at Blore Heath
    The Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, was won by the Yorkists. It was an early clash in the long dynastic struggle for the English crown.
    Source
  • 24 September, 1877Last Stand of the Satsuma Rebels at Shiroyama
    The Imperial Japanese Army won a decisive victory over the Satsuma Rebellion at the Battle of Shiroyama. The defeat ended the Satsuma uprising against the central government in Japan.
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  • 25 September, 1786Huancavelica Mercury Mine Collapses
    The Huancavelica mine in the Peruvian Andes collapsed and killed more than two hundred people. The mine lay in the mountains of the Spanish colony of Peru and was an important source of mercury.
    From our archive, 1066: The Last Great Viking King
    Source
  • 26 September, 1687Venetian Shell Wrecks the Parthenon
    During the Venetian siege of the Acropolis, a bombardment struck the Parthenon, which the Ottoman garrison was using as a gunpowder store. The explosion partially destroyed the ancient temple.
    From our archive, 1803: The Man They Could Not Hang
    Source
  • 27 September, 1854Paddle Steamer Arctic Sinks Off Newfoundland
    The Collins Line steamer SS Arctic sank after colliding with a smaller vessel, the Vesta, off Newfoundland. Only 88 of the more than 300 people aboard survived, and a dozen on the Vesta died.
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  • 28 September, 48 BCPompey Murdered on the Egyptian Shore
    Pompey disembarked at Pelusium after arriving in Egypt and was assassinated on the order of King Ptolemy XIII. The Roman general was killed within moments of coming ashore on the Egyptian coast.
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  • 29 September, 1011Danes Seize Canterbury and Archbishop Ælfheah
    After a siege, Danish forces captured Canterbury and took Ælfheah, the archbishop of Canterbury, as a prisoner. The capture of the archbishop is the subject of a fuller story elsewhere on this site.
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  • 30 September, 1888Jack the Ripper's Double Murder Night
    Jack the Ripper killed his third and fourth victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, in a single night in London. The double killing deepened panic across the East End.
    Source

October

  • 1 October, 1910Bomb destroys the Los Angeles Times building
    A large bomb destroyed the Los Angeles Times building in California, killing 21 people. The newspaper's offices were wrecked by the blast.
    Source
  • 2 October, 1937Trujillo orders the Haitian border killings
    Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the execution of Haitians living in the border region of his country. The killings that followed are known as the Parsley Massacre.
    Source
  • 3 October, 1283Last native Prince of Wales is executed
    Dafydd ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales, was hanged, drawn and quartered by the English. His execution closed the line of native Welsh princes.
    Source
  • 4 October, 1918Explosion wrecks New Jersey shell plant
    An explosion at a shell loading plant in New Jersey killed more than a hundred people and destroyed the works. It occurred in the final weeks of the First World War.
    Source
  • 5 October, 1930Airship R101 crashes in France
    The British airship R101 crashed in France while on its maiden voyage to India. Forty-eight people were killed in the disaster.
    Source
  • 6 October, 1849The Thirteen Martyrs of Arad
    Thirteen Hungarian officers were executed at Arad following the Hungarian war of independence. They are remembered in Hungary as the Martyrs of Arad.
    Source
  • 7 October, 1571Ottoman fleet beaten at Lepanto
    The Battle of Lepanto was fought at sea, and the Ottoman Navy suffered its first defeat. The clash is remembered as a landmark of Mediterranean naval warfare.
    From our archive, 1849: The Death Poe Never Solved Himself
    Source
  • 8 October, 1895Korean empress murdered at her palace
    Empress Myeongseong of Korea was assassinated by Japanese infiltrators. Her killing stands among the best-known political murders in Korean history.
    Source
  • 9 October, 1740Massacre of the Chinese in Batavia
    Dutch colonists and Javanese began a massacre of the ethnic Chinese population of Batavia. At least ten thousand people were eventually killed.
    Source
  • 10 October, 1918RMS Leinster sunk by a German submarine
    The mail ship RMS Leinster was torpedoed and sunk by UB-123 in the Irish Sea. The 564 deaths remain the largest loss of life in those waters.
    From our archive, 1562: The Fortnight the Virgin Queen Nearly Died
    From our archive, 1789: The Doctor Who Wanted A Kinder Death Machine
    Source
  • 11 October, 1634The Burchardi flood drowns thousands
    A storm surge known as the Burchardi flood struck the North Sea coast. Around fifteen thousand people drowned in North Friesland, across what is now Denmark and Germany.
    Source
  • 12 October, 1915Edith Cavell shot by firing squad
    British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad in occupied Belgium. She was punished for helping Allied soldiers to escape the country.
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  • 13 October, 1972Rugby team's plane crashes in the Andes
    Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes mountains. Twenty-eight people survived the impact, but all except sixteen died before rescue on 23 December.
    From our archive, 1815: The King Who Faced The Firing Squad In Style
    Source
  • 14 October, 1586Mary, Queen of Scots goes on trial
    Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial for conspiracy against her cousin Elizabeth I of England. The proceedings formed part of the chain of events that led to her execution.
    From our archive, 1066: The King Who May Not Have Died By Arrow
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  • 15 October, 1940Catalan president Companys is executed
    Lluis Companys, president of Catalonia, was executed by the Francoist government. He had led the Catalan government before Franco's victory in Spain.
    From our archive, 1917: The Spy Betrayed By Both Sides At Once
    Source
  • 16 October, 1793Marie Antoinette goes to the guillotine
    Queen Marie Antoinette of France was executed during the French Revolution. Her death followed that of her husband, Louis XVI, earlier in the same revolutionary period.
    From our archive, 1555: The Bishop's Candle That Lit The Reformation
    From our archive, 1555: The Candle That Would Never Be Put Out
    From our archive, 1590: The Composer Who Killed His Wife and Her Lover
    From our archive, 1555: The Fires That Made Bloody Mary's Name
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  • 17 October, 1806Emperor Jacques I of Haiti assassinated
    Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a leader of the Haitian Revolution and later Emperor Jacques I, was assassinated after a period of oppressive rule.
    From our archive, 1849: Chopin's Heart: Cut Out and Smuggled Home to Warsaw
    Source
  • 18 October, 1356Basel earthquake levels the town
    Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a leader of the Haitian Revolution who ruled as Emperor Jacques I, was assassinated after an oppressive reign.
    Source
  • 19 October, 1921Portugal's Bloody Night coup
    The Portuguese Prime Minister and several other officials were murdered during the coup known as the Bloody Night. The killings took place during the instability of the young Portuguese Republic.
    Source
  • 20 October, 1944Gas explosion levels Cleveland district
    Liquefied natural gas leaked from storage tanks in Cleveland, Ohio, and exploded. Thirty blocks were levelled and 130 people were killed.
    Source
  • 21 October, 1096People's Crusade ambushed at Civetot
    A Seljuk Turkish army ambushed the People's Crusade at the Battle of Civetot. The ambush struck an early, irregular wave of the First Crusade.
    From our archive, 1621: The Favourite Madrid Hated Until He Died
    Source
  • 22 October, 1877Blantyre pit disaster kills 207 miners
    An explosion at the Blantyre colliery in Scotland killed 207 miners. The pit disaster is remembered as a major tragedy of the Scottish coalfields.
    Source
  • 23 October, 42 BCBrutus dies after the second Philippi
    Mark Antony and Octavian defeated an army under Brutus in the second part of the Battle of Philippi. Brutus took his own life, ending the civil war with Caesar's assassins.
    From our archive, 1685: The Last Woman Burned Alive for Politics in England
    Source
  • 24 October, 1871Chinese immigrants lynched in Los Angeles
    An estimated 17 to 22 Chinese immigrants were lynched in Los Angeles, California. The victims were killed by a mob in the city.
    From our archive, 1537: The Only Wife Henry Chose to Rest Beside
    Source
  • 25 October, 1415Henry V wins at Agincourt
    Henry V of England defeated a larger French army at Agincourt, using his men-at-arms and archers. The battle became one of the best-known English victories of the Hundred Years' War.
    From our archive, 1854: The Charge That Rode Into Its Own Guns
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  • 26 October, 1689General burns Skopje to halt cholera
    Austrian general Enea Silvio Piccolomini burned down Skopje to stop the spread of cholera. He died of the disease soon afterwards.
    From our archive, 1440: The Knight Who Became Bluebeard
    Source
  • 27 October, 1553Michael Servetus burned at Geneva
    Michael Servetus, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake just outside Geneva. His execution remains a notorious example of religious intolerance in the Reformation.
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  • 28 October, 1746Lima and Callao destroyed by earthquake
    A great earthquake struck Lima and Callao in Peru, causing up to six thousand deaths. At that date it was the deadliest in the country's recorded history.
    Source
  • 29 October, 1268Conradin beheaded at Naples
    Conradin, the last Hohenstaufen king, was executed at Naples. His death ended the royal line of his dynasty.
    From our archive, 1618: The Widow Who Carried Her Husband's Head
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  • 30 October, 1858Arsenic sweets poison Bradford
    Around twenty people died in Bradford, England, after eating sweets accidentally adulterated with arsenic trioxide. The case is remembered as the Bradford sweets poisoning.
    Source
  • 31 October, 1837Steamboat Monmouth disaster on the Trail of Tears
    Approximately 300 Muscogee people died when the steamboat Monmouth sank during the Trail of Tears. The victims were being forcibly removed from their homelands.
    From our archive, 1589: The Werewolf Trial Of Peter Stumpp
    Source

November

  • 1 November, 1463Last Emperor of Trebizond Put to Death
    David, the final ruler of the Empire of Trebizond, was executed by the Ottomans near the Golden Gate of Constantinople, together with several members of his family, ending the last Byzantine successor state.
    From our archive, 1755: The Feast of the Dead and the Ruins of the Carmo
    Source
  • 2 November, 1920Ocoee Massacre Begins on Election Day
    The Ocoee massacre began in Orange County, Florida, on the day of the 1920 United States presidential election, a day of violence in a Florida county that left a long and troubling mark on local history.
    Source
  • 3 November, 1793Olympe de Gouges Sent to the Guillotine
    The French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges was guillotined during the Revolution. She had written in defence of women's rights and had challenged the men who held power in Paris.
    From our archive, 1579: The Pamphleteer Who Blessed The Queen With A Bloody Stump
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  • 4 November, 1921Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi Assassinated
    Hara Takashi, the Prime Minister of Japan, was assassinated in Tokyo in 1921. His killing came during a turbulent period in Japanese politics, and he was among the best-known party leaders of his day.
    Source
  • 5 November, 1605Guy Fawkes Seized Beneath Parliament
    Guy Fawkes was arrested in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament, where barrels of gunpowder had been hidden to destroy the building and kill King James I. The Gunpowder Plot collapsed.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 6 November, 1977Dam Bursts Above Toccoa Falls College
    The Kelly Barnes Dam, above Toccoa Falls College in Georgia, failed and caused severe flooding below it. Thirty-nine people were killed.
    Source
  • 7 November, 1893Bombs Thrown Into Barcelona Opera House
    An anarchist threw two bombs inside the Liceu opera house in Barcelona during a performance. The explosions killed twenty people, and the attack was carried out by a self-declared anarchist.
    From our archive, 1940: The Bridge That Danced Itself to Death
    Source
  • 8 November, 1520Stockholm Bloodbath Executions Ordered
    Days after being crowned king of Sweden, Christian II ordered the execution of nearly a hundred people, mostly nobles, despite having promised a general amnesty. The killings left a lasting mark on Swedish memory.
    From our archive, 1793: She Faced The Statue Of Liberty Before The Blade Fell
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  • 9 November, 1888Jack the Ripper Claims Final Victim
    Mary Jane Kelly was murdered in 1888 and is regarded as the final victim of Jack the Ripper in the Whitechapel murders. The killer was never identified, and the case remains one of the most famous unsolved crimes.
    Source
  • 10 November, 1865Andersonville Commandant Hanged for War Crimes
    Major Henry Wirz, who ran the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia, was hanged. He was one of only three soldiers executed for war crimes arising from the American Civil War.
    From our archive, 1657: The Queen Who Had Her Horseman Killed in the Deer Gallery
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  • 11 November, 1880Ned Kelly Hanged at Melbourne Gaol
    The Australian bushranger Ned Kelly was executed at Melbourne Gaol. He was a notorious outlaw of the Australian bush, and the sentence was carried out in the colony of Victoria.
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  • 12 November, 1928Liner Vestris Sinks Off Virginia
    The passenger steamer Vestris went down roughly two hundred miles off Hampton Roads, Virginia. At least 110 people died, many of them women and children lost after the ship was abandoned.
    Source
  • 13 November, 1002Æthelred Orders St Brice's Day Massacre
    King Æthelred II of England ordered that all Danes in his kingdom be killed. The order is known today as the St Brice's Day massacre.
    From our archive, 1854: The Railway Built to Carry London's Dead
    From our archive, 1002: The Skulls Stacked In A Roman Quarry Pit
    Source
  • 14 November, 1941Nine Thousand Murdered in Słonim Ghetto
    German troops, helped by local auxiliaries, murdered some nine thousand residents of the Słonim Ghetto in a single day, one of many mass killings carried out during the Holocaust in occupied Eastern Europe.
    Source
  • 15 November, 1922General Strike Crushed in Guayaquil
    During a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador, at least three hundred people were massacred. The strike was a general one, and the dead were civilians.
    From our archive, 1539: The Abbot Butchered For His Abbey's Gold
    Source
  • 16 November, 1793Priests Drowned in the Loire at Nantes
    During the French Revolution, ninety dissident Catholic priests were executed by drowning at Nantes. The mass killing by water was carried out in the city in 1793 under the Revolutionary authorities.
    Read our story → · Source
  • 17 November, 1894H. H. Holmes Arrested in Boston
    H. H. Holmes, regarded as one of the first modern serial killers in the United States, was arrested in Boston in 1894. He later became notorious for a series of murders.
    Source
  • 18 November, 1421Dike Breaks in St Elizabeth's Flood
    A dike in the Grote Hollandse Waard in the Netherlands gave way during St Elizabeth's flood. About ten thousand people are thought to have drowned in the disaster.
    Source
  • 19 November, 1941HMAS Sydney Lost With All Hands
    HMAS Sydney and the German raider Kormoran fought each other off Western Australia and both ships sank. The Australian cruiser was lost with 645 men, and about 77 Germans also died.
    From our archive, 1915: The Songwriter Who Said Don't Mourn, Organize
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  • 20 November, 1695Zumbi of Palmares Killed by Bandeirantes
    Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, was executed by forces led by the Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho. His death ended the leadership of the settlement.
    From our archive, 869: The King Whose Head Called Out From The Woods
    From our archive, 1820: The Wreck That Inspired Moby Dick
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  • 21 November, 1920Bloody Sunday in Dublin
    On Bloody Sunday in Dublin, the IRA assassinated a group of British intelligence agents. British forces then fired on a Gaelic football crowd at Croke Park, killing fourteen civilians.
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  • 22 November, 1718Blackbeard Killed Off North Carolina
    Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard attacked and boarded the vessels of the pirate Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, off the coast of North Carolina. Teach and Maynard's first officer were among the dead.
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  • 23 November, 1867Three Manchester Martyrs Hanged in England
    The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, in 1867 for the killing of a police officer during the rescue of two members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood from custody.
    From our archive, 1499: The Pretender Who Confessed on a Platform
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  • 24 November, 1227Polish Princes Ambushed at Gąsawa
    At an assembly of Piast dukes at Gąsawa, assassins attacked the Polish princes while they were bathing. Leszek the White and Henry the Bearded were among those attacked in the ambush, which became known as the Gąsawa massacre.
    From our archive, 1740: The Boy Who Woke Up on the Dissection Table
    From our archive, 1440: The Dinner That Ended With A Beheading
    From our archive, 1326: The Favourite Whose Body Was Sent To Four Cities
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  • 25 November, 1839Cyclone Devastates South-Eastern India
    A cyclone struck south-eastern India in 1839, and the disaster is estimated to have caused around three hundred thousand deaths. Figures for storms of this age are uncertain, but the toll was enormous.
    From our archive, 1120: The Wreck That Sank a Dynasty
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  • 26 November, 1914HMS Bulwark Blown Apart at Sheerness
    The battleship HMS Bulwark was destroyed by a large internal explosion while at anchor near Sheerness in the early months of the First World War. A total of 741 men were lost in the blast.
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  • 27 November, 602Emperor Maurice Watches His Sons Executed
    The usurper Phocas had the Byzantine Emperor Maurice forced to watch as his five sons were executed. Maurice was then beheaded himself, and Phocas took the throne in Constantinople in place of the murdered family.
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  • 28 November, 1942Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire in Boston
    A fire swept through the crowded Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts, and killed 492 people. The disaster ranks among the deadliest fires in the history of the United States.
    From our archive, 1499: Fourteen Years in the Tower for His Bloodline
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  • 29 November, 1781Zong Crew Begins Throwing Captives Overboard
    The crew of the British slave ship Zong began murdering African captives by dumping them into the sea so that the owners could claim insurance money. Fifty-four people were killed, beginning the Zong massacre.
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  • 30 November, 1718Charles XII Dies at Fredriksten
    King Charles XII of Sweden died during the siege of the fortress of Fredriksten in Norway, in the course of the Great Northern War. The king had been campaigning against Norway at the time.
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December

  • 1 December, 1934Kirov Shot, Opening the Way to Purges
    Sergei Kirov, a leading Soviet figure, was assassinated in 1934. The killing is widely linked to what followed: Stalin's Great Purge, a campaign of repression that swept through the Communist Party and the wider country.
    From our archive, 1581: The Jesuit Who Chose the Rack Over the Court
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  • 2 December, 1859John Brown Hanged After Harpers Ferry Raid
    The militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged in Virginia for his October raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. His execution became a flashpoint in the build-up to the American Civil War.
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  • 3 December, 1854Troopers Kill Miners at Eureka Stockade
    At Ballarat in Victoria, state troopers attacked gold miners who had risen up over the cost of mining licences. More than twenty diggers were killed in the clash known as the Eureka Stockade.
    From our archive, 1926: The Eleven Days Agatha Christie Vanished
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  • 4 December, 1676Lund, the Bloodiest Battle in Scandinavia
    The Battle of Lund, fought between Swedish and Danish forces during the Scanian War, is regarded as the bloodiest single battle ever fought on Scandinavian soil, with enormous losses on both sides.
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  • 5 December, 1082Count of Barcelona Murdered, Brother Suspected
    Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona, was assassinated in 1082. Suspicion has long fallen on his twin brother and co-ruler, Berenguer Ramon II, who most likely arranged the killing.
    From our archive, 1791: Mozart's Lost Grave and the Skull That Would Not Prove Itself
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  • 6 December, 1917Halifax Explosion Devastates Nova Scotia Port
    A munitions explosion near Halifax, Nova Scotia, killed more than 1,900 people. It was the largest man-made blast ever recorded up to that time, flattening a large part of the city.
    From our archive, 1920: The Sleeping Girl of the Capuchin Catacombs
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  • 7 December, 43 BCCicero Assassinated on Antony's Orders
    Marcus Tullius Cicero, Rome's most celebrated orator, was killed at Formia on the orders of Mark Antony. His death marked the end of the voice that had defended the dying Republic.
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  • 8 December, 1863Santiago Church Fire Kills Thousands
    A fire swept through the Church of the Company in Santiago, Chile, killing an estimated two to three thousand worshippers. It is possibly the deadliest single building fire in modern history.
    From our archive, 1793: The Mistress Who Refused To Die With Dignity
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  • 9 December, 730Khazars Annihilate an Umayyad Army
    At Marj Ardabil, a Khazar force destroyed an Umayyad army and killed its commander, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami. The defeat ended a long Arab campaign against the Khazars in the Caucasus.
    From our archive, 1538: The Execution of the Exeter Plot Nobles
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  • 10 December, 1541Culpeper and Dereham Executed for Howard Affair
    Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were put to death in 1541 over their relationships with Queen Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII. Her own execution followed two months later.
    From our archive, 1718: The Gentleman Pirate's Doomed Voyage
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  • 11 December, 969Byzantine Emperor Murdered by His Own Wife
    Nikephoros II Phokas was assassinated in Constantinople by his wife Theophano and her lover, the general John Tzimiskes, who then took the imperial throne for himself.
    From our archive, 1964: The Child Bride Lost Beneath a Building Site
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  • 12 December, 1866Oaks Colliery Explosion Kills 361
    An explosion at the Oaks Colliery in Yorkshire killed 361 miners and rescuers, making it the worst mining disaster in England. Many of the dead were men who had gone down to save others.
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  • 13 December, 1758Transport Ship Duke William Lost at Sea
    The English transport ship Duke William sank in the North Atlantic with the loss of more than 360 lives, a disaster that is little remembered outside accounts of the Acadian deportation.
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  • 14 December, 1287St Lucia's Flood Drowns Tens of Thousands
    The sea wall holding back the Zuiderzee in the Netherlands collapsed on St Lucia's day, and the resulting flood killed more than 50,000 people along the coast.
    From our archive, 1861: The Bedroom Victoria Kept Ready for a Dead Man
    From our archive, 1650: The Woman Who Woke Up In Her Own Coffin
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  • 15 December, 1890Sitting Bull Killed During Arrest Attempt
    The Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull was killed on the Standing Rock reservation. His death raised tensions across the Lakota lands and led, two weeks later, to the Wounded Knee Massacre.
    From our archive, 1900: The Three Keepers Who Vanished from the Flannan Isles
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  • 16 December, 1920Haiyuan Earthquake Devastates Gansu
    A magnitude 8.5 earthquake struck Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000 people. It remains one of the deadliest earthquakes ever recorded, with landslides burying whole villages.
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  • 17 December, 942William Longsword, Count of Normandy, Assassinated
    William Longsword, Count of Normandy and son of Rollo, was assassinated in 942. His murder, carried out by followers of a rival, left his young son Richard to inherit a troubled duchy.
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  • 18 December, 1916Verdun Ends After Ten Months of Slaughter
    The Battle of Verdun closed when a second French offensive pushed German troops back a few kilometres and they stopped attacking. It had become one of the longest and costliest battles of the First World War.
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  • 19 December, 1675Great Swamp Fight in King Philip's War
    English colonists attacked a fortified Narragansett stronghold in Rhode Island in a pivotal battle of King Philip's War. The settlers won, but the victory was bitterly costly on both sides.
    From our archive, 1848: The Novelist Who Refused Every Doctor
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  • 20 December, 1968Zodiac Killer Claims First Confirmed Victims
    On Lake Herman Road in Benicia, California, two teenagers, David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, were murdered. They are the first officially confirmed victims of the unidentified Zodiac Killer.
    From our archive, 1812: Rapunzel: The Grimm Original and the Tight Dress
    From our archive, 1620: William Lithgow: Racked and Condemned at Malaga
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  • 21 December, 1907Chilean Army Massacres Striking Miners at Iquique
    Soldiers of the Chilean Army killed at least 2,000 striking saltpetre miners and their families in Iquique, in one of the worst episodes of violence against organised labour in Latin America.
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  • 22 December, 1963Cruise Ship Lakonia Burns Off Madeira
    The Greek cruise ship Lakonia caught fire some 290 kilometres north of Madeira. One hundred and twenty-eight people lost their lives in the blaze and the chaotic evacuation that followed.
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  • 23 December, 1793Vendéen Rebels Crushed at Savenay
    At Savenay, Republican forces decisively defeated the royalist counter-revolutionaries of the War in the Vendée. The battle effectively broke the rebel army, and brutal reprisals followed.
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  • 24 December, 1913False Cry of Fire at Calumet's Italian Hall
    At a Christmas party for striking miners' families in Calumet, Michigan, someone falsely shouted 'fire'. In the panic on the stairs, 73 people died, 59 of them children.
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  • 25 December, 820Emperor Leo V Murdered in Church
    Byzantine Emperor Leo V was murdered inside a church of the Great Palace in Constantinople on Christmas Day by followers of Michael II, who then took the throne.
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  • 26 December, 1811Richmond Theatre Fire Kills 72
    A fire during a performance at a Richmond, Virginia, theatre killed 72 people, among them the state's governor, George William Smith, and the banker Abraham B. Venable.
    From our archive, 1476: The Duke Stabbed at Mass on St Stephen's Day
    From our archive, 211: The Brother Rome Was Ordered to Forget
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  • 27 December, 1939Erzincan Earthquake Strikes Eastern Turkey
    A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck eastern Turkey, with extreme shaking across the region around Erzincan. At least 32,700 people were killed in one of the country's worst natural disasters.
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  • 28 December, 1879Tay Bridge Collapses Under a Train
    The central section of the Tay Rail Bridge at Dundee gave way as a train crossed during a storm, plunging it into the water below. Seventy-five people were killed.
    From our archive, 1734: Rob Roy MacGregor, the Outlaw the Film Got Wrong
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  • 29 December, 1170Thomas Becket Murdered in Canterbury Cathedral
    Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was cut down inside his own cathedral by followers of Henry II. He was soon venerated as a saint and martyr.
    From our archive, 1594: The Assassin Torn Apart With Molten Lead
    From our archive, 1386: The Rape Trial That Ended In Trial By Combat
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  • 30 December, 1896José Rizal Shot by Spanish Firing Squad
    The Filipino patriot and reformer José Rizal was executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila. His death turned him into a martyr and a lasting symbol of the independence movement.
    From our archive, 1916: The Man Who Wouldn't Die (Until He Did)
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  • 31 December, 1775Montgomery's Assault on Quebec Repulsed in Snowstorm
    General Richard Montgomery's Continental Army attack on Quebec was beaten back by British forces under Guy Carleton. The assault took place in a snowstorm, and Montgomery was among the dead.
    From our archive, 192: The Emperor Who Fought As A Gladiator For Fun
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