- The Encyclopedia Britannica Online
- The Catholic Encyclopedia
- The 1911 Encyclopedia
- The Encyclopedia Americana
- Webster's 21st Century Concise Chronology of World History
All dates have been converted to the Gregorian calendar our western society uses today.
Most pages will offer you one or two interesting events, births, or deaths that took place on the date in question. At long last we have events for every day of the year. On some days, lots of interesting things happened; and on a few, very little of interest happened at all.
The Encyclopedia and Who's Who?
"This Date in Medieval History" is connected to our resources, Who's Who in Medieval History and the 1911 Encyclopedia. If a name in bold typeface in "This Date" is hyperlinked, click it to go to a page of information about that individual at one of these resources here at the Medieval History site.
Finding Dates
You can find out what happened today in history by clicking the Today in Medieval History link you'll find on many pages of this site. If for any reason this takes you to the wrong date, use the Find Another Date in Medieval History link at the bottom of the page instead. From the resulting page you can find any date in the year.
On each Date page, you can click "Yesterday" to see the events of the previous date or "Tomorrow" to see the events of the following date.
If you're in a real hurry to find what happened on a particular date, simply type the Month and Day (numeral only; for example, January 1) into the search box at the top of every page of this site and click "Go." The correct page should show up at the top of the list of results.
Bookmarking Pages
Each date has its own page, and you can bookmark any of these as you ordinarily would. If you'd like to bookmark a starting point, visit Find Another Date in Medieval History and bookmark that page. If you prefer to be taken directly to the events for today's date, right-click here and select Add Bookmark for this Link or Add Link to Favorites from the pop-up menu. (You may wish to edit the resulting bookmark.) Any time you select your new bookmark, it will take you to the page of events for the current date.
The "Who Was Born" and the Gruesome "Who Died" Sections
Why have I included a section on who died? One reason is because we almost always know the date of a historical figure's death, but rarely know the date of his birth. The exceptions are members of powerful families, whose births have been recorded as a matter of course. We usually know the date of a king's birth, but rarely that of the humble friar who later became a saint. The saint's death, however, is a date that is not allowed to fall into obscurity.
On the anniversary of a person's passing (as well as on his birthday, if we're fortunate enough to know it), we can look back on his life much as we would have looked back had we known him and lived during his lifetime. We can take the opportunity to learn who he was and what he did, and what impact he had on those who knew him as well as on the course of history.
Contributing to "This Date in Medieval History"
If you know of a historic event that you'd like to see included here, please send me the details of the event and your source. I will check all dates and facts, and if I find the information correct, I'll add it here. You'll get credit -- so in your email, please include your name as you would like it to appear. Links to appropriate sites are helpful, but not mandatory.
A Final Word...
While I hope you find this resource useful, it is not intended to be an encyclopedia of every event that ever happened in the Middle Ages. If an event you're interested in is not included here, I may simply have no useful data about it. For each event included, I have done my best to furnish useful info and links to more info on the web. I regret that I will be unable to provide further information.
I hope you enjoy "This Date in Medieval History."
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