This Day In European History
1st December
Events1095: Count Raymond IV of Toulouse announces his intention to join the First Crusade, arguably the first major noble to do so.
1640: Portugal achieves independence.
1640: Frederick William succeeds as Elector of Brandenburg; he later earns the soubriquet 'the Great Elector'.
1663: The first known account of ice skating in England.
1768: Britain's Royal Academy of Arts is founded.
1919: Nancy Astor becomes the first female MP to sit in the British House of Commons.
1942 The Beveridge Report is published, a key step on the road to Britain's Welfare State.
1990: The two halves of the Channel Tunnel excavations meet perfectly.
Births
1690: Philip Yorke, English Lord Chancellor.
1743: Martin Klaproth, German chemist.
1761: Madame Marie Tussaud, Swiss wax modeller.
1792: Nikolay Lobachevsky, Russian co-founder of non-Euclidean geometry.
1896: Georgy Zhukov, Russian marshal.
Deaths
1135: King Henry I of England.
1455: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Italian artist.
1515: Gonzalo de Cordoba, Spanish commander.
1521: Pope Leo X.
1581: Edmund Campion, English Jesuit, executed.
1640: Elector George William of Brandenburg.
1934: Sergei Kirov, Soviet politician; his assassination helps cause Stalin's purges.
