This Day In European History
8th January
Events794 Vikings pillage and burn the church on Lindisfarne Island.
1198: Pope Innocent III elected.
1654: The Agreement of Pereyaslavl between the Cossacks and Russia; the Cossacks accept the Russian Tsar as leader, spreading his power into the Ukraine, but retain their own army, courts and leaders.
1878: Battle of Senova; Russia defeats the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Ottoman war over the Balkans.
1904: Pope Pius X bans low-cut tops at Mass.
1916: The Allied retreat from Gallipoli begins.
1918: US President Wilson outlines the 'Fourteen Points'; they affect the peace treaties of orld War One.
Births
1587: Johannes Fabricius, Dutch astronomer.
1587 Jan Pieterszoon Coen, Dutch merchant and key founder of the Dutch trading empire in Asia.
1628: Francois-Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, French Marshall.
1632: Samuel Pufendorf, German advocate of natural law.
1824: Wilkie Collins, British mystery writer.
1870: Miguel Primo de Rivera, Dictator of Spain from 1923-30.
1942 Stephen Hawking, British physicist.
Deaths
1324: Marco Polo, Venetian traveller.
1337: Giotto di Bondone, Italian painter and architect sometimes called 'The Father of Painting'.
1570: Philibert Delorme, French architect.
1642: Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, mathematician and natural philosopher.
1713: Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer.
1770: John Rysbrack, Flemish artist.
1811: Friedrich Nicolai, German writer and key figure in the German Enlightenment.
1896: Paul Verlaine, French poet.
1996: Francois Mitterrand, French President from 1981 - 1995.
