Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918
Following the seizure of power in Russia by the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution of 1917, the Second Congress of the Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies passed The…
France reorganised into 83 départements, 1790
Prior to the revolution, the administration of France involved a confused overlapping patchwork of local authorities. In order to rationalise the administration of the country and to reduce regional loyalties…
Toronto incorporated, 1834
In the middle of the eighteenth-century the French established a trading fort on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario called Fort Rouillé, which remained occupied for around a decade. Later…
First jazz record released, 1917
From 1915, a number of musicians travelled north from New Orleans to Chicago, where their musical styles were becoming very popular. Among these were the Nick LaRocca (cornet), Eddie Edwards…
Pink`s War began, 1925
Richard Charles Montagu Pink was born in November 1888 in Winchester, Hampshire. He attended Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, before becoming a midshipman in the Royal Navy in 1904.…
French Foreign Legion established, 1831
In July 1830, King Charles X of France signed into law a series of decrees known as the July Ordinances in order to re-establish an absolute monarchy to curtail an…
First Pink Floyd single released, 1967
In 1965 bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason, keyboardist Richard Wright, and guitarist/vocalist Syd Barrett formed the Pink Floyd Sound. Over the course of the next two years the quartet’s…
First black international footballer, 1881
Andrew Watson was born in the British colony of Demerara (modern day Guyana) in May 1857. His father was a Scottish sugar planter called Peter Miller; his mother was a…
Driving tests introduced in the United Kingdom, 1935
In 1930, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed a Road Traffic Act, which removed all speed limits for road vehicles in spite of that year’s record number of fatalities…
Execution of Admiral Byng, 1757
John Byng was born in October 1704 at Southill, Bedfordshire. The fourth son of Rear-Admiral Sir George Byng, he began his naval career at the age of fourteen and quickly…