Berlusconi's sex-case conviction overturned on appeal (2014), and Foundation stone blessed for Florence Cathedral's bell tower (1334). Born on this day: Nelson Mandela, Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Died: Jane Austen, Petrarch and Caravaggio.
30 events, 70 births and 53 deaths on this date.
An appeal court reversed the verdict against Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon who led Italy's government in three separate terms. He had been convicted over payments made to a minor for sex, a case that shadowed his political career.
European People’s Party · CC BY 2.0Giotto di Bondone's design for the campanile beside Florence Cathedral began with a blessing from the city's bishop. The tower, later known as Giotto's Campanile, became one of the city's best-known landmarks.
Christians living under the group's rule were told to submit to second-class dhimmi status, flee, or be executed. It was one of the clearest signs of the group's hostility toward religious minorities.
The long-dormant volcano in the south of the Caribbean island woke up and began a series of eruptions. Over the following years it buried the capital, Plymouth, and drove most of the islanders abroad, mainly to Britain.
Charles, then a young prince, received the titles of Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders in Brussels, a year after inheriting them. The ceremony formally confirmed his hold on Burgundy and Flanders, which had passed to him the year before.
Army officers opposed to the elected Popular Front government tried to seize power, and the attempt split the country and set off a three-year civil war. The fighting drew in foreign powers and ended with Franco's Nationalists ruling Spain until 1975.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
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Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid campaigner who became the country's first black president in 1994 after spending 27 years in prison. He is remembered for leading South Africa toward racial reconciliation and a fully representative democracy.
Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel · CC BY-SA 2.0
Hendrik Lorentz was a Dutch physicist whose theory of electromagnetism underpinned Einstein's special relativity. He shared the 1902 physics Nobel Prize with Pieter Zeeman for explaining how magnetic fields split spectral lines.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Indian actress who won Miss World 2000 and went on to become one of India's most bankable film stars. She later became the first South Asian to lead an American network drama, playing Alex Parrish in the ABC series Quantico.
Bollywood Hungama · CC BY 3.0
Jane Austen, the English novelist behind Pride and Prejudice and Emma, died in Winchester at 41. Her six novels, mostly published anonymously, brought her little fame in her lifetime but went on to become some of the most read in English.
Cassandra Austen · Public domain
Italian scholar and poet who helped launch Renaissance humanism, and whose sonnets were copied across Europe for centuries. He is also credited with rediscovering Cicero's letters, a find that shaped how scholars revived classical learning.
Altichiero · Public domain
Caravaggio was an Italian painter whose dramatic use of light and shadow, called tenebrism, shaped the Baroque style across Europe. He died in 1610 aged 38, after years of fleeing a murder sentence and wandering between Naples, Malta and Sicily.
Ottavio Leoni · Public domain
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