Bach premieres cantata Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir (1724), and Spaniards claim the valley where Tegucigalpa will rise (1578). Born on this day: Miguel de Cervantes, Enrico Fermi and Silvio Berlusconi. Died: Émile Zola, Rudolf Diesel and Ilya Yefimovich Repin.
25 events, 74 births and 58 deaths on this date.
Bach gave the first performance of a cantata built on Paul Eber's twelve-stanza hymn, written for the Michaelmas feast. It belongs to the church music he was producing in his first years as Thomaskantor in Leipzig.
Elias Gottlob Haussmann · Public domainSpanish colonists laid their claim to the valley that would become Honduras' largest city, Tegucigalpa. The city only became the national capital in 1880, when President Marco Aurelio Soto moved government there from Comayagua.
Leo was consecrated bishop of Rome after the death of Sixtus III a month earlier. He went on to shape papal authority over the wider Church, earning the name Leo the Great.
Pompey marked his 45th birthday with a parade through Rome to honour his campaigns against the pirates and the Mithridatic Wars. It was his third triumph, a sign of how far a young commander who had bypassed the usual political ladder had risen.
Alphanidon · CC BY-SA 4.0
Pope Gregory IX cut Frederick II off from the Church, citing his failure to take part in the Crusades. The move was the first of four excommunications against him, and it set up a long feud between emperor and papacy.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Rome's people rose up to reinstate Benedict III as pope after Emperor Louis II had tried to install his own favoured candidate in his place. Benedict then led the Papal States until his death in 858.
Alexis-François Artaud De Montor · Public domain
For the full day, download Chunks today. Every date, the stories behind them, and a new day each morning. Free to start.
Spanish writer whose novel Don Quixote is often called the first modern novel. Born around this date, he was wounded at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, which left one of his arms weakened for life.
Attributed to Juan de Jáuregui · Public domain
Italian-born physicist who built the first artificial nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and later worked on the Manhattan Project. He also won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on neutron-induced radioactivity.
Department of Energy-Office of Public Affairs, restored by Yann · Public domain
Italian media tycoon who built a broadcasting empire and dominated national politics for years. Across three governments he served nine years as prime minister, more time in the post than any leader since the Second World War.
European People’s Party · CC BY 2.0
French novelist and leader of the naturalist school, remembered for the Rougon-Macquart series and for his open letter J'Accuse, which defended Alfred Dreyfus. He died in Paris in 1902, reportedly asphyxiated by a blocked chimney.
Émile Zola · Public domain
Rudolf Diesel was a German engineer who designed an engine that ignites fuel by compression rather than a spark. He disappeared from a steamship crossing the North Sea in 1913, and his death was never fully explained.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Ilya Repin was a Ukrainian-born painter whose works, such as Barge Haulers on the Volga, made him one of Russia's best-known artists. He was also remembered for his portraits of writers and musicians, especially Leo Tolstoy, a close friend.
Ilya Repin · Public domain
Download on iOS
Download on Android