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February 20
Events Pre-1600 *1339 – The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated. *1472 – Orkney and Shetland are pawn (law), pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark, Queen of Scotland, Margaret of Denmark. *1521 – Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León sets out from San Juan, Puerto Rico, for Florida with about 200 prospective colonists. *1547 – Edward VI of England is Coronation of Edward VI, crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. *1553 – Yohannan Sulaqa professes his Catholic belief and is ordained as bishop shortly after; this marks the beginning of the Chaldean Catholic Church. 1601–1900 *1685 – René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, René-Robert Cavelier establishes French colonization of Texas, Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas. *1792 – The Postal Servic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1339
Year 1339 (Roman numerals, MCCCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * June – Battle of Laupen: The Canton of Bern defeats the forces of Fribourg. * September 18 – Emperor Go-Murakami accedes to the throne of Japan. * September 24 (or 28) – Simone Boccanegra is elected, as the first Doge of Genoa. Date unknown * Shams-ud-Din Shah Mir, having defeated Kota Rani, Hindu queen regnant of Kashmir, in battle at Jayapur (modern Sumbal), asks her to marry him, but she commits suicide rather than do so; thus he takes over sole rule of Kashmir, beginning the Muslim Shah Mir Dynasty. * All streets in the city of Florence are Pavement (material), paved, the first European city in post-Roman times where this has happened. * The Moscow Kremlin is first referred to as a Kremlin (fortification), kremlin. Births * July 23 – Louis I, Duke of Anjou (d. 1384) * November 1 – Rudolf IV, Duke of Austri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1553
Year 1553 ( MDLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events January–March * January 2 – The siege of Metz in France, started by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor during the Italian War of 1551–59 on October 19 last is lifted after 75 days. During the city's defense by the Duke of Guise and 6,000 soldiers, Charles V had lost two-thirds of his original force of at least 20,000 men. * February 17 – In India, Timmaraja Wodeyar II becomes the sixth maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore (a vassal state of the Vijayanagara Empire), after the death of his father, the Maharaja Chamaraja Wodeyar III. * February 21 – Lieutenant General Luis Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio temporarily serves as the Spanish Viceroy of Naples (in modern-day Italy) upon the death of his father, Pedro Álvarez de Toledo. Luis steps down after Pedro Pacheco de Villena is appointed as the new Viceroy in June. * March 1 – The second (and last) session o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis-Alexandre Berthier
Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de Neuchâtel et Valangin, prince de Wagram (; 20 November 1753 – 1 June 1815) was a French military commander who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was twice Minister of War (France), Minister of War of France and was made a Marshal of the Empire in 1804. Berthier served as chief of staff to Napoleon Bonaparte from his Montenotte campaign, first Italian campaign in 1796 until his Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814), first abdication in 1814. The operational efficiency of the ''Grande Armée'' owed much to his considerable administrative and organizational skills. Born into a military family, Berthier served in the American Revolutionary War and survived suspicion of monarchism during the Reign of Terror before a rapid rise in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army. Although a key supporter of the coup against the French Directory, Directory that gave Napoleon supreme power, and present for his greatest victor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1798
Events January–June * January – Eli Whitney contracts with the U.S. federal government for 10,000 muskets, which he produces with interchangeable parts. * January 4 – Constantine Hangerli enters Bucharest, as Prince of Wallachia. * January 22 – A coup d'état is staged in the Netherlands (Batavian Republic). Unitarian Democrat Pieter Vreede ends the power of the parliament (with a conservative-moderate majority). * February 10 – The Pope is taken captive, and the Papacy is removed from power, by French General Louis-Alexandre Berthier. * February 15 – U.S. Representative Roger Griswold (Fed-CT) beats Congressman Matthew Lyon (Dem-Rep-VT) with a cane after the House declines to censure Lyon earlier spitting in Griswold's face; the House declines to discipline either man.''Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909'', ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p171 * March &nda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Washington
George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire. He is commonly known as the Father of the Nation for his role in bringing about American independence. Born in the Colony of Virginia, Washington became the commander of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War (1754–1763). He was later elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and opposed the perceived oppression of the American colonists by the British Crown. When the American Revolutionary War against the British began in 1775, Washington was appointed Commanding General of the United States Army, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. He directed a poorly organized and equipped force against disciplined British troops. Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Post Office Department
The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, established in 1792. From 1872 to 1971, it was officially in the form of a Cabinet of the United States, Cabinet department. It was headed by the United States Postmaster General, postmaster general. The Postal Service Act, signed by U.S. president Presidency of George Washington, George Washington on February 20, 1792, established the department. Postmaster General John McLean, in office from 1823 to 1829, was the first to call it the Post Office ''Department'' rather than just the "Post Office." The organization received a boost in prestige when President Andrew Jackson invited his postmaster general, William T. Barry, to sit as a member of the Cabinet in 1829. The Post Office Act (1872), Post Office Act of 1872 () elevated the Post Office Department to Cabinet status. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), postal servic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Postal Service Act
The Postal Service Act was a piece of United States federal legislation that established the United States Post Office Department. It was signed into law by President George Washington on February 20, 1792. History William Goddard, a Patriot printer frustrated that the Royal Mail was unable to reliably deliver his '' Pennsylvania Chronicle'' to its readers or deliver critical news for the paper to Goddard, laid out a plan for the "Constitutional Post" before the Continental Congress on October 5, 1774. Congress waited to act on the plan until after the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Benjamin Franklin promoted Goddard's plan and was appointed as the first postmaster general under the Continental Congress beginning on July 26, 1775, nearly one year before the Congress declared independence from the British Crown. Franklin's son-in-law, Richard Bache, took over the position on November 7, 1776, when Franklin became an American emissary to France. Frank ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1792
Events January–March * January 9 – The Treaty of Jassy ends the Russian Empire's war with the Ottoman Empire over Crimea. * January 25 – The London Corresponding Society is founded. * February 18 – Thomas Holcroft produces the comedy ''The Road to Ruin (play), The Road to Ruin'' in London. * February 20 ** The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Postal Service, United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.''Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909'', ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p169 ** Parliament House, Dublin catches fire during a legislative session. "Although in imminent danger of the roof falling in," it is noted later, "the House did not adjourn until a proper motion had been put and carried in the affirmative.""Fires, Great", in ''The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and has Mexico-United States border, an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest. Texas has Texas Gulf Coast, a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Covering and with over 31 million residents as of 2024, it is the second-largest state List of U.S. states and territories by area, by area and List of U.S. states and territories by population, population. Texas is nicknamed the ''Lone Star State'' for its former status as the independent Republic of Texas. Spain was the first European country to Spanish Texas, claim and control Texas. Following French colonization of Texas, a short-lived colony controlled by France, Mexico ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matagorda Bay
Matagorda Bay () is a large Gulf of Mexico bay on the Texas coast, lying in Calhoun and Matagorda counties and located approximately northeast of Corpus Christi, east-southeast of San Antonio, south-southwest of Houston, and south-southeast of Austin. It is one of seven major estuaries along the Gulf Coast of Texas and serves as the mouth of numerous streams, most notably the Lavaca and Colorado Rivers. The Texas seaport of Port Lavaca is located on the system's northwestern extension of Lavaca Bay. The city of Palacios is found on northeastern extension of Tres Palacios Bay, and Port O'Connor is located on the southwestern tip of the main bay's shore. The ghost town of Indianola, which was a major port before it was destroyed by two hurricanes in the late 19th century, is also found on the bay. The bay is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Matagorda Peninsula. Its shore, especially near the Colorado River delta, provides a habitat for a wide variety of wildlif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Colonization Of Texas
The French colonization of Texas started in 1685 when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, Robert Cavelier de La Salle intended to found the colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River, but inaccurate maps and navigational errors caused his ships to anchor instead to the west, off the coast of Texas. The colony survived until 1688. The present-day town of Inez, Texas, Inez is near the fort's site. The colony faced numerous difficulties during its brief existence, including Native Americans in the United States, Native American raids, epidemics, and harsh conditions. From that base, La Salle led several expeditions to find the Mississippi River. These did not succeed, but La Salle did explore much of the Rio Grande and parts of East Texas. During one of his absences in 1686, the colony's last ship was wrecked, leaving the colonists unable to obtain resources from the French colonies of the Caribbean. As conditions deteriorated, La Salle realized the colony could surviv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur De La Salle
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and North American fur trade, fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, and the Mississippi River. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico; there, on April 9, 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the name Louisiana (New France), ''La Louisiane'', in honor of Louis IX of France, Saint Louis and Louis XIV. One source states that "he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent". A later, ill-fated expedition in 1687 to the Gulf coast of Mexico (today the U.S. state of Texas) gave the United States a putative claim to Texas in the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803; La Salle was assassinated during that expedition. Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
