Vasco da Gama reaches India (20 May 1498)
Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama becomes the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean when he arrives at Calicut on the Malabar Coast on May 20, 1498.
Da . . .
War of 1812 Begins on 18 June
The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law—and . . .
War of 1812 Ends with the Treaty of Ghent
On this date, December 24, 1814, the War of 1812 ends.
The Treaty of Peace and Amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America is signed by British and . . .
Whaleship Essex Sunk by Sperm Whale
The American whaler Essex, which hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts, is attacked by an 80-ton sperm whale 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America.
The 238-ton . . .
Whaleship Essex Sunk by Sperm Whale (20 Nov 1820)
The American whaler Essex, which hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts, is attacked by an 80-ton sperm whale 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America.
The 238-ton . . .
World’s First Submarine Attack (Sept. 7, 1776)
On September 7, 1776, during the . . .
Zong Slave Ship Trial
Zong slave ship trial June 22, 1783
London: Hearing arguments in the case of the Zong, a slave ship, the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in London states that a massacre of enslaved African “was the same as if Horses had been thrown over board” on June 22, 1783. The crew of the Zong had thrown at least 142 captive Africans into the sea, but the question before the court was not who had committed this atrocity but rather whether the lost “cargo” was covered by insurance. The trial laid bare the horror and inhumanity of the Atlantic slave trade and galvanized the nascent movement to abolish it.