The Treaties That Ended Europe's Deadliest War
On October 24, 1648, treaties signed at Münster and Osnabrück ended the Thirty Years' War and redrew Europe around the idea of sovereign states.
Tagged: 1600s
The Day France Outlawed Its Own People
On October 18, 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, stripping France's Protestants of their rights and driving hundreds of thousands into exile.
A Large Land, Uplifted High: New Zealand's First European Sighting
On December 13, 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, spotting the Southern Alps from 60 miles offshore.
Ambush in Texas: The Murder of Explorer La Salle
On March 19, 1687, French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was shot dead by his own mutinous men in the Texas wilderness.
"Useless and Dangerous": The Day Parliament Abolished the House of Lords
On March 19, 1649, England's House of Commons voted to abolish the House of Lords, declaring it 'useless and dangerous' — seven weeks after executing King Charles I.
The Morning Portugal Took Its Crown Back
On December 1, 1640, the Forty Conspirators stormed Lisbon's royal palace and acclaimed the Duke of Braganza as King John IV, ending sixty years of Spanish rule.
A Charter for Half a Continent: Hudson's Bay Company, 1670
On May 2, 1670, Charles II granted the Hudson's Bay Company a royal charter — and with it, a fur-trade monopoly over a third of modern Canada.