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0397
St. Ambrose died.
0742
Birth of Charlemagne, founder of the Frankish Empire.
0814
Death of Charlemagne, founder of the Frankish Empire.
0896
Pope Formosus died.
1453
Siege of Constantinople begins. By this time the authority of the Byzantine Empire had shrunk to little more than the city of Constantinople itself. Sultan Mehmed II breaches the walls after only 50 days. The walls protecting Constantinople had stood for more than a thousand years; when they fall, the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) also ended. After the Ottomans defeat the Byzantine Empire they continued expanding into the Balkans. The Ottoman Turkish Empire will move its capital from Bursa to Istanbul (Constantinople). After 1500, the Moguls (1526-1857 CE) and the Safavids (1520-1736 CE) follow the military example set by the Ottomans and created two new empires.
1541
Ignatius Loyola was elected the first General of the Jesuit Order.
1923
John Venn died.
1939
William O. Douglas was confirmed by the Senate as a Supreme Court Justice.
1958
Argued: First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. County of Los Angeles
Can religious tax exemptions be conditioned on a oath of adherence to some particular political ideas? According to the Supreme Court, it is impermissible to deny tax exemptions to organizations which refuse to participate in certain kinds of speech.
1998
Religion in Public Schools: House bill HB19 in Alabama is passed as Act 98-381. It required that every public school classroom in the state begin each day with a "brief period of quiet reflection for not more than 60 seconds with the participation of each pupil in the classroom." This same act also repealed Section 16-1-20.1, Code of Alabama 1975, relating to a period of silence for meditation in the public schools.
2004
Baisakhi: Sikh holiday commemorating the founding of the Khalsa.
2004
The chief of police in Kufa, Iraq, Saeed Tryak, is murdered when his car is attacked at al-Adala in Najaf, southeast of Baghdad. The chief of police of al-Mahmudiya in Baghdad, Usama Husayn, is also murdered - in this case by men in police uniforms.
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