Events in Italian History
Events 1 - 200 of 834
- 0218-12-18 BC Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia - Hannibal's Carthaginian army heavily defeat Roman forces on Italian soil
Battle of Vercellae Ends Cimbri Threat
0101-07-30 BC Battle of Vercellae: Roman army under Gaius Marius defeats the Cimbri in Cisalpine Gaul, ending the Celto-Germanic threat on Italy's border with over 100,000 Cimbri killed
- 0069-04-15 Battle at Bedriacum, North-Italy
- 0394-09-06 Battle of Frigidus in Northern Italy: forces of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I defeat those of Western Emperor Eugenius
Battle at Florence
0406-08-23 Battle at Florence: Stilicho's Roman army beats Radagaisus' Barbarians
- 0421-03-25 Friday at 12 PM - city of Venice founded
Attila Invades Italy
0452-06-08 Italy invaded by Attila the Hun
- 0476-08-23 Odoacer proclaimed King of Italy by his troops, 1st barbarian King of Italy
- 0489-08-28 King of the Ostrogoths Theodoric the Great defeats Germanic King of Italy Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy
- 0489-09-30 Germanic King of Italy Odoacer attacks Ostrogothic leader Theodoric the Great at the Battle of Verona and is defeated again
- 0493-03-15 Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostrogoths, murders King Odoacer of Italy with his sword at a banquet in Ravenna
- 0535-12-31 Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year
- 0554-08-14 Ravenna becomes seat of Byzantine military governor in Italy
- 0657-07-30 St Vitalian begins his reign as Catholic Pope succeeding Eugene I
- 0668-09-15 Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse, Italy
- 0672-01-27 St Vitalian ends his reign as Catholic Pope
Donation of Pipin
0774-04-06 Charlemagne confirms his father Pepin the Short's grant of land in 754 to the Pope of territories belonging to Ravenna in central Italy
- 0902-08-01 Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya destroys Taormina, Sicily
- 0905-07-21 Holy Roman Emperor Louis III captured, blinded, and forced to relinquish his royal Italian and imperial crowns
- 0927-08-15 The Saracens conquer and destroy Taranto (southern Italy)
- 0951-09-23 Otto I the Great becomes king of Italy
- 0982-07-14 King Otto II and his Frankish army defeated in pitched battle with Muslim army of al-Qasim at Cape Colonna, Southern Italy
- 1004-05-15 Henry II the Saint crowned King of Italy
- 1026-03-23 Conrad II crowns himself King of Italy
- 1059-08-23 Treaty of Melfi: Pope Nicholas II recognizes the Norman conquest of Southern Italy by appointing Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard Duke of Apulia and Calabria and Count of Sicily
- 1071-04-16 Bari falls to Robert Guiscard's Norman forces, ending Byzantine rule in Italy
- 1074-02-07 Battle of Montesarchio: Prince of Benevento, Pandulf IV killed battling the encroaching Normans in southern Italy
- 1081-10-18 Battle of Dyrrhachium: Southern Italian Normans under Robert Guiscard defeat Byzantine army under Alexios I Komnenos (modern Durrës, Albania)
- 1085-10-08 San Marcos ministry in Venice initiated
- 1093-09-25 Anselmo d'Aosta, Italian Benedictine monk seated as Anselm of Canterbury, Archbisop of Canterbury
- 1111-02-12 King Henry V, King of Germany and Italy, arrives in Rome for his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor, but Pope Paschal II refuses to crown him until April owing to the Investiture Controversy
- 1111-04-13 After months of controversy Pope Paschal II crowns Henry V, the King of Germany and Italy, as the Holy Roman Emperor
Norman King of Sicily Crowned
1130-12-25 Anti-pope Anacletus II crowns Roger II the Norman king of Sicily
- 1132-07-24 Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily
- 1137-10-30 Battle of Rignano between Ranulf of Apulia and Roger II of Sicily.
- 1139-04-08 Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated
- 1139-07-22 Pope Innocent II is ambushed and taken captive by the forces of Roger II of Sicily at Galluccio while trying to invade the Kingdom of Sicily
- 1140-04-28 The Palatine Chapel, commissioned by Roger II and one of Norman Sicily's most important buildings is consecrated on Palm Sunday in Palermo (World Heritage Site 2015)
Frederick I Barbarossa
1158-11-11 Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa declares himself ruler of North Italy
- 1167-12-01 Northern Italian towns form Lombardi League
- 1167-12-15 Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
- 1177-08-01 Peace Treaty of Venice: Emperor Frederik I and Pope Alexander III
- 1183-06-25 Peace of Konstanz signed between Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and Italian Lombard League
- 1194-11-20 Palermo, Sicily, is conquered by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI
- 1194-12-25 Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI crowned King of Sicily in Palermo Cathedral
- 1203-07-17 Siege of Constantinople begins during the fourth Crusade; Roman Catholic Crusaders aboard a Venetian fleet attack the city
Event of Interest
1208-02-24 St Francis of Assisi, 26, received his vocation in Portiuncula Italy
- 1212-09-26 Golden Bull of Sicily certified hereditary royal title in Bohemia for Přemyslid dynasty
- 1223-12-25 St Francis of Assisi assembles 1st Nativity scene (Greccio, Italy)
- 1266-02-26 Battle of Benevento fought in Southern Italy between Manfred of Sicily and army of Charles of Anjou
- 1268-10-29 Conradin, the last legitimate male heir of the German Hohenstaufen dynasty of Kings and Holy Roman Emperors, is executed with Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily
- 1270-10-30 The Eighth Crusade and siege of Tunis ended by agreement between Charles I of Sicily (brother to King Louis IX of France, who had died months earlier) and the sultan of Tunis.
When The Bells Rang Out For Freedom
1282-03-30 The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers
- 1282-09-04 King of Aragon Pedro III annexes Sicily
- 1283-07-08 War of the Sicilian Vespers: Battle of Malta
- 1284-06-05 Charles of Salerno is captured by Roger of Lauria during a naval battle in the Gulf of Naples, part of the Sicilian Vespers uprising
- 1294-05-12 Construction of Santa Croce begins in Florence, the largest Franciscan church in the world (consecrated 1442)
- 1302-01-27 Dante becomes a Florentine political exile
- 1305-03-25 Consecration of the Scrovegni Chapel (Arena Chapel) in Padua, Italy, with fresco masterpiece by Florentine painter Giotto
- 1309-03-27 Pope Clement V excommunicates Venice and all its population.
- 1310-06-09 Duccio's Maestà Altarpiece, a seminal artwork of the early Italian Renaissance, is unveiled and installed in the Siena Cathedral in Siena, Italy
- 1327-04-06 Italian poet Petrarch 1st sets eyes on his beloved Laura
- 1328-05-12 Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV and assembly of priests select Pietro Rainalducc as anti-Pope Nicolas V; consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice
- 1333-11-04 Flood of the Arno River, causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani
Florence Cathedral
1334-07-18 Bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by artist Giotto di Bondone
- 1336-04-26 Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarch famously climbs Mont Ventoux
- 1341-04-14 Sack of Saluzzo (Italy) by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V of Saluzzo
- 1358-02-25 Dalmatie flees Venice
- 1377-02-03 Mass execution of population (between 2,500 and 5,000) of Cesena, Italy, by Breton troops of Giovanni Acuto under the command of Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, acting as the legate of Pope Gregory XI
First Use of Quarantine
1377-07-27 First example of quarantine in Rugusa (now Dubroknik); city council passes law saying newcomers from plague areas must isolation for 30 days (later 40 days, quaranta in Italian)
- 1382-03-15 Conservative "Popolo Grasso" regain power in Florence, Italy
- 1395-04-16 Azzo X d'Este is defeated at the Battle of Portomaggiore by Venetian-Ferrarese troops
Dome of Florence Cathedral
1418-08-18 Competition announced to design the dome of Florence Cathedral, main competitors Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi (supported by Cosimo de' Medici)
- 1419-12-11 Heretic Nicolaas Serrurier exiled from Florence
- 1420-06-07 Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patriarchate of Aquileia
- 1420-08-07 Construction begins on the dome of Florence Cathedral, designed by Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi
Sicilian Jews Conversion Sermons
1428-02-05 King Alfonso V, orders Sicily's Jews to attend conversion sermons
- 1430-01-01 Jews of Sicily are no longer required to attend conversionist services
- 1436-03-25 Florence Cathedral, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, consecrated by Pope Eugene IV, the largest dome in the world (then) by Filippo Brunelleschi with support from Cosimo de' Medici (begun 1296)
- 1443-01-06 San Marco convent designed by architect Michelozzo, with an altarpiece by Fra Angelico is consecrated in the presence of Pope Eugenius IV in Florence
- 1454-04-09 Milan and Venice sign peace of Lodi
- 1454-08-15 Malatestiana Library, the first humanist civic library in Europe, opens in association with the convent of San Francesco in Cesena, Italy [1]
- 1466-08-26 A conspiracy against Piero di Cosimo de Medici in Florence, led by Luca Pitti, is discovered
- 1467-04-26 The miraculous image in Our Lady of Good Counsel appear in Genazzano, Italy
- 1474-04-09 Breisach land guardian Peter von Hagenbach throws out Walloon and Italians
Pazzi Conspiracy
1478-04-26 Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill Giuliano de' Medici in Florence
- 1482-01-26 "Pentateuch" the Jewish Bible is 1st printed as a book in Bologna, Italy
- 1489-03-14 The last Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro is forced to abdicate by Venice
- 1492-12-31 100,000 Jews expelled from Sicily
- 1493-01-12 Last day for all Jews to leave Sicily
- 1494-11-08 Uprising against Piero de' Medici in Florence
- 1494-11-09 Piero the Unfortunate of the de' Medici family, ruler of Florence, loses his power and flees the state
France occupies Florence
1494-11-18 French King Charles VIII occupies Florence
League of Venice
1495-03-31 Pope Alexander VI forms the anti-French alliance the League of Venice with Archduke of Austria Maximilian I, Ferdinand II of Aragon, Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza and the Republic of Venice
Amerigo Vespucci Departs
1497-05-10 Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci leaves for his first voyage to the New World (disputed)
- 1497-05-13 Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Italian Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola for leading the expulsion of the Medici's from Florence
Cabot Returns from North America
1497-08-06 Italian explorer John Cabot returns to Bristol from North America (Newfoundland) - first European to do so since the Vikings
- 1498-04-07 Crowd storms Savonarola's convent San Marco Florence, Italy
- 1499-02-09 France & Venice sign treaty against Milan
- 1499-08-12 First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets
- 1499-08-25 Battle at Sapienza: Turkish fleet beats Venetians
The Statue of David
1501-08-16 Michelangelo awarded a contract to create a statue of David at Florence Cathedral by the Overseers of the Office of Works (the Operai) of the Duomo
- 1503-02-13 Disfida di Barletta - Famous challenge between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta, Southern Italy
Canonization
1503-04-24 Michelangelo undertakes to carve 12 Apostles for the Cathedral of Florence, each four and a quarter braccia high (248.2cm), at the rate of at least one completed statue per year. He produced only one, of St. Matthew, and that remained unfinished.
Michelangelo Sculpts the 12 Apostles
1503-09-11 Michelangelo begins sculpting the 12 Apostles for the Cathedral of Florence, over-life-sized marble statues of which only 1 was partly finished, that of St. Matthew
- 1503-12-29 Battle of Garigliano: Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeats French forces in Italy, giving Spain control of the Kingdom of Naples
Treaty of Lyon
1504-01-31 Under the Treaty of Lyon, French King Louis XII cedes Naples to Ferdinand II of Aragon after defeat in the Italian War of 1499–1504
- 1504-09-08 Michelangelo's statue of David is unveiled in Florence
- 1508-12-10 League of the kingdom signed (covenant against Venice)
- 1509-04-07 France declares war on Venice
Pope Excommunicates Venice
1509-04-27 Pope Julius II excommunicates Italian state of Venice
- 1509-04-27 Pope Julius II excommunicates the Republic of Venice, and endorses his allies to attack
Battle of Agnadello
1509-05-14 Battle of Agnadello, French forces under Louis XII defeat the Venetians in Northern Italy
- 1509-07-17 Venice recaptures nearby Italian city of Padua
- 1509-10-12 Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I leaves Italy
- 1511-01-19 Italian city Mirandola surrenders to the French
- 1512-02-16 Battle at Valeggio: French troops beat Venetianen
Battle of Ravenna
1512-04-11 Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Holy League in a major battle of the Italian Wars
Niccolo Machiavelli
1512-11-07 Medici's discharge Niccolo Machiavelli from Florence
- 1513-10-07 Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramón de Cardona defeat the Venetians.
- 1515-09-14 Battle at Marignano ends after two days in a French and Venetian victory over a Swiss army
- 1516-04-10 Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area, establishing the first Jewish ghetto
Assumption of the Virgin
1518-05-19 Public unveiling of Titian's masterpiece "Assumption of the Virgin" a painted altarpiece in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice
- 1522-04-27 Battle of Bicocca: a combined French and Venetian force is decisively defeated by a Spanish-Imperial and Papal army
Clement VII
1523-11-19 Florentine Giulio de' Medici chosen as Pope Clement VII - rules until 1534
Verrazzano Sets Out
1524-01-17 Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano's sets sail aboard French ship La Dauphine to find a passage to China - finds North America instead
- 1524-03-19 Giovanni de Varrazano, a Florentine explorer in the service of King Francis I of France, lands around area of Carolinas
- 1524-04-17 Florentine navigator Giovanni Verrazano on a voyage for France is the first European to discover New York harbour
Treaty of Madrid
1526-01-14 Charles V and Francis I sign the Treaty of Madrid, forcing Francis to give up claims to Burgundy, Italy and Flanders
- 1526-05-22 Pope Clement VII, France, Genoa, Venice, Florence & Milan form Anti-French League of Cognac
- 1527-05-16 Florence becomes a republic
- 1529-06-29 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Pope Clement VII sign the Treaty of Barcelona to bring peace to Italy and to repel Turkish advances
- 1530-08-12 Florence surrenders for emperor Karel I
- 1538-06-18 Truce of Nice signed between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and French King Francis I ending the Italian War of 1536-38
- 1539-06-10 Council of Trent: Paul III sends out letters to his bishops, delaying the Council due to war and the difficulty bishops had traveling to Venice.
- 1540-05-04 Venice and Turkey sign Treaty of Constantinople
- 1540-10-02 Venice and Turkey signs peace
- 1544-07-19 Italian War of 1542: The Siege of Boulogne begins
- 1544-08-17 French city of Saint-Dizier seized by Imperial army of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V during Italian War (1842-46)
- 1546-06-07 Peace of Andres Treaty ends the stalemated Italian War of 1542–1546 of France and the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Empire and England, as well as England's dispute with Scotland and Ireland
Cardano Arrives in Edinburgh
1552-06-29 Italian physician and mathematician Girolamo Cardano arrives in Edinburgh, Scotland to treat John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews for over two thousand gold crowns
- 1555-07-02 Turkish naval commander Dragut [Turgut Reis] sacks the Italian city of Paola
Treaty of Vaucelles
1556-02-05 King Henry II of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sign the Treaty of Vaucelles, creating a temporary truce in the Italian War of 1551–59
- 1560-04-13 Giovanni, son of Italian mathematician Girolamo Cardano is executed for poisoning his wife, despite his father's efforts to save him
- 1570-07-02 Ottoman Empire invades Venetian controlled Cyprus and lays siege to its cities. Gains control of the island August 1571.
- 1571-03-25 Catholic Italian businessman Roberto Ridolfi leaves England
Holy League Forms
1571-05-25 Pope Pius V forms The Holy League to fight the Ottomans with other Catholic maritime states including Spain, Venice, Naples and Sicily
- 1573-03-07 Turkey & Venice sign peace treaty
- 1593-01-27 Vatican opens blasphemy and theological heresy trial against Italian scholar and wayward friar Giordano Bruno; proceedings drag on for over 7 years [1]
- 1598-01-08 Jews are expelled from Genoa, Italy
- 1599-07-23 Italian painter Caravaggio gets his first public commission, the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome
- 1600-02-17 Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, convicted of heresy by the Roman Inquisition [1]
- 1604-10-08 Supernova "Kepler's nova" first sighted by Lodovico delle Colombe in Italy
Galileo Demonstrates Telescope
1609-08-08 Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei's telescope
- 1609-08-25 Galileo demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers, including to the Doge (ruler) of Venice, Leonardo Donato
- 1616-09-15 First non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy
- 1630-05-17 Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi, 1st to see 2 belts on Jupiter surface
- 1630-11-30 16,000 inhabitants of Venice died this month of plague
- 1631-12-16 Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts, burying many villages under lava flows and killing around 3,000 people
- 1633-02-13 Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before Inquisition for professing belief that earth revolves around the Sun
- 1644-06-11 Florentine scientist Evangelista Torricelli describes his invention of the mercury barometer in 1643 in a letter to Michelangelo Ricci
- 1645-06-23 Cretan War begins with attack by Ottoman navy on Venetian-held coast of Crete (war lasts till 1669)
- 1649-01-05 Francesco Cavalli's opera "Giasone" premieres in Venice (the most popular opera of the 17th century)
Wars of Castro
1649-09-02 The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro.
- 1654-05-13 Venetian fleet under Norwegian Admiral Cort Adeler beats Turkish fleet the near the Dardanelles, sinking 15 Turkish galleys
- 1669-03-11 Mt Etna in Sicily erupts in its largest recorded eruption, killing 15,000
- 1669-03-25 Mount Etna in Sicily erupts, destroying Nicolosi, killing 20,000
- 1669-09-06 The siege of Candia, on Crete, ends with the Venetian fortress surrendering to the Ottomans - second-longest siege in history (began 1648)
Piscopia First Female PhD
1678-06-25 Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is awarded a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Padua, the first woman to receive a university doctoral degree or PhD
- 1682-02-09 Thomas Otway's "Venice Preserved" premieres in London
- 1684-03-05 Emperor Leopold I, Poland & Venice sign Heilig Covenant of Linz
Siege of the Acropolis
1687-09-26 Acropolis in Athens attacked by Venetian army trying to eject Turks, damaging the Parthenon
- 1687-09-28 Venetians take Athens from the Turks
- 1693-01-11 Most powerful earthquake in Italian recorded history strikes Sicily and Southern Italy with an estimated magnitude of 7.4. Tsunamis followed and devastated coastal villages on the Ionian Sea and the Straits of Messina.
- 1699-01-26 Venice, Poland & Austria sign Treaty of Karlowitz with Ottoman Empire, ending the Great Turkish War (1683-97) - 1st time Ottomans concede significant territory
- 1718-07-21 Treaty of Passarowitz is signed between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice
- 1718-08-11 Battle of Cape Passaro: British fleet destroys Spanish off Sicily
- 1737-03-12 Galileo's body moved to Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy
- 1740-02-03 Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples, invites Jews to return to Sicily
- 1744-02-22 Battle of Toulon [Battle of Cape Sicié]: Spanish naval fleet supported by France's Levant fleet breaks through a two-year-old British blockade of Italy, allowing the Spanish to go on the offensive against Savoy
- 1750-10-05 Carlo Goldoni's "Il Teatro Comico" premieres in Venice
Casanova Imprisoned
1755-07-26 Giacomo Casanova is arrested in Venice for affront to religion and common decency and imprisoned in the Doge's Palace
- 1755-09-12 Giacomo Casanova is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in Venice without trial for affront to religion and common decency
- 1756-10-31 Giacomo Casanova escapes from "The Leads" prison in Venice by climbing onto the roof
- 1769-08-18 A lightning strike on the Bastion of San Nazaro in Brescia, Italy, ignites 90 tonnes of gunpowder, killing 3,000 people
- 1775-03-19 4 people buried by avalanche for 37 days, 3 survive (Italy)
- 1783-02-04 Worst quake in 8 years kills some 50,000 in Calabria, Italy
Napoléon Appointed Commander in Chief
1796-03-02 Napoléon Bonaparte is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the French Army in Italy
- 1796-04-13 Battle of Millesimo, Italy: Napoleon's forces defeat allied armies of Austria and of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont.
- 1796-09-05 General Salicetti orders equal rights for Jews of Bologna, Italy
- 1796-11-17 Battle of Arcole: French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte defeat an Austrian force led by József Alvinczi after a 3 day battle at Arcole, Republic of Venice
- 1797-01-07 First official use of the modern Italian flag (the Tricolor) by the Cispadane Republic
- 1797-05-12 First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice
- 1798-06-07 Jews of Pesaro Italy fast commemorating murder of Jews
- 1800-06-14 Battle of Marengo (Alessandria): Napoleon Bonaparte's French army overcomes Austrian forces in Piedmont, Italy
- 1801-01-01 The dwarf planet Ceres is discovered by Italian monk Giuseppe Piazzi
- 1802-01-25 Napoleon Bonaparte elected president of Italian (Cisalpine) Republic
- 1803-05-18 "Peace of Amiens" between French Republic and Great Britain ends as Britain declares war on France, due to France's imperialist policies in the West Indies, Italy, and Switzerland
- 1805-05-26 Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned King of Italy
- 1808-04-30 1st practical typewriter finished by Italian Pellegrini Turri
Agostino Depretis
Albert Anastasia
Alberto Ascari
Aldo Moro
Alessandro Volta
Alexander VII