Were spoiled for choice.
And as you had possibly accused me of an unhealthy bias towards Byzantine history, my first choice for today is the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the more so as there is a excellent and comprehensive account of it in AEs main section, and I dont have to read up and write about it myself.
The Warsaw Uprising by the Polish resistance movement, not to be confused with the equally heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 by the Jewish community, began on
August 1, 1944 and tried to liberate the Polish capital from the terrors of Nazi-German occupation.
Warsaw Uprising
Here is the inevitable:
The East-Roman Emperor Justin I (450-527) died on
August 1, 527 and Justinian I (483-565) succeeded to the throne.
During a reign of 9 years Justin I, a man of very humble origins, who had spent his entire life in the army and had made it to General, had shown himself a competent, but unexceptional ruler, who hadnt done anything wrong, but whose only noteworthy achievement had been a short-lived reconciliation of Patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople. His contributions to Byzantine history would thus have remained a forgotten footnote, if it had been for one other decision he had made, that of his successor. And an excellent choice it had been.
In April 527 Justin I had proclaimed his nephew and heir Justinian and his wife, the notorious Theodora, Co-Emperor and Empress, a promotion that reflected the constellations of power at the Byzantine court. It has been argued, that Justinian had been the mastermind behind his uncles elevation to the crown in 518, and had acted as the brains of the family enterprise throughout Justin's reign, and so it was only consequential that he became co-ruler and eventually succeeded Justin I on August 1, 527, to begin one of the most remarkable reigns in Byzantine history.
What else happened on this day?
My personal highlights:
1291- Foundation of the Swiss Federation. The legend goes that at midnight of August 1, 1291 delegates from the three Swiss cantons Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden met on the Ruetli mountain and solemnly swore, by the flickering light of a campfire and the howls of a wolfpack, to resist Habsburg rule and remain free sovereign citizens of the HRE forever. {As you know they succeeded, and got 700 years of freedom and democracy, secret number accounts and the cuckoo clock.)
1491- The last Jews are driven out of Spain by the good Catholic majesties Ferdinand and Isabella, no doubt with some help of the Inquisition. A community that had bloomed under various enlightened and tolerant Muslim Arab rulers was thus destroyed.
Full list:
Wikipedia
Edited by Komnenos