On This Day July 18

The Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky married his student Antonina Ivanovna Milivkova at the Church of Saint George in Moscow on July 18, 1877. The marriage was hasty, and Tchaikovsky quickly found he could not bear his wife.  Finding Antonina physically repulsive, Tchaikovsky sneaked away one night six weeks after their marriage and fled to his brother, Anatoly in St Petersburg. Antonia kept in touch with letters and they never divorced.

Tchaikovsky and Antonina on their honeymoon

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On This Day May 21

On May 21, 1809 the French made their first major effort to cross the Danube during the Napoleonic Wars, precipitating the Battle of Aspern-Essling. However, they were driven back by the Austrians under Archduke Charles. The result was the first defeat Napoleon suffered personally in a major set-piece battle in over a decade. The French emperor's set back caused excitement throughout many parts of Europe because it proved that he could be beaten on the battlefield.

The Battle of Aspern-Essling by Fernand Cornon

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On This Day May 11

The first, and to date only, British Prime Minister to be assassinated was Spencer Perceval. On the evening of May 11, 1812, Perceval entered the lobby of the House of Commons, when a Liverpool merchant with a grievance against the government, John Bellingham, stepped forward, drew a pistol and shot him in the chest. Bellingham was tried and convicted, and hanged at Newgate Prison.

A painting depicting the assassination of Perceval. 

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On This Day May 10

The first American transcontinental railway was completed west of the Rockies at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869 when the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads met. The Central Pacific Railroad President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold "Last Spike" with a silver hammer at Promontory Summit. It was a moment of vast symbolic significance as with this transcontinental link completed, the American nation was now a single unit from coast to coast.

At the ceremony for the driving of the "Last Spike" at Promontory Summit

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On This Day February 12

The phrase 'The New Look' was coined by Harper's Bazaar, the fashion monthly, for Christian Dior's first fashion collection, on February 12, 1947. His long-skirted "new look" brought Dior worldwide fame and helped Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world as out went fashion rations and in came masses of material, designed to suit a curvy hour-glass figure.

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On This Day February 7

Supporters of Dominican friar and preacher Girolamo Savonarola burnt Florentine luxury goods on February 7, 1497 at the carnival of Florence. Savonarola organised the “bonfire of the vanities” at the carnival celebration before Lent, in which thousands of works of art, pornographic books and gambling equipment were publicly burnt.  Such bonfires were not invented by Savonarola, but had been a common accompaniment to the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino di Siena (1380-1444).

Savonarola Preaching in Florence, painting by Nikolay Lomtev (1850s)

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