On This Day
1018 – Poland and the Holy Roman Empire conclude the Peace of Bautzen.[1]
The Peace of Bautzen (German: Frieden von Bautzen; Polish: Pokój w Budziszynie; Upper Sorbian: Budyski měr) was a treaty concluded on 30 January 1018, between Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and Bolesław I of Poland which ended a series of Polish-German wars over the control of Lusatia and Upper Lusatia (Milzenerland or Milsko, the eastern part of the margraviate of Meissen (Miśnia)) as well as Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.
Bolesław had enjoyed the close friendship of the emperor Otto III and after his death supported one of Otto’s followers, Eckard I, Margrave of Meissen for the position of Holy Roman Emperor, against the claims of Henry II. After both emperor Otto III and Eckard’s death in 1002, Bolesław conquered Eckard’s domain of Meissen, as well as the march of Lusatia. Once Henry secured his position within Germany, an agreement was reached which left Bolesław with Lusatia and Upper Lusatia while the Polish duke in turn recognized Henry as Holy Roman Emperor.
Fighting soon resumed, however, after an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Bolesław—which he believed had been ordered by Henry, who denied the charge—occurred soon after the peace was concluded. Bolesław took control of Bohemia, having previously acquired Moravia and Slovakia. In the ensuing struggle Bolesław allied himself with the Holy Roman Empire’s noble opposition to Henry, while the emperor sought support among the Lutici, a Slavic pagan Polabian tribe. An intermediate peace was concluded in Merseburg in 1013 which preserved the territorial status quo, with Bolesław holding on to Moravia and Slovakia, while Jaromir was made the ruler of Bohemia (though he was soon deposed by his brother Oldrich). Bolesław however agreed to support the Emperor’s Italian campaign. Open warfare continued when Bolesław I did not comply with this condition, and instead supported Henry II’s Italian adversaries. Henry II was however unable to defeat Bolesław I, and agreed on a peace in Bautzen (1018) which left the Duke of Poland in charge of the Lusatian march and Upper Lusatia. The two rulers also strengthened the dynastic bonds between them through Bolesław’s marriage with Oda, first daughter of Margrave Eckard. The emperor also promised to aid Bolesław in his expedition against Ruthenia in the summer of 1018 with contingents of German and Hungarian troops which enabled the Polish ruler to capture Kiev and annex a part of Red Ruthenia.
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1918 – A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
The Battle of May Island is the name given to the series of accidents that occurred during Operation E.C.1 in 1918. Named after the Isle of May, a nearby island in the Firth of Forth, the “battle” consisted of a disastrous series of accidents amongst Royal Navy vessels on their way from Rosyth, Scotland, to fleet exercises in the North Sea. On the misty night of 31 January–1 February 1918, five collisions occurred between eight ships. Two K-class submarines were lost and three other submarines and a light cruiser were damaged. 105 British sailors in total died in the accidents.
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1411 – The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn (Toruń), Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (Prussia).[2]
The (First) Peace of Thorn was a peace treaty formally ending the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War between allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania on one side, and the Teutonic Knights on the other. It was signed on 1 February 1411 in Thorn (Toruń), one of the southernmost cities of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. In historiography, the treaty is often portrayed as a diplomatic failure of Poland–Lithuania as they failed to capitalize on the decisive defeat of the Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in June 1410.[citation needed] The Knights returned Dobrzyń Land which they captured from Poland during the war and made only temporary territorial concessions in Samogitia, which returned to Lithuania only for the lifetimes of Polish King Władysław Jagiełło and Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas. The Peace of Thorn was not stable. It took two other brief wars, the Hunger War in 1414 and Gollub War in 1422, to sign the Treaty of Melno that solved the territorial disputes. However, large war reparations were a significant financial burden on the Knights, causing internal unrest and economic decline. The Teutonic Knights never recovered their former might.
Born On This Day
1912 – Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian and author (d. 1989)[27]
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (/ˈtʌkmən/; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Guns of August (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World War I, and Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971), a biography of General Joseph Stilwell.[2]
Tuchman focused on writing popular history.
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1881 – Irving Langmuir, American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
Irving Langmuir (/ˈlæŋmjʊər/;[3] January 31, 1881 – August 16, 1957) was an American chemist, physicist, and engineer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 for his work in surface chemistry.
Langmuir’s most famous publication is the 1919 article “The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules” in which, building on Gilbert N. Lewis’s cubical atom theory and Walther Kossel’s chemical bonding theory, he outlined his “concentric theory of atomic structure”.[4] Langmuir became embroiled in a priority dispute with Lewis over this work; Langmuir’s presentation skills were largely responsible for the popularization of the theory, although the credit for the theory itself belongs mostly to Lewis.[5] While at General Electric from 1909 to 1950, Langmuir advanced several fields of physics and chemistry, invented the gas-filled incandescent lamp and the hydrogen welding technique. The Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research near Socorro, New Mexico, was named in his honor, as was the American Chemical Society journal for surface science called Langmuir.[1]
1844 – G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist and academic (d. 1924)[39]
Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1846 – April 24, 1924[1]) was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on human life span development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the American Psychological Association and the first president of Clark University. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Hall as the 72nd most cited psychologist of the 20th century, in a tie with Lewis Terman.[2]
FYI
Howard Hesseman (February 27, 1940 – January 29, 2022) was an American actor known for his television roles as malcontent disc jockey “Dr. Johnny Fever” on WKRP in Cincinnati, and the lead role of history teacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class. He appeared regularly on television and in film from the 1970s to 2010s, with other noteworthy roles including Sam Royer (the husband of lead character Ann Romano) in the last two seasons of One Day at a Time, and a supporting role as Captain Pete Lassard in the film Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment.
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By Lianne Kolirin, CNN: Meet 190-year-old Jonathan, the world’s oldest-ever tortoise
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Ideas
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Recipes
RecipeTinEats
- Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef June 16, 2026Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef is what you make when you want a big batch of crowd-pleasing food with relatively little effort. The succulent pulled beef is smothered in an incredible homemade barbecue sauce, and there’s so many ways to serve it – pile into sliders, heap onto plates or stuff into baked potatoes! Easy... […]Nagi
- Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel June 12, 2026Firstly, thank you for the Jaffle love. 🥰 Hit the Jaffle button above to see what he got up to today! Secondly – cake. Specifically, Coffee Cake! A classic crumb cake with a jammy cinnamon ribbon, loaded with lots and lots of nubbly, extra crunchy cinnamon streusel. Outrageously good. Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel This... […]Nagi
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 19 June 19, 2026Picture of the day Alley on Escheckstraße (and part of the cuckoo clock trail), Schönwald im Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 18 June 18, 2026Picture of the day Red-headed weaver (Anaplectes rubriceps leuconotus) male building nest in the Soysambu Conservancy, Kenya.
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