Marie Antoinette Born: Future Queen Meets Revolution
Marie Antoinette left Austria at fourteen to become Queen of France, inheriting a court drowning in debt and public resentment. Her extravagant spending and political tone-deafness made her the revolution's prime target, ending with her execution by guillotine during the Reign of Terror in 1793.
November 2, 1755
271 years ago
What Else Happened on November 2
A foreign ruler was murdered inside a Chinese imperial palace — and the emperor signed off on it. Tong Yabghu Qaghan, powerful leader of the Western Turkic Khag…
The Armagnac and Burgundian factions signed the Peace of Bicetre, temporarily halting the civil war that had consumed France while England circled. The truce ba…
The water didn't recede. It swallowed entire villages whole. The All Saints' Flood of 1570 — named for the feast day it struck — sent walls of North Sea water c…
Hundreds of Narragansett people — mostly women, children, and elderly — were sheltering inside the Great Swamp Fort when the colonial forces arrived. Not warrio…
Four British warships shattered against the rocks of the Isles of Scilly after navigators miscalculated their position by miles. This disaster forced Parliament…
Two men in a Boston tavern essentially invented American political infrastructure. Samuel Adams pushed hard for it — not a battle plan, not a declaration, just …
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.