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Switzerland
Switzerland
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210Mil BC |
The Plateosaurus, a peaceful herbivore measuring up to 10 meters from head to tail, roamed river deltas in large herds about this time, when most of Switzerland was covered with desert and its landscape may have looked much like the estuary of the Nile now. Links: Switzerland, Dinosaur, HistoryBC 
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14600 BC 14100 BC |
A canine jaw, dating to this time, was found in Switzerland in 1873. Analysis in 2010 indicated the age of the bone and proved humans were keeping dogs at this time. Links: Switzerland, Animal, Sociology, HistoryBC
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3063 BC |
In 2010 Swiss archaeologists in Zurich said they have unearthed a 5,000-year-old door that may be one of the oldest ever found in Europe. Using tree rings to determine its age, they believed the door could have been made in the year 3,063 BC, around the time that construction on Britain's world famous Stonehenge monument began. Links: Switzerland, HistoryBC
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563 |
A tsunami devastated Geneva. It was generated by a massive rockfall on what was called Mount Tauredunum. Links: Switzerland, Disaster
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990 |
A set of instructions on chess, the Versus de Scachis (Poem About Chess), emerged in Switzerland about this time. The game had begun in India before the 6th century. Links: India, Switzerland, Games
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1357 |
In Switzerland Konrad Mueller killed Heinrich Stucki. To atone Mueller promised to always pay to keep an eternal lamp lit. In 2013 a court in Glarus canton ruled that the current farm owner no longer has to pay $76 each year for oil and candles because Swiss mortgage reforms in the mid-19th century made the practice invalid. Links: Switzerland
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1365 |
Basel, Switzerland, was wrecked by an earthquake. Links: Switzerland, Earthquake
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1386 |
The counts of Habsburg tried to reach their goals by military force but were again defeated by Swiss forces at the battle of Sempach. Links: Austria, Switzerland
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1388 |
The counts of Habsburg tried to reach their goals by military force but were again defeated by Swiss forces at the battle of Naefels. Links: Austria, Switzerland
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1444 Aug 26 |
In the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs, fought near Basel in Switzerland, a Swiss force of some 1,600 soldiers stopped some 30,000 French mercenaries on their way to relieve a siege of Zurich. Links: France, Switzerland
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1506 Jan 22 |
The Swiss Guard mercenaries, summoned by Pope Julius II to protect the pope and the Vatican, arrived in Rome. Links: Italy, Switzerland, Vatican
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1527 May 6 |
German and Spanish troops under Charles V began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance. Libraries were destroyed, Pope Clement VII was captured and thousands were killed. Links: Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Vatican
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1541 Sep 24 |
Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (b.1493), Swiss alchemist, physician and theologian, died. The 1835 poem "Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim" by Robert Browning was based on the life of Paracelsus. In 2006 Philip Ball authored ”The Devil’s Doctor: Paracelsus and the Renaissance World of Magic and Science.” Links: Switzerland, Medical, Biography, Renaissance
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1553 Oct 27 |
Michael Servetus (b.1511), Spanish theologian and physician, was burnt for heresy in Geneva, Switzerland. His last book "Christianismi Restitutio" included a chapter on the pulmonary circulation of blood. In 2002 Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone authored "Out of the Flames." [see 1540] Links: Spain, Switzerland, Medical, Biography, Religion
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1554 1562 |
Pierre Eskrich (aka Pierre DuVase), a French illustrator, produced a collection of 218 bird paintings. He had fled Lyon to Geneva to escape the Edict of Chateaubriand (1551), a crackdown on Protestantism in France. Links: Artist, France, Switzerland, Birds
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1684 Jan 11 |
In Switzerland this day “was so frightfully cold that all of the communion wine froze," said an entry by Brother Josef Dietrich, governor and "weatherman" of the Einsiedeln Monastery. The Einsiedeln abbots, princes within the Holy Roman Empire until 1798, were powerful leaders who ruled over large swaths of central Switzerland's mountainous terrain. Links: Switzerland, WeatherEU
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1693 |
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptists led by Jakob Ammann (1656-1730). Links: Switzerland, God, Religion
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1712 Jun 28 |
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (d.1778), writer and philosopher, was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His books include "The Social Contract." Links: France, Switzerland, Philosophy, Writer
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1714 Sep 7 |
In Baden, Switzerland, Charles VI signed the Treaty of Baden, also called the Peace of Baden, on behalf of the Holy Roman Empire. It was one of the agreements that concluded the War of the Spanish Succession. Links: Spain, Switzerland, Holy Roman Empire
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1767 |
Horace de Saussure, Swiss scientist, developed a solar cooker using the greenhouse effect, in the form of several glass boxes set inside one another and placed on a dark surface. Links: Switzerland, Technology, Sun
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1778 Jul 2 |
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (b.1712), Swiss-born writer and philosopher, died in France. He was considered part of the French Enlightenment along with Voltaire and Diderot. In 2005 Leo Damrosch authored “Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius.” Links: France, Switzerland, Philosophy, Writer, Biography
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1782 |
In Switzerland Anna Goeldi was beheaded as a witch for an alleged case of poisoning. A museum on Goeldi was opened in Mollis in 2007 on the 225th anniversary of her death. In 2008 the canton of Glarus said she should be exonerated because the execution was a miscarriage of justice. Goeldi was exonerated on August 27, 2008. Links: Switzerland, Women
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1806 |
In Switzerland a landslide into Lake Lauerz triggered a tsunami 20 meters high. Links: Switzerland, Disaster
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1816 |
Lord Byron and guests gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva, Switz. It was here that Byron challenged his guests to write a ghost story. This led Mary Shelley to produce Frankenstein in 1818 and John Polidori to create his short story “The Vampyre” (1819). Links: Britain, Switzerland, Poet, Writer
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1818 Jun 16 |
An ice-dammed lake in the Val de Bagnes above Martigny broke through its barrier causing many deaths. This event led Jean de Charpentier to focus on Swiss glaciers and then influence Louis Agassiz with his ideas regarding glacier development. Links: Switzerland
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1821 |
Ignatz Venetz, Swiss civil engineer, presented a paper titled “Temperature Variation in the Swiss Alps” to the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences, in which he described retreating ice glaciers and acknowledged Jean-Pierre Perraudin, a hunter and mountain guide, as the originator of the idea that a glacier had once occupied the full length of the Val de Bagnes. In 1833 Jean de Charpentier (1786-1855), a German-Swiss geologist, arranged to have the paper published. Links: Switzerland, Environment
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1825 Apr 16 |
John Henry Fuseli (b.1741), Swiss born British Romantic painter, died. His paintings included “Nightmare” (1782). Links: Artist, Britain, Switzerland
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1828 May 8 |
Jean Henri Dunant (d.1910), Swiss philanthropist, was born. He founded the Int’l. Committee of the Red Cross and was the first recipient (jointly) of the Nobel Peace Prize. Links: Switzerland, Medical
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1837 |
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), Swiss paleontologist, proposed to the Helvetic Society that ancient glaciers had not only flowed outward from the Alps, but that even larger glaciers had simultaneously encroached southward on the plains and mountains of Europe, Asia and North America, smothering the entire northern hemisphere in a prolonged Ice Age. Links: Switzerland
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1841 |
J.M.W. Turner painted his watercolor “The Blue Rigi: Lake of Lucerne, Sunrise” following a visit to Switzerland. In 1942 it sold for 1,500 guineas (about $94,000 in 2006 money). In 2006 it sold at auction for $11 million. Links: Artist, Britain, Switzerland
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1848 |
A Swiss constitution was enacted that included a mandate for neutrality. It copied almost wholesale the American constitution. It was revised in 1874. A new one was adopted in 1999. Links: Switzerland
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1852 Nov 30 |
Jean Henri Dunant (1828-1910), Swiss Calvinist, founded the Geneva branch of the YMCA. In 1855 he took part in the Paris meeting devoted to the founding of its international organization. Links: Switzerland
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1855 Dec 12 |
Jean de Charpentier (b.1786), a German-Swiss geologist, died in Bex, Switzerland. Links: Switzerland
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1855 |
The The World Alliance of the YMCA was established at the first International Conference held in Paris. Jean Henri Dunant (1828-1910), Swiss Calvinist, founded the Geneva branch of the YMCA in 1852. In 1855 he took part in the Paris meeting devoted to the founding of its international organization. Links: France, Switzerland
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1858 |
Tell City, Ind., was founded as a planned community of Swiss furniture craftsmen from Cincinnati, Ohio. Links: USA, Switzerland, Ohio, Indiana, Antique, Furniture
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1859 Jun 24 |
At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army led by Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I in northern Italy. Some 6,000 men died in the battle and thousands of wounded were effectively abandoned as witnessed by Henri Dunant (31), a Swiss businessman seeking Napoleon for a land development proposal. In 1862 Dunant published “A Memory of Solferino” and began a campaign for a volunteer society to aid wounded soldiers. Links: Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland
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1861 |
Italy and Switzerland drew a border line through the Monte Rosa Masif of the Alps with the line at several places set at the watershed of glaciers. In 2009 shrinking glaciers due to global warming forced the line to be reset. Links: Italy, Switzerland
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1862 Nov |
Jean Henri Dunant (1828-1910) published "A Memory of Solferino." His ideas about creation of a volunteer committee to care for war-wounded led to the creation in 1863 of the Permanent International Committee for Relief to Wounded Combatants, later called the International Red Cross. Dunant, a Swiss businessman, had witnessed the plight of thousands of wounded left helpless on the battlefield at Solferino, Italy, on June 24, 1859. Organizing local volunteers to help, Dunant brought aid to as many of the victims as he could. Links: Italy, Switzerland, Books
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1863 Feb 9 |
The Intl. Committee of Red Cross (Nobel 1917, 1944, 1963) was formed in Geneva, Switz. The red cross design based on the Swiss flag with the colors reversed. Links: Switzerland, Medical
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1863 Feb 9 |
Henri Dunant (1828-1910) addressed the Geneva Society for Public Welfare and asked the members to form a volunteer society to aid wounded soldiers. The Intl. Committee of Red Cross (Nobel 1917, 1944, 1963) was formed in Geneva, Switz. The red cross design based on the Swiss flag with the colors reversed. Links: Switzerland, Medical
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1864 Mar 19 |
Alexandre Calame (b.1810), Swiss painter, died in Menton, France. Links: Artist, Switzerland
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1864 Aug 22 |
In Geneva, Switzerland, representatives of 12 nations agreed to sign the First Geneva Contention “for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field.” By 1866 twenty countries had signed. 194 states were signatories as of 2008. Links: Switzerland, Medical
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1865 Jul 14 |
Edward Whymper, Charles Hudson, Michel Croz, and Douglas Hadow became the 1st to climb the Matterhorn, on the border of Switzerland and Italy. Only Edward Whymper survived the descent. Links: Switzerland, Tragedy, Mountain
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1865 Dec 23 |
France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland formed the Latin Monetary Union (LMU). It was a 19th century attempt to unify several European currencies into a single currency that could be used in all the member states, at a time when most national currencies were still made out of gold and silver. Spain and Greece joined in 1868. It quickly weakened as members pursued their own economic policies. It was disbanded in 1927. Links: Italy, Belgium, Spain, France, Switzerland, Greece, Money
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1865 |
Swiss furniture craftsmen formed the Chair Makers Union of Tell City, Ind. This later became the Tell City Chair Co. Links: USA, Switzerland, Indiana, Antique, Furniture
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We offer additional services to help you as well including
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1870 Jul 30 |
Clara Barton departed for field with the Red Cross following the French declaration of war against Prussia. In Basle Antoinette Margot (27) joined her as an aide and interpreter. Links: USA, Switzerland, Medical
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1881 1882 |
Dr. Muller of Germany was said to be working at the Swiss Geisenheim viticultural station when he made the crossing that joined the late-ripening Riesling and the early-ripening and prolific Silvaner. The grape became know as Muller-Thurgau. Müller-Thurgau entered the well-kept records of Germany's vineyards in 1921, but it was not until a major symposium on the crossing was held at Alzey in 1938 that it gained any widespread acceptance. Links: Germany, Switzerland, Wine
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1887 |
The Marxist Hunchakian Revolutionary Party, called the Hunchaks, was founded in Geneva, Switzerland by Armenians from Russia. Links: Armenia, Switzerland
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1894 |
Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918), Swiss painter, created a painting 10 meters high for the Exposition in Antwerp. It depicted the story of the 1865 descent of Edward Whymper (1840-1911) after he became the first man to climb the Matterhorn. Four of his party died. Hodler allowed the painting to be cut up and it’s now in a museum in Berne. Links: Artist, Switzerland, Netherlands, Mountain
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1896 |
F. Hoffman-La Roche & Co. was founded in Switzerland. Links: Switzerland, Medical
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1898 Aug 13 |
Sigmund Freud (42) signed into the Schweizerhaus, a Swiss Alps inn, with Minna Bernays (33), his wife’s sister, and registered her as his wife. Links: Switzerland, Psychiatry
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1901 |
Henry Dunant (1828-1910), Swiss businessman, won the 1st Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in establishing the Int’l. Red Cross and the First Geneva Convention covering treatment of those wounded in war. The prize was shared with Frederic Passy (1822-1912), French economist, for his efforts toward international peace. Links: France, Switzerland, Nobel Prize
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1905 |
Nestle S.A. originated in a merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company for milk products established in 1866 by the Page Brothers in Cham, Switzerland, and the Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé Company set up in 1866 by Henri Nestlé to provide an infant food product. Links: Switzerland, Food, M&A
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1906 |
Felix Salten (1869-1945), Austrian writer, authored the novel “Josephine Mutzenbacher,” the fictional autobiography of a Vienna prostitute, a notorious pornographic novel. In 1923 he authored “Bambi.” Links: Austria, Switzerland, Writer
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1910 Oct 30 |
Jean Henri Dunant (b.1828), Swiss philanthropist, died. His book “A Memory of Solferino” (1862) led to the foundation of the Int’l. Committee of the Red Cross. He was the first recipient (jointly) of the Nobel Peace Prize. Links: Switzerland
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1911 May 15 |
Max Frisch (d.1991), Swiss architect and writer, was born. Links: Switzerland, Writer, Architect
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1911 |
Eugene Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist, coined the term “schizophrenia.” Links: Switzerland, Psychiatry
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1913 Feb 22 |
Ferdinand de Saussure (b.1857), Swiss linguist and founder of Structuralism, died in Geneva. Links: Switzerland
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1919 |
Nestle exhausted its local supply of milk and began opening factories in Australia, England, Germany and Norway. Links: Switzerland, Food
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1921 Jan 5 |
Friedrich Durrenmatt (d.1990), Swiss author and playwright, was born. Links: Switzerland, Writer, Playwright
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