Hilla, Middle East. Tamerlane attacks the Jews, burning them inside the synagogue.

Count Vlad Dracula rules Transylvania; he used to impale invading Turks

In Renaissance Europe, ancient texts such as Euclid’s geometry, Ptolemy’s geography, Galen’s medicine, preserved in the Middle Ages by Arab scholars, gave birth to modern science.

England. The Houses of Lancaster and York reign, with eight sovereigns (Plantagenates): Henry IV Bolingbroke, Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV (second reign), Edward V, and Richard III.

The Genoese built large, round ships weighing as much as 1,000 tons, while the Venetians were held back by the shallow waters of the Venetian lagoon. The largest cocca built by the Venetians at the time was 27 meters long and carried 720 tons (1,200 barrels).

Nicopolis on the Danube. The Christian coalition suffers a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Ottomans under Bayazid, who becomes the hero of Islam of his time.

Jalairid Kingdom. Timur attacks Baghdad by surprise. Soltan Ahmad, caught off guard, must flee in a daring way to the Mamluk dominions. The city is devastated and sacked.

The Jewish presence in Modena grew significantly during the 15th century, as more than 500 documents on Modena’s Jews are found among notarial deeds. Jews settled in Modena to practice money lending against pledges, opening banks authorized by the Este family (money lending banks). The first of these was authorized on January 1, 1393, by Marquis Alberto d’Este to Guglielmo son of the late Masetto da Fermo, who lived in Modena; Salomone di Mattasia da Perugia, who lived in Bologna; the heirs of the late Masetto de Leuciis da Perugia, who lived in Bologna; and the heirs of the late Salomone di Elia, who lived in Rimini—bankers who wanted to create new hubs for their business.

Khwarezm, Central Asia. Timur besieges Urgench for the second time, accused of collaborating with his bitter rival Toqtamish. The city is razed to the ground.

Muzapharid Kingdom. Persia. Tamerlane occupies Isfahan to demand the collection of huge taxes. When the population refuses, he unleashes carnage: 70,000 dead, with pyramids of heads surrounding the city walls. After Isfahan, he moves on to Shiraz, where the citizens rush to welcome him with open doors and arms.

Mirandola. The Mirandola statutes are published. Mirandola is an imperial fiefdom, and only in 1710, following the War of the Spanish Succession, did Mirandola pass to the Este family of Rinaldo I, becoming part of the Modena territory.

Beginning of the Jagiellonian dynasty which unifies Poland and Lithuania.

Venice purchases Corfu from a pretender to the Neapolitan throne. The island will be fortified from top to bottom and will remain Venetian until the end of the Republic, after more than four centuries.

Venice carefully avoided engaging the Ottoman Empire directly in battle, but when the opportunity arose, it purchased seaports throughout the Aegean Sea and elsewhere at favorable prices. Thus, it purchased Durazzo and Scutari in Albania, Lepanto, Patras, Argos, and Nafplio in the Morea, and finally Athens itself, as well as other territories around Negroponte and other Aegean islands.

Byzantine Empire. Murad’s Ottomans conquer Sofia.

Georgia. Tamerlane destroys the city of Qars, conquers Tiflis, and takes prisoner the Christian ruler Bagrat V, who is forced to convert to Islam.

Persia. Timur attacks Sistan, then a very fertile and rich land. He carries out one of the most devastating devastations in the history of his conquests. After conquering the cities of Bust and Zarang, Timur devastates the water system based on the qanats, a masterpiece of hydraulic engineering. He causes damage whose consequences are still being felt today.

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. Chioggia. Starving, Pietro Doria surrenders Chioggia unconditionally, losing 5,000 men and 19 galleys.

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. A force of 4,000 men unsuccessfully attempts to conquer Chioggia Minore, but the fleet manages to block all access to the Clodian lagoon by sinking ships loaded with stones and thus trapping the Genoese ships, which from besieging them become besieged.

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. The reconstituted Venetian fleet sets sail for Chioggia, under the command of the octogenarian Doge.

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. The Genoese and Paduans join forces and storm Chioggia, completing the siege of Venice. They ask for negotiations, but the Genoese respond that “it won’t be discussed until the horses of Saint Mark are harnessed” (the famous bronze quadrille brought from Constantinople in 1204, previously imported from Rome). But the Venetians do not surrender easily. The entrance to the Lido di San Nicolo’ is barricaded with large chained boats, forts are built, debts are incurred to procure resources, and merchants are bribed to break the siege. The Venetian populace is united against the invader, but is also angry with the nobles for the treatment of Vettore Pisani, who has been imprisoned following the defeat by the Genoese. The nobles realize they need all the popular support and release Pisani. When he shows up at the dock to recruit crews, the scribes struggle to cope with the crowd of crossbowmen, rowers, all experienced people, who want to sign with him.

The Great Schism divides Western Christianity.

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. Vettore Pisani, a Venetian admiral, wages war in Genoese waters, and manages to capture several Genoese nobles and bring them back as prisoners to Venice. However, this does not prevent the Genoese from quickly reorganizing and re-establishing their fleet, which reaches the Adriatic. This recalls Pisani to the Adriatic. The Genoese have 22 galleys (but only 16 are visible; the others are cleverly hidden behind a promontory) and the Venetians have 24. (The fleets are considerably smaller than those of the First Genoa-Venice War due to the shortage of sailors and craftsmen caused by the Black Death.) Battle breaks out despite Pisani’s reticence. The Genoese admiral is killed, but then the six hidden Genoese galleys intervene, and the battle turns in the latter’s favor. Pisani escapes with five or six remaining vessels. Hundreds of Venetians and 24 nobles are taken prisoner. Eight hundred mercenaries (many from the garrison of Pola) are beheaded by the Genoese and thrown into the sea. Never in the entire history of the Republic has Venice been so close to being taken by assault. Blockaded on all sides, Venice is short of food and supplies.

Hundred Years’ War: Under Edward III, King of England

The Holy Roman Empire stretches from Tuscany to Provence to Holland to Bohemia to Moravia

The Russians reconquer various territories from the Mongols, up to the Black Sea.

Seven German princes (four laymen and three ecclesiastical) shared the hereditary power to elect the Holy Roman Emperor: the so-called prince-electors. This was officially sanctioned by the Golden Bull of Charles IV of Bohemia in 1356.

Geoffrey De Charny, nephew of the Normandy preceptor of the same name, exhibited the Holy Shroud for the first time in the West in Liney in the diocese of Troyes

The Council of Ten uncovered a conspiracy hatched by Doge Falier to attempt to overthrow the Republican regime and establish a personal Signoria. It is said that the prince had decided to launch the plot out of disillusionment with the aristocratic system of government, after several young nobles, including Michele Steno, had insulted him and his young wife with graffiti on the walls of the Doge’s Palace, and were punished by Venetian justice with only very light sentences. On April 15th, the day set for the coup, the conspirators were captured and executed on April 16th between the columns of St. Mark’s Square (among them Bertuccio Isarello and Filippo Calendario). April 16th, the day of St. Isidore, became a national holiday to celebrate the averted danger. On Friday, April 17th of that year, Doge Marin Falier himself was beheaded on the Giants’ Staircase of the Doge’s Palace (where coronations took place and the formula of the ducal promise was pronounced), with the executioner shouting, “Look, everyone! Justice has been served on the traitor!” On the 18th, his body was buried in a coffin in a corner of the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. The new Doge was Giovanni Gradenigo. Francesco da Carrara remained sole ruler of Padua, initiating a policy hostile to Venice, which concluded a very costly peace with Genoa.

Hundred Years’ War: Aquitanian Phase

North America. In present-day East St. Louis, the city of Cahokia, the capital of a sort of Native American grain-growing state, is abandoned. Something catastrophic, unknown to us, happens. In the previous two centuries, it had reached peak populations of 15,000, only to suddenly vanish into oblivion in 1350. To the south, still along the Mississippi, other similar kingdoms arise, which will similarly crumble. This scenario is called “Mississippian culture” and sees the self-conscious ability to engage in political and organizational debate as one of the highest human values, along with a love of individual freedom and skeptical rationalism. In 1350, however, something catastrophic happens, leading to a self-conscious rejection of everything Cahokia represents, including agriculture, and it is also erased from Native American oral traditions.

Nicola Oresmo demonstrates the divergence of the harmonic series (1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + …) in an elementary way: he points out that the sum of the inverses of 3 and 4, as well as of 5, 6, 7, 8, as well as of 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and so on, is always at least equal to 1/2, and the series of 1/2 diverges by Archimedes’ principle.

First Genoa-Venice War. Genoa was Venice’s most dangerous rival for dominance of Mediterranean trade. The winner of these battles (the second Genoa-Venice war would be in 1378–1381) would never be able to prevent its opponent from deploying a fleet equal to or more powerful than its predecessor within a year or two. In effect, therefore, the battle ended in a draw, as both maritime powers survived the clash.

Venice. The conscription system required each of the sixty contrade to count all men between the ages of 20 and 60, drawn in groups of twelve. Each dozen drew lots to determine who would be the first to serve. Until 1350, the chosen one received one lire per month from the other members of the dozen, five lire from the government, and could be exempted if he paid six lire for a substitute. He had to provide the weapons himself, and by law he was required to keep one at home at all times.

The bubonic plague has already reached England