August 18

1201:
Founding of Riga, capital of modern-day Latvia. The first Jews appeared in Riga
three centuries later and despite Czars, Nazis and Commissars continue to live
in the city to this day.

1227:
Genghis Khan dies.  According to Arthur…

August 2

338 BCE:  A Macedonian army
led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the
Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean.
Phillip was the father of Alexander Great. 
His victor…

July 31

904: Thessaloniki, which is also known as
Salonica, is sacked and looted by Saracens (an Arab group).  The Jewish population of Thessaloniki dates
back at least to the first century of the Common Era.  By the time Benjamin of Tudela …

July 27

1192: As
Richard the Lionheart and Saladin continued their conflict during the Third
Crusade, Saladin laid siege to Jaffa.

1214: French
King Phillip II defeats the forces headed by Otto IV, the Holy Roman Emperor
and King John of England at t…

July 24

1148:  Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus
during the Second Crusade. The Second Crusade gained nothing for the
Christians.  The failure of the crusade
may help explain “the long period of persecution that included French cler…