January 3

106 BCE:
Birthdate of Marcus Tullius, the Roman statesman and orator.  From the Jewish point of view he was just one
more anti-Semitic intellectual.  “He
denounced Judaism as a ‘barbarous superstition.’” He defended a Roman officia…

January 2

438: Empress Eudocia, the wife of Byzantine Emperor Theodius II, who
spent the last years of her life in the Holy Land allowed the Jews to return to
Jerusalem and pray at the site of the Temple at the same time her husband was
“announcing le…

December 27

175 BCE (Tevet 3585): This day
marked the completion of the Septuagint
translation of the Bible into the Greek language. According to a letter from
Aristeas to Philocrates, 72 sages, (six from each Israelite tribe) were brought
to by Ptole…

December 25

0337(14th
of Tevet, 4098): Earliest possible date on which Christmas was reported to have
been celebrated on December 25th. 

496:
Baptism of Clovis I, the Frankish ruler who united all the tribes of Gaul
(France) under one ruler. Hi…

DECEMBER 6

1060: Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary.
In 1061 Bela changed the Market Day from the traditional Sunday to Saturday
which may have been part of an attempt to remove the Jews from the commercial
activity of the kingdom.  Giv…