July 4

925: Moslems
raided Oria as part of their attacks on Italy. Ten rabbinical leaders were
killed and many others were taken into captivity, including 12 year old
Shabbetai Donnolo, who later achieved fame as a physician

1187: Guy de
Lusignan (Ki…

JUNE 30

713
CE: In Spain, Visigoth nobility which had held out against the invading Moslem
forces, throughout the winter of 712 finally surrendered to the Arabs. A
majority of the remaining Goths and Hispano-Roman people who lived in the newly
acquire…

JUNE 26

363:
Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire.
General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield.
According to various sources, Julian was a true Roman pagan who sought to roll
back the inr…

JUNE 23

79:
Vespasian, the Roman general who was in the process of conquering Judea when he
became Emperor, died.

79:
Titus, the Roman general whom the Jews will always remember for the destruction
of Jerusalem and the Temple succeeded his father Ves…

JUNE 22

217 BCE:
Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeated Antiochus III at the Battle of Raphia. The Battle of Raphia, also known as the Battle of Gaza, was part of the
ongoing power struggle between the Seleucids and the Ptolomies for the land
mass that included…

JUNE 15

1215:  King John of England puts his seal to the
Magna Carta.  The Great Charter which is
supposed to be one of the cornerstones of English and American rights contains
the following reference to the Jews: “If anyone who borrowed fro…

JUNE 11

1509:  Marriage of King Henry VIII of England and
Katherine of Aragon. Before marrying Henry, the Spanish made him promise that
he would never permit Jews to live in his Kingdom.  Henry agreed which was no big deal at the
time since …