December 10 in History

Michael V was the son of Empress Zoe's sister — not her actual child. She adopted him anyway, desperate for an heir after decades of palace intrigue and three husbands. He repaid her by trying to exile her to a monastery within four months of taking power. Bad move. Constantinople's citizens rioted, stormed the palace, and dragged Michael from his hiding place behind the altar of a church. They gouged out his eyes and tossed him in a cell. Zoe, now 63, reclaimed her throne. She'd outlast two more emperors before dying in the purple she refused to surrender.

King Birger of Sweden lures his brothers, Dukes Valdemar and Erik, into a trap at Nyköping Castle before imprisoning them. The brothers slowly starve to death in the dungeon, eliminating rival claimants and securing Birger's absolute rule over Sweden for nearly two decades.

Four powers, one target: Venice. The richest city in Europe had swallowed too much mainland territory, threatening papal lands and blocking trade routes that made kings wealthy. Pope Julius II—the "Warrior Pope" who led armies himself—convinced France, the Holy Roman Empire, and Aragon to divide Venetian holdings like a carcass. Within two years, Venice would lose nearly everything it owned on the Italian mainland in a single catastrophic battle. But Julius switched sides before the killing blow, terrified that France had grown too strong. The league meant to destroy Venice instead destroyed the idea that any Italian power could stay neutral in the game between Europe's giants.

Albuquerque brought 23 ships and 1,500 men against a city of 100,000. The secret weapon wasn't cannons — it was Timoji, a Hindu privateer who knew every creek and fortress weakness in Goa. They struck during Adil Shah's absence, when most Bijapuri troops were campaigning elsewhere. The city fell in hours. What followed wasn't just occupation but transformation: forced conversions, Inquisition tribunals, and a creole culture that blended Konkani, Portuguese, and Catholic ritual. Goa became the jewel of Portugal's Estado da Índia, outlasting every other European foothold in Asia. When India finally reclaimed it in 1961, Portuguese was still the official language in churches built 400 years earlier.

Two men walked to the scaffold, but their crimes weren't equal. Francis Dereham had been Catherine Howard's lover before she ever met Henry VIII — technically legal, but he'd called her his wife. Thomas Culpeper, though, met her in secret gardens after she wore the crown, and Henry's investigators found a love letter she'd written him. Both lost their heads, but Culpeper got the mercy of beheading while Dereham was hanged, drawn, and quartered. Catherine followed them to the block two months later. She was nineteen.

Kentucky never voted to leave the Union. Stayed officially neutral. But a shadow government of Confederate sympathizers met in Russellville, passed their own secession ordinance, and the Richmond government said sure, welcome aboard. The actual state government in Frankfort? Still flying the Stars and Stripes. Two governors. Two legislatures. One state. Most Kentuckians fought for the Union—roughly 90,000 blue coats versus 35,000 gray. The Confederacy put a star on its flag for a state it never controlled, never held, and would spend the war trying to invade.

Sherman's 62,000 men had just walked 285 miles in five weeks, destroying everything for 60 miles on either side. Railroads ripped up and twisted into "Sherman's neckties." Cotton gins burned. Livestock slaughtered. Georgia's economic spine, snapped like kindling. Now they stood at Savannah's gates with the Atlantic behind it—the Confederacy cut in half. Sherman sent a telegram to Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah." He was early. The city wouldn't fall for another week, but Sherman knew what mattered wasn't taking cities. It was proving the South couldn't protect its own people.

Russian forces storm Plevna, compelling the surrender of 25,000 Ottoman defenders after a grueling five-month siege. This crushing blow shatters Turkish resistance in the Balkans, directly clearing the path for Bulgarian liberation and redrawing the map of Eastern Europe.

Spain signs the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the Spanish-American War and transferring control of Cuba to the United States while selling the Philippines for $20 million. This agreement dismantled the last major overseas holdings of the Spanish Empire and established the United States as a global colonial power in the Pacific and Caribbean.

Jay Berwanger never cashed his first paycheck. The University of Chicago halfback who won college football's first-ever Downtown Athletic Club Trophy couldn't find an NFL team willing to pay what he thought he was worth. So he walked away from the game entirely and became a foam rubber salesman. The Bears drafted him first overall in 1936, traded his rights to the Eagles, and Berwanger said no to both. That bronze statue weighing 25 pounds? He used it as a doorstop. His niece inherited it decades later, auctioned it for $400,000, and suddenly everyone remembered: the greatest individual honor in American sports started with a guy who chose manufacturing over football immortality.