1491 B.C.
It was around this time that Moses begins his ascent up Mount Sinai and his inevitable appointment with the Lord to receive the Ten Commandments.
973 A.D.
Birth of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II son of Otto II during the reign of Pope Benedict VI.
1210 A.D.
The magnificent Cathedral of Rheims in France is destroyed by fire. Arson is suspected but never proven. One year later to the day in 1211 the cornerstone would be laid on complete reconstruction of the new Cathedral of Rheims.
1312 A.D.
Pope Clement V closes the Fifteenth General Council or the Council of Vienne begun in October 1311 in which the Church abolishes the Knights Templar and that all their property be turned over to the Hospitallers who were the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
1527 A.D.
The Lutheran army led by the German emperor Charles V sacks Rome, kills 147 of the elite Swiss Guard protecting the pontiff, and captures Pope Clement VII, imprisoning him for six months. Clement, though favored by Charles, opted to throw his support behind Francis I of France and that irked Charles to no end whose conquest ended the High Renaissance in Italy.
1542 A.D.
Saint Francis Xavier arrives in Goa, India in his quest to bring the faith to the Far East.
1998 A.D.
Alois Estermann, his wife Gladys and their purported murderer Cedric Tornay are laid to rest in the second worst catastrophe in Swiss Guard history when there is murder in the Vatican two days prior and the funeral was held on this day last year.