📅 Today in HistoryMay 11

Constantine the Great dedicates the much-expanded and rebuilt city of Byzantium, changing its name to New Rome and declaring it the new capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

A copy of the Diamond Sūtra is published, the earliest dated and printed book known.

In the first coronation ceremony ever held for an English monarch, Edgar the Peaceful is crowned King of England, having ruled since 959 AD. His wife, Ælfthryth, is crowned queen, the first recorded coronation for a Queen of England.

Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, is crowned Queen of England.

Louis IX of France and James I of Aragon sign the Treaty of Corbeil, renouncing claims of feudal overlordship in one another's territories and separating the House of Barcelona from the politics of France.

Great Northern War: After losing the Battle of Helsinki to the Russians, the Swedish and Finnish troops burn the entire city, so that it would not remain intact in the hands of the Russians.

Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons.

William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement.

Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.

Hödel assassination attempt by anarchist Max Hödel targeting the German Kaiser, Wilhelm I.