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More, (St) Thomas (1478–1535)

English politician and author. From 1509 he was favoured by Henry VIII and employed on foreign embassies. He was a member of the privy council from 1518 and Lord Chancellor from 1529 but resigned over Henry's break with the pope. For refusing to accept the king as head of the church, he was executed. The title of his political book Utopia (1516) has come to mean any supposedly perfect society.

Son of a London judge, More studied Greek, Latin, French, theology, and music at Oxford, and law at Lincoln's Inn, London, and was influenced by the humanists John Colet and Erasmus, who became a friend. In Parliament from 1504, he was made Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523. He was knighted in 1521, and on the fall of Cardinal Wolsey became Lord Chancellor, but resigned in 1532 because he could not agree with the king on his ecclesiastical policy and marriage with Anne Boleyn. In 1534 he refused to take the oath of supremacy to Henry VIII as head of the church, and after a year's imprisonment in the Tower of London he was executed.

Among Thomas More's writings are the Latin Utopia (1516), sketching an ideal commonwealth; the English Dialogue (1528), a theological argument against the Reformation leader Tyndale; and a History of Richard III. He was also a patron of artists, including Holbein. More was canonized in 1935, and in November 2000, the pope declared him patron saint of politicians.

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More, Thomas: From Utopia

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11 July 1863

President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which legally frees all of the African American slaves in Confederate states. Though the Proclamation affects few slaves immediately, it encourages others to escape. For more, see our in-depth article on the American Civil War.

2 January 1980

British steel workers call a national strike for the first time in more than fifty years in an attempt to increase their pay.

3 January 1915

German troops use tear gas for the first time against Russian soldiers on the Eastern Front. For more see our Encyclopedia entry on World War II.

5 January 1959

Coral Records release 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' by Buddy Holly. This was Holly’s last record before his tragic death in a plane crash that also killed singers Ritchie Valens and J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson.

6 January 1941

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt defines the American goal of 'four freedoms': Freedom of Speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. You can see more of Roosevelt's speeches in our Great Speeches area.

7 January 1990

In Italy, The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public for the first time in more than 800 years so that restoration work can begin to prevent it from collapsing.

9 January 1997
Round-The-World yachtsman Tony Bullimore is rescued after spending 4 days in the Pacific Ocean after his boat capsized.

11 January 1998
More than 100 people are killed in two villages in Algeria. The attacks, which took place south of the capital Algiers, are alleged to have been perpetrated by Islamic extremists.

13 January 1991

As protesters continue to fight for Lithuanian independence, 13 people are killed and more than 140 injured by the Soviet military.

17 January 1994
A huge earthquake rocks Los Angeles, killing more than 20 people.

29 January 2003

In Britain, solicitor Sally Clark is cleared by the Court of Appeal of murdering her two sons. Clark had already served more than three years of a life sentence.

5 February 2004
In Morecambe Bay, England, twenty three Chinese cockle-pickers drown after becoming trapped by rising tides.

9 February 1950
United States Senator Joe McCarthy launches his anti-communist crusade, claiming that more than two hundred state department officials are members of the communist party.

17 February 2005

Seven people are arrested and more than £2 million is recovered by Irish police investigating the £26 million Northern Bank robbery, which touch place in Belfast in December 2004.

23 February 1861

In America, fearing an assassination attempt in Baltimore, president-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington.

4 March 1941
The Second World War: The British Navy launches Operation Claymore, destroying a German trawler off the coast of Norway, but failing to capture the Enigma decoding machine.

8 March 1985
Car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon explodes killing 45 people and injuring hundreds more.

12 March 1993
Thirteen bombs explode across Bombay, India killing over two hundred people and injuring hundreds more.

21 March 1984
A European Economic Community summit in Brussels collapse as Britain tries to negotiate a more substantial rebate.

22 March 1968
The Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland is appointed Army Chief of Staff with General Creighton Abrams replacing Westmoreland as commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam.

24 March 2006
In England, Lin Liang Ren is found guilty of the manslaughter of 21 Chinese cocklers who drowned when caught in high tides in Morecombe Bay in 2004.

27 March 1964
Measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, America’s largest ever earthquake hits Alaska, killing 125 people and injuring thousands more.

3 April 1987

The jewels of the late Duchess of Windsor, the former Mrs Wallis Simpson who married Edward VI of England after his abdication in 1936, fetch more than £30million at auction.

5 April 1986

In West Germany, a bomb explodes in a Berlin night club regularly attended by U.S. troops, killing two people and injuring hundreds more.

15 April 1994
More than 120 countries around the world finally sign the new GATT World Trade Treaty after negotiations which lasted for seven years.

19 April 1902
A massive earthquake hits western Guatemala, killing more 2,000 people.

21 April 1987

A car bomb planted by the Tamil Tigers in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo kills more than 100 people.

22 April 1992
A gas leak in Guadalajara, Mexico causes dozens of sewers to explode killing more than 200 people.

25 April 1964
President Johnson announces that General William Westmoreland will replace General Paul Harkins as head of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam.

28 April 1995
As gas explosion in Taegu, South Korea kills more than 100 people.

29 April 1991
A massive cyclone hits Bangladesh killing more than 135,000 people.

30 April 1803
The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France, more than doubling the size of America.

12 May 1971
British pop star Mick Jagger marries Bianca Oerez Morena de Macias.

14 May 1940
The Second World War: In the Netherlands, most of Rotterdam is destroyed by German bombing, which kills 1,000 people and makes more than 50,000 homeless.

23 May 1945
The Second World War: A day after being captured by the Allies, Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, commits suicide. Learn more in our SS Microsite.

24 May 1964
A riot breaks out during a football match between Peru and Argentina when the referee disallows a goal. More than 300 people are killed in the fighting.

25 May 1793
In Baltimore, Maryland Father Stephen Theodore Badin becomes the first Catholic priest to be ordained in the America.

27 May 2006
More than 3,000 people are killed when a massive earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Java.

29 May 1914
Cruise liner Empress of Ireland collides with a Norwegian freighter on the St Lawrence River in Canada. More than 1000 are killed.

30 May 1971
Launch of the US space probe Mariner 9 on its mission to Mars. It is able to send more than 7,000 pictures of the planet back to Earth.

5 June 1944
The Second World War: More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries placed at the Normandy assault area, while 3,000 Allied ships cross the English Channel in preparation for the invasion of Normandy.

12 June 1897
In India, a powerful earthquake hits Assam, killing more than 1,500 people.

13 June 1983
After more than a decade in space, Pioneer 10, the world’s first outer-planetary probe, leaves the solar system.

16 June 1976
Thousands of schoolchildren in the South African township of Soweto near Johannesburg begin a revolt against the Government instruction that teachers must teach Afrikaans in black schools. More than 1,000 people – including many children - are killed in the rioting.

18 June 1778
American War of Independence: Colonial forces enter Philadelphia following the British evacuation of more than 12,000 troops.

20 June 1756
In India, the night of the infamous ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ where more than 140 British soldiers and civilians are placed in a small prison cell - 18 feet by 14 feet - by the Nawab of Bengal. The following morning only 23 emerge alive.

21 June 1990
A massive earthquake near the Caspian Sea in Iran kills more than 50,000 people and injures another 135,000 people.

27 June 1979
Muhammad Ali announces his retirement from boxing after 59 professional fights beginning in 1960. However, Ali would go on to to fight two more fights.

29 June 1995
More than 500 people are killed when a department store collapses in Seoul, South Korea.

2 July 1990
More than 1,000 Muslim pilgrims are killed in a human stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca.

4 July 1976
Israeli commandos free more than 100 hostages being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda following a mid-air hi-jack by Arab terrorists.

6 July 1944
In America, fire-eaters accidentally start a fire inside the main tent of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus - more than 160 are killed.

11 July 1978
A truck carrying liquid gas crashes into a crowded campsite in San Carlos de la Rapita, Spain killing more than 200 people.

13 July 1977
Police arrest more than 4,000 looters during a massive blackout caused by a power failure in the city of New York, America.

16 July 1950
The largest ever crowd at a football match - more than 199,000 in Montevideo to see Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1 in the World Cup final.

18 July 1994
More than 100 are killed by car bomb in the main Jewish centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

19 July 1980
Opening of the 22nd Olympic Games in Moscow - boycotted by more than 40 nations in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

21 July 1974
More than 10,000 Greek-Cypriots and British left-wing activists protest through the centre of London in support of an independent Cyprus.

26 July 1963
A massive earthquake hits the Yugoslavian city of Skopje killing more than 1000 people.

27 July 2002
During an air show in Ukraine, a fighter jet crashes into a crowd of spectators, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds more.

30 July 1973
Distillers Company agrees to pay more than £20 million in compensation to those born with birth defects as a result of their mothers taking the drug thalidomide during pregnancy.

2 August 1973
In Britain, more than 40 people are killed when fire sweeps through the Summerland Amusement Centre at Douglas on the Isle of Man.

5 August 1983
In Northern Ireland, twenty-two members of the IRA are jailed for a total of more than 4,000 years. The prosecutions were carried out largely as a result of information supplied by IRA informer Christopher Black. In 1986 18 of those jailed had their convictions quashed.

6 August 1825
Bolivia is proclaimed an independent republic after more than 300 years of Spanish rule.

7 August 1998
Both the American Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania are bombed. More than 200 people are killed as a result of the two separate attacks carried out by al-Qaeda.

8 August 1963
In England, a gang of 15 men steal more than £2.6 million in the Great Train Robbery at Sears Crossing, Buckinghamshire - stopping and robbing a Royal Mail train travelling between Glasgow and London.

12 August 1938
The Second World War: Adolf Hitler institutes the Mother’s Cross, to encourage German women to have more children, to be awarded each year on 12 August, Hitler’s mother’s birthday.

13 August 1977
In London, more than 200 people are arrested during a National Front rally in Lewisham.

15 August 1998
In Northern Ireland, a terrorist bomb explodes in the centre of Omagh, County Tyrone killing 28 and injuring more than 200 people, the Real IRA claims responsibility.

21 August 1986
More than 1,700 are killed in Cameroon after a cloud of lethal gas escapes from Lake Nyos.

28 August 1963
American civil rights leader Martin Luther King makes his famous ‘I have a dream...’ speech to a rally of more than 200,000 in Washington D.C.

30 August 1976
In England, the Notting Hill carnival turns violent when police try to arrest a pickpocket. More than 100 policemen are treated for injuries.

31 August 2005
In Iraq, more than a 1000 Shia Muslim pilgrims die in a stampede across a bridge in northern Baghdad.

1 September 2004
An armed gang of Chechen separatist rebels enters a school in southern Russia and takes more than 1,000 people hostage.

3 September 1930
More than 8,000 people killed by a hurricane in the Dominican Republic.

4 September 1997
In Israel, three suicide attacks take place in Jerusalem killing 7 people and injuring hundreds more.

12 September 1942
The Second World War: A German U-boat sinks the British troop ship, the Laconia, off the coast of West Africa, killing more than 1,400 men.

18 September 1981
France abolishes execution by guillotine, used for more than 200 years to behead those sentenced to death.

19 September 1985
In Mexico, more than 30,000 people are killed and many more made homeless when an earthquake devastates large areas of Mexico City.

26 September 2002
More than a 1000 people are killed when a ferry from Senegal capsizes off the coast of Gambia.

30 September 1949
After 15 months and more than 250,000 flights, the Berlin Airlift officially comes to an end.

4 October 1927
In America, sculpting begins on the face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota; it takes another 12 years to finish the monument George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

6 October 1972
A train carrying religious pilgrims derails near Saltillo, Mexico, killing more than 200 people and injuring hundreds of others.

9 October 1963
A landslide in northern Italy kills more than 2,000 people when it causes a sudden and massive wave of water to overwhelm a dam.

10 October 1870
Known as the Great Hurricane, a powerful storm slams the islands of the West Indies, killing more than 20,000 people.

12 October 1972
The Vietnam War: Forty six sailors are injured in a race riot involving more than 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk enroute to Vietnam.

14 October 1913
More than 400 miners are killed in an explosion down a mine at Senghenydd in Glamorgan, South Wales.

16 October 1996
A stampede of soccer fans before a World Cup qualifying match in Guatemala City kills 84 people and seriously injures more than 100.

17 October 1961
Paris police massacre more than 200 Algerians marching in the city in support of peace talks to end their country’s war of independence against France.

18 October 1968
American athlete Bob Beaman sets a new world long jump record of more than 29 feet during the Olympic Games in Mexico.

21 October 1967
The Vietnam War: More than 100,000 people protest against the war at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., U.S.A., before marching to the Pentagon.

22 October 1913
A coal mine explosion in Dawson, New Mexico, U.S.A. kills more than 250 workers.

31 October 1961
Hurricane Hattie strikes Belize, killing more than 400 people and leaving thousands homeless.

6 November 1789
Pope Pius VI appoints John Carroll bishop of Baltimore, making him the first Catholic bishop in the United States.

12 November 1954
Ellis Island, the immigration processing centre for America, shuts it doors after processing more than 12 million immigrants since opening in 1892.

14 November 1977
The first national firemen’s strike in Britain takes place as more than 10,000 troops are called in to cover emergencies.

18 November 1989
More than 50,000 people take to the streets of Sofia, Bulgaria to demand democracy and an end to communist rule.

23 November 1980
Southern Italy is devastated by a series of earthquakes killing more than 3000 people.

27 November 2004
In China, Liu Jingsheng is released from prison having spent more than twenty years in jail for counter-revolutionary activity – promoting democracy.

4 December 1983
British SAS soldiers shot dead two IRA members and injure one more in Northern Ireland.

5 December 1876
In America, a fire breaks out in the Brooklyn theatre in New York killing nearly 300 people and injuring hundreds more.

8 December 1881
620 people are killed and hundreds more are injured as a fire breaks out at the Ring Theater in Austria, Vienna.

12 December 1917
The First World War: More than 500 French soldiers, returning from fighting in Italy, are killed when their train derails in Modane, France.

17 December 1961
A fire breaks out in a circus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil killing more than 300 people and severely burning hundreds more.

18 December 1982
A fire begins in a power plant begins in Venezuela. By the time it ended, it killed 128 people and injured hundreds more. Half the capital city of Caracas lost electrical power and 40,000 people had to be evacuated.

21 December 1988
Terrorists blow up a Pan-Am jumbo jet carrying more than 270 passengers and crew as it flies over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All on board are killed as well as 11 people in the town when the plane crashes.

25 December 2000

A Christmas party at an unlicensed disco is the site of a tragic fire that kills more than 300 people in Luoyang, China.

26 December 2004
A massive tsunami strikes south Asia devastating the area and claiming the lives of more than 200,000 people in 13 countries.

3 January 1924

English explorer Howard Carter finds the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. For more, see our in-depth feature on Ancient Egypt.