October 22 Feast Day of St. Cordula Little is known of St. Cordula who was a very early Christian in Cologne. She is said to have been a member of the following of St. Ursula. She is believed to have been martyred by the invading Huns. Her relics are in a shrine in the Johanniterkirche in Cologne. St. Albertus Magnus spoke of her as a saint … [Read more...]

October 21, 1660 Birth of Georg Ernst Stahl in Ansbach, Germany. He was one of the first professors in the newly founded school of medicine in Halle in 1694. In the debates of the time Stahl opposed a purely mechanical view of the nature of life and adopted the philosophy of animism (an abstract principle of life). He hypothesized that all … [Read more...]

October 20, 1740 Maria Theresa assumes the rule of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary upon the death of her father Karl VI. Maria Theresa von Habsburg was one of the most remarkable rulers in European history. When her father died in 1740, she came to the Habsburg throne. She was young, amiable but oversheltered, and her father had amazingly neglected … [Read more...]

October 19, 1813 At 2:00 A.M. Napoleon begins his retreat from the Battle of Leipzig, which had started on October 16. At that battle Napoleon had about 185,000 troops and the allies against him (Austria, Prussia, Russia and Sweden had a total of about 320,000.) The Austrian army was commanded by General Karl Phillip Schwarzenberg and the … [Read more...]

October 18, 1748 The Treaty of Aachen ends the War of Austrian Succession. October 18, 1777 Birth of Heinrich von Kleist in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany. Kleist was one of the outstanding writers of the 19th century. He read deeply of Kant and found many emotional conflicts in his attempts to realize Kant's ideals. One sees much of these … [Read more...]

October 17, 1707 Shortly after accepting a position as organist at St. Blasius's in Germany, composer Johann Sebastian Bach marries his second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach. The couple had seven children together, but only four survived to adulthood. October 17, 1778 Death of Johann Hummel in Weimar, Germany. The composer, Hummel, studied in … [Read more...]

October 16, 1708 Birth of the biologist Albrecht von Haller in Bern, Switzerland. He was a professor of medicine, anatomy, and surgery at the University of Göttingen. He was the first to understand the system of respiration. He demonstrated the function of nerves. His 8-volume Elementa Physiologiae Corporis Humani is a classic in medicine. … [Read more...]

October 15, Feast day of St. Pantalus (ca. 304 - ?). St. Pantalus is thought to have been the first bishop of Basel, Switzerland. Available documentation indicates that he was a Martyr. By the 12th century his story had become interwoven with the legends of St.Ursula. According to those legends he met St. Ursula on her return trip from Rome to … [Read more...]

October 14, 1806 The Prussian army is crushed by Napoleon at the Battle of Jena. October 14, 1871 Birth of Alexander Zemlinsky in Vienna, Austria. Zemlinsky was a composer and conductor. Arnold Schoenberg was his brother-in-law. He wrote 6 symphonies and 10 operas including, Eine florentinische Tragödie and Der Zwerg. October 14, … [Read more...]

October 13, 1694 Death of Samuel Freiherr von Pufendorf in Berlin (born in Dorfchemnitz, Saxony). Pufendorf encountered Descartes, Grotius and Thomas Hobbes while at Jena. He went on to become one of the developers of the concept of "natural law". Based on his first work on natural law, Elementorum Jurisprudentiae Universalis Libri Duo, a chair … [Read more...]