Major Mike | Today in History 07/19 (Great Fire of Rome)

Painting titled 'The Burning of Rome' (© Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

(64 CE) A blaze flares up in the twisting streets of Rome

The moon is full, the wind high, and when a fire breaks out in a shop stocking explosives, it soon whips into a conflagration in the narrow streets and packed neighborhoods of Rome. The fire will rage for six days, but contrary to popular belief, Emperor Nero will not fiddle around.

The Great Fire of Rome was an urban fire in July of the year AD 64. It caused widespread devastation in the city on 19 July, before being brought under control after six days. Differing accounts either blame Emperor Nero for initiating the fire or credit him with organizing measures to contain it and provide relief for refugees. According to Tacitus and later Christians, Nero blamed the devastation on the Christian community in the city, initiating the empire’s first persecution against the Christians.

Start date: 64 AD
End date: 64 AD

Nero’s Torches by Henryk Siemiradzki. According to Tacitus, Nero targeted Christians as those responsible for the fire.
wiki/Great_Fire_of_Rome

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(64 CE) A blaze flares up in the twisting streets of Rome.
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1848 | Seneca Falls hosts a watershed moment in women’s rights

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Today in History ^07/19/17

Elizabeth Cady Stanton with her sons, Daniel and Henry, in 1848 (Public domain)

(1848) Seneca Falls hosts a watershed moment in women's rights

Crowds gather in Seneca Falls, New York, for the opening of a two-day Women's Rights Convention, the first of its kind ever held in America. Prominent speakers, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, will call for equal rights for women, including the right to vote.

The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman". Held in Seneca Falls, New York, it spanned two days over July 19–20, 1848. Attracting widespread attention, it was soon followed by other women's rights conventions, including the Rochester Women's Rights Convention in Rochester, New York, two weeks later. In 1850 the first in a series of annual National Women's Rights Conventions met in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Location: Seneca Falls (CDP), New York
Dates: Jul 19 - 20, 1848
Subject: Women's rights
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wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention

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