September 5
Another day of human absurdity etched into history.
In an effort to modernize an empire by decree, Tsar Peter the Great imposed a mandatory tax on beards, forcing men to pay for the right to keep hair on their own faces.
When raw power seeks to reshape civilization over a single night, it invariably confuses the shaving of a chin with the awakening of a culture.
917 AD: Liu Yan declared himself emperor in Panyu, officially founding the Southern Han dynasty.
1367 AD: Minkhaung I was recognized as the ruler of the Ava Kingdom in Upper Burma.
1666 AD: The Great Fire of London was finally extinguished after destroying over 13,000 buildings and Old St Paul's Cathedral.
1698 AD: To modernize society, Tsar Peter the Great instituted a beard tax on all Russian men except priests and peasants.
1725 AD: King Louis XV of France married Marie Leszczyńska, daughter of the deposed King Stanisław I of Poland.
1774 AD: The First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to organize colonial resistance against the British Intolerable Acts.
1774 AD: British explorer Captain James Cook sighted and named the South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia.
1781 AD: Battle of the Chesapeake: The French Navy defeated the British fleet, sealing the eventual American victory at Yorktown.
1793 AD: French Revolution: The National Convention voted to implement Terror, marking the official start of the Reign of Terror.
1800 AD: Napoleonic Wars: French forces surrendered the Mediterranean island fortress of Malta to the British.
1816 AD: Facing public unrest, King Louis XVIII of France dissolved the ultra-royalist parliament known as the Chambre introuvable.
1839 AD: First Opium War: The British Empire officially declared war against Qing China following maritime skirmishes in Canton.
Chronos Computation Complete: Archives 917–1839 AD Developing.