February 27 in History

Theodosius II built the University of Constantinople in 425 because his wife told him to. Aelia Eudocia, a poet and intellectual herself, wanted a state-funded institution that could rival Alexandria. The emperor gave her 31 chairs—professors paid by the empire to teach law, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, rhetoric, and Greek and Latin grammar. It was the first university with an official curriculum and salaried faculty. For over a thousand years, it trained the Byzantine bureaucracy. Every lawyer, diplomat, and administrator in the Eastern Roman Empire learned to think there. When Constantinople fell in 1453, its scholars fled west with their manuscripts. The Renaissance was waiting.

The House of Commons voted to end the war on February 27, 1782. Not because they'd lost — Cornwallis had surrendered four months earlier, but Britain still held New York, Charleston, and Savannah. They voted to stop because it cost too much. The war was draining £20 million annually. France and Spain had joined against them. And King George III threatened to abdicate rather than accept it. Parliament chose bankruptcy over the king's pride.

Boer General Piet Cronje surrendered unconditionally with 4,000 men at the Battle of Paardeberg, the first major British victory after a string of demoralizing defeats in the Second Boer War. The capture shattered Boer morale and opened the road to Bloemfontein, giving the British the momentum that would eventually lead to the occupation of both Boer capitals.

Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the only legal religion of the Roman Empire on February 27, 380. Not just legal — mandatory. The Edict of Thessalonica declared that all citizens must follow "the religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans." Anyone who refused would be considered "demented and insane" and subject to punishment. No more temples. No more sacrifices. A thousand years of Roman gods, gone by imperial decree. Within a decade, pagan worship became a capital crime. The empire that fed Christians to lions now fed pagans to the law.

A nomadic warlord who couldn't read Chinese became emperor of a dynasty that would last two centuries. Abaoji unified the Khitan tribes through a mix of marriage alliances and strategic assassinations — including his own brothers. He borrowed the imperial bureaucracy from Tang China but kept Khitan military structure. His wife, Empress Yingtian, ran the government while he fought wars. When he died, she cut off her own hand and placed it in his tomb. The Liao controlled the Silk Road and forced Song China to pay annual tribute of 100,000 taels of silver. A nomad made China pay him to stay away.

England signed the Treaty of Berwick with Scottish Protestant lords in 1560, agreeing to send troops north to kick out the French garrison. The French were there backing Mary of Guise, the Catholic regent, against her own Protestant nobility. Elizabeth I hesitated for months — backing rebels against a legitimate ruler set a dangerous precedent. But her advisors convinced her: better a Protestant Scotland than a French one. English forces arrived, besieged Leith, and the French withdrew. Scotland's Reformation Parliament met four months later and broke with Rome. The alliance held for 43 years, until Elizabeth died without an heir and Scotland's king inherited both thrones.

England sent troops into Scotland in 1560 because Scottish nobles asked them to. The Lords of the Congregation wanted French soldiers out. They'd been there since Mary of Guise ruled as regent, and they weren't leaving. The Treaty of Berwick made it legal: English forces could cross the border, help drive out the French, then go home. It worked. Within months, French troops withdrew. Scotland's Protestant reformation could proceed. And England, for once, intervened in Scotland by invitation — not invasion. The alliance held. When Mary Queen of Scots returned from France a year later, she found a Scotland fundamentally changed, with England as guarantor instead of enemy.

Sweden took Russia's only window to the Baltic. The Treaty of Stolbovo gave Sweden Ingria — the coastal strip that included a small trading post called Nyen. Russia kept inland territory but lost access to European shipping routes. The Swedes celebrated. They'd locked their rival into a landlocked corner. Ninety years later, Peter the Great would reconquer this exact strip of land and build St. Petersburg on it. He called it his "window to Europe." He meant it literally.

Yuan Chonghuan took command of China's northern frontier in 1626 after doing what nobody else had managed: he'd stopped Nurhaci. The Manchu warlord had conquered everything in his path for decades. Yuan held a single fortified city with Portuguese cannons and 10,000 men. Nurhaci died of his wounds six months later. Yuan's reward was the worst job in China — defending 600 miles of border against Nurhaci's sons. They'd capture Beijing anyway. Then they'd execute Yuan for treason.