INFLUENCE OF HALLEY'S COMET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14223, 20 November 1909, Page 5 (Supplement)

INFLUENCE OF HALLEY'S COMET.

HISTORIC EVENTS DURING ITS ; VISITS. Haixey's great comet, which will be seen in the spring of next year with the naked eye, and is already making its mark on sensitised photograph plates in the observatories of the world, has in the past been held responsible for many strange, interesting, and terrifying world events. • History records the return of • Halley's comet 28 times during the past 2000 years. The following events occurred during, or closely followed, the apparition of the comet: —■ " B.C. 240.. Defeat of the Carthaginians by Rome. End of the first Punic war. 163. Judas Maccabaeus occupied Jerusalem. * 87. Civil War in Rome, the city taken and retaken. '12. Germany, invaded- by Drusus. A.D. 66. Vespasian began the war which, ended in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. ■ [ ~ ■ 296. Britain recovered by Constantius. 375. Italy invaded by the Huns. 452. Gaul and Italy invaded by Attila. 531. Fifty years of plague began in Persia. . ■ ' ; 610. Mahomet began to preach in Mecca. 1066. Norman invasion of England. 1146. Second- crusade. 1221. Conquest of Khorassan and Persia by Jenghiz Khan. 1378. Clement VII., anti-Pope at Avignon; 40 years' schism in the Church of Rome begun. ' 1456. Turks, having taken Constantinople, threatened Europe. Mahommed 11. defeated at Belgrade by John Hunniades. 1531. Inundation of Holland. Earthquake at Lisbon. - 1607. Spanish fleet destroyed by the Dutch at Gibraltar. ,

1758. Prussia overrun by Russians. Birth of Nelson.' ,- ". ' / 1835. Political crisis in England