On This Day: March 19th

Charles IV, king of Spain, abdicates after riots and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez. His son, Ferdinand VII, takes the throne.

Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.

The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it "useless and dangerous to the people of England".

The Edict of Amboise is signed, ending the first phase of the French Wars of Religion and granting certain freedoms to the Huguenots.

Frederick III of Habsburg is the last Holy Roman Emperor crowned by medieval tradition in Rome by Pope Nicholas V.

The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England.

A Mongol victory at the Battle of Yamen ends the Song dynasty in China.

The Byzantine-Venetian treaty of 1277 is concluded, stipulating a two-year truce and renewing Venetian commercial privileges in the Byzantine Empire.

Election of Ugolino di Conti as Pope Gregory IX following the death of Pope Honorius III.

Latin forces under Henry of Flanders defeat a Nicaean army under Constantine Laskaris in the Battle of Adramyttion.