1430 Joan of Arc is taken captive by Burgundian forces amid the Hundred Years’ War. 1498 Italian Dominican reformer Girolamo Savonarola is executed in Florence. 1618 The Second Defenestration of Prague triggers the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War. 1701 Pirate captain William Kidd is executed by hanging in London. 1819 Birth of Clara Schumann, … Continue reading This Day In History