Tisha B'Av
c 1313 BCE- The "generation of the wilderness" (the Jews who came out of Egypt under Moses' leadership 16 months earlier) was condemned to die in the desert and not enter the Land. Approximately 15,000 adult Jewish males died each year on Tisha B'Av. (Numbers 14:30-34)
586 BCE- The first Holy Temple, which Solomon built in Jerusalem, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. (2 Kings 25:8-9, Jeremiah 52:12-13. Av is the "fifth month" counting from Nisan.)
70 CE- The second Holy Temple, which Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt and King Herod expanded, was destroyed by the Romans.
133 CE- The Romans capture Beitar and put an end to the Bar Kochba rebellion. Betar, the last stronghold in the Bar Kochba rebellion, fell to the Romans on the 9th of Av after a three-year siege. 580,000 Jews died by starvation or the sword, including Bar Kochba, the leader of the rebellion. The Romans totally destroyed Jerusalem. They plowed under the site of the Temple to establish a Roman colony there and renamed it Aelia Capitolina.
July 18, 1290- Edward I expelled the Jews (approx 4,000) from England, marking the first ever national expulsion of Jews.
August 2, 1492- Spanish rulers King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expel 300,000 Jews from Spain, terminating many centuries of flourishing Jewish life in that country.
July 31, 1571- The ghetto of Florence, Italy was opened.
1648- Khmelnytsky and his Cossacks massacre 3,000 Jews in Eastern Europe (Konstantynow).
1849- The Jews in Hungary were granted civil rights.
August 8, 1878- The Jewish town of Petach Tikva was founded in Israel.
August 1, 1914- World War I began.
August 2, 1941- The Nazi SS murdered 600 Jews in Targivica, Ukraine.