1292
Majapahit founded on Java
After defeating a Mongol expedition sent to punish Java's king, the Javanese prince Raden Wijaya founded the Majapahit kingdom near modern Mojokerto. Under his successors it would become the largest thalassocracy in southeast Asian history, with tributaries from Sumatra to New Guinea. The kingdom's golden age under the legendary minister Gajah Mada would see Javanese power projected across the entire Indonesian archipelago.
Arnolfo di Cambio designs Florence Cathedral
The Tuscan city commissioned Arnolfo di Cambio to plan a new cathedral, the Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiore, whose scale would humble all existing Italian churches. Construction began in 1296. The dome would wait for Brunelleschi, but the ambition was there from the first stone. Arnolfo's original facade was later demolished, and the current marble exterior was not completed until the nineteenth century.
Marco Polo leaves China
After seventeen years in Kublai Khan's service, the Polos finally obtained permission to depart, charged with escorting a Mongol princess to the Ilkhan of Persia. They sailed from Quanzhou on a great Chinese junk, across the Indian Ocean, back toward the Black Sea. The journey home took over two years and cost the lives of hundreds of their fellow travelers to storms and tropical disease.
John Balliol crowned King of Scots
After a legal arbitration known as the Great Cause, Edward I selected John Balliol as king of Scotland from a crowded field of claimants. Balliol was enthroned at Scone on a stone his English overlord would soon confiscate. His reign would not last four years. Edward's manipulation of the succession process revealed his true intention: not to settle Scottish affairs fairly but to establish English suzerainty over Scotland.