1387
Timur sacks Isfahan after revolt
When the Persian city rose against his tax collectors, Timur ordered every soldier to bring back a quota of severed heads. By morning seventy thousand heads were piled into pyramids outside the gates, each tower a grotesque monument visible for miles. The technique, repeated across Khorasan and Mesopotamia, was Timur's trademark form of pacification.
Lithuania formally converted to Catholic Christianity
Grand Duke Jogaila, now Wladyslaw II of Poland, began systematic baptism of Lithuania's pagan population, destroying sacred groves and extinguishing sacred fires that had burned for centuries. Europe's last great pagan power ceased to exist as an unconverted polity. The Teutonic Knights, whose crusading mission depended on Lithuanian paganism, lost their justification.
Battle of Radcot Bridge breaks Richard II's favorites
Five aristocratic lords, calling themselves Appellants, defeated the king's favorite Robert de Vere at a Thames crossing in Oxfordshire. The Merciless Parliament that followed executed and exiled most of Richard's intimates in a sweeping purge. The young king resented the humiliation and would spend a decade quietly preparing his revenge against the Appellants.