Page 39 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Copenhagen

Moments in History ❮❮ 37

1711–12: The Great
7 TOP 10 HISTORICAL FIGURES
Plague
Between June 1711 and March 1712,
Copenhagen was hit by bubonic
plague, wiping out 20,000 of its
60,000 inhabitants. It is said to have
been brought in by ships from
Sweden or East Prussia, carrying
infected vermin.
1728: The Great Fire
8
In October, within four days,
the greatest fire in Copenhagen’s
history wiped out almost all of the
north of the city. It began early in the
morning at Vester Kvarter 146 – now
roughly at the top of Strøget. Five
churches, the university library and
1,600 houses were destroyed. Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933)
1 Harald Bluetooth (911–987)
King Harald converted the country of
Denmark to Christianity.
2 King Cnut (994/5–1035)
Cnut ruled England, Norway and
Denmark for 20 years and famously
failed to hold back the waves.
3 Bishop Absalon (1128–1201)
Counsellor to King Valdemar I, he built
the first castle on Slotsholmen.
4 Tycho Brahe (1546–1601)
Brahe’s astronomical tables were used
to plot the rules of planetary motion.
5 Christian IV (1577–1648)
The Battles of Copenhagen Christian IV promoted shipping and
overseas trade and built the Rundetårn
1801 and 1807: The
9 and Rosenborg Slot.
Battles of Copenhagen
Early in the 19th century, the city 6 Vitus Jonassen Bering
(1681–1741)
suffered more lasting damage A fearless Danish explorer who
when the British attacked in 1801, discovered the Bering Strait, Sea, Island
destroying the Danish navy, and and Land Bridge.
again in 1807 to discourage the 7 Hans Christian Ørsted
Danes from supporting France (1777–1851)
in the Napoleonic Wars. Danish physicist and chemist who
discovered electromagnetism.
1943: Rescue of the
0 8 Søren Kierkegaard (1813–55)
Danish Jews
The Nazis occupied Denmark during A Danish philosopher who first put
forward the theory of “existentialism”.
World War II from 1940 to 1945. In 9 Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933)
1943, when they ordered that all The first man to cross the Northwest
Danish Jews were to be deported to Passage by dogsled.
Germany, a collective of Danes and 10 Niels Bohr (1885–1962)
Swedes secretly evac uated virtually A Nobel Prize-winner (1922), Bohr’s
the entire Jewish population to research contributed vastly to the
Sweden by sea. As a result, most understanding of quantum mechanics.
Danish Jews survived the war.

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