TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – SEPT 4
476 Romulus Augustulus, last Western Roman Emperor, abdicates after forces led by Odoacer invade Rome. Traditional End of the Western Roman Empire
1260 At the Battle of Montaperto in Italy, the Tuscan Ghibellines, who support the emperor, defeat the Florentine Guelfs, who support papal power.
1781 Los Angeles, CA, was founded by Spanish settlers. The original name was “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula,” which translates as “The Town of the Queen of Angels.”
1804 USS Intrepid explodes while entering Tripoli harbor on a mission to destroy the enemy fleet there during the First Barbary War.
1820 Czar Alexander declares that Russian influence in North America extends as far south as Oregon and closes Alaskan waters to foreigners.
1825 New York Governor Clinton ceremoniously emptied a barrel of Lake Erie water in the Atlantic Ocean to consummate the “Marriage of the Waters” of the Great Lakes and the Atlantic.
1881 The Edison electric lighting system goes into operation as a generator serving 85 paying customers is switched on.
1886 Elusive Apache leader Geronimo surrenders to General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Ariz.
1888 George Eastman patented his roll-film camera and registered the Kodak trademark.
1915 The U.S. military places Haiti under martial law to quell a rebellion in its capital Port-au-Prince.
1945 The American flag is raised on Wake Island after surrender ceremonies there.
1951 President Harry S. Truman inaugurated transcontinental television service in the U.S. when AT&T carried his address to the opening session of the Japanese Peace Convention in San Francisco.
1957 The Little Rock Crisis begins…. Nine black students attempted to enter Little Rock’s Central High School but were blocked by the National Guard. Arkansas governor Orval Faubus had summoned the federal troops. The National Guard would escort them into the school later in the month.
1957 The Ford Motor Company began selling the Edsel. The car was so unpopular that it was taken off the market only two years.
1967 Michigan Gov. George Romney said during a TV interview that he had undergone “brainwashing” by U.S. officials while visiting Vietnam in 1965.
1975 Sinai II Agreement between Egypt and Israel pledges that conflicts between the two countries “shall not be resolved by military force but by peaceful means.”
1998 Google founded by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
1998 While in Ireland, U.S. President Clinton said the words “I’m sorry” for the first time about his affair with Monica Lewinsky and described his behavior as indefensible.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
