TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: SEPTEMBER 2
31 BC Battle of Actium: decisive naval battle that effectively ends the Roman Republic. Octavian’s forces defeat those under Mark Antony and Cleopatra off the western coast of Greece.
1192 Sultan Saladin and King Richard the Lionheart of England sign treaty over Jerusalem, at end of the Third Crusade
1666 The Great Fire of London broke out. The fire burned for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul’s Cathedral. Only 6 people were killed.
1752 U.K. adopts the Gregorian Calendar. The calendar, also sometimes known as the Western Calendar, is one of the most widely used calendars today.
1789 The Treasury Department, headed by Alexander Hamilton, is created in New York City.
1798 The Maltese people revolt against the French occupation, forcing the French troops to take refuge in the citadel of Valletta in Malta.
1885 In Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, 28 Chinese laborers are killed and hundreds more chased out of town by striking coal miners.
1901 Vice President Theodore Roosevelt gave his “speak softly and carry a big stick” speech, regarding foreign policy, at the Minnesota State Fair.
1910 Alice Stebbins Wells is admitted to the Los Angeles Police Force as the first woman police officer to receive an appointment based on a civil service exam.
1945 Vietnam declares its independence and Nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaims himself its first president.
1945 Japan signs the document of surrender aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II
1956 Tennessee National Guardsmen halt rioters protesting the admission of 12 African-Americans to schools in Clinton.
1963 The US gets its first half-hour TV weeknight national news broadcast when CBS Evening News expands from 15 to 30 minutes.
1963 Alabama governor George Wallace prevented the racial integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers.
1987 Donald Trump takes out a full page NY Times ad lambasting Japan
1992 The US and Russia agree to a joint venture to build a space station.
1996 The Philippine government and Muslim rebels sign a pact, formally ending a 26-year long insurgency.
1998 Jean Paul Akayesu, former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, found guilty of nine counts of genocide by the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
2008 Paleontologists in France found a well preserved skull of a steppe mammoth.
2011 The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced it would take legal action against 17 major banks it believed contributed to the financial collapse through losses in sub-prime mortgages.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
