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
1479 After four years of war, Spain agrees to allow a Portuguese monopoly of trade along Africa’s west coast and Portugal acknowledges Spain’s rights in the Canary Islands.
1682 English astronomer Edmond Halley observes the comet named after him
1781 Los Angeles, first an Indian village Yangma, is founded by Spanish decree.
1787 Louis XVI of France recalls parliament.
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.
“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 Printing and imaging company Kodak, also known as Eastman Kodak Company, was founded by inventor George Eastman
1893 Beatrix Potter sends a note to her governess’ son with the first drawing of Peter Rabbit, Cottontail and others. The Tale of Petter Rabbit is published eight years later.
1945 The American flag is raised on Wake Island after surrender ceremonies there.
1951 The first transcontinental television broadcast in America is carried by 94 stations.
1957 Arkansas governor Orval Faubus calls out the National Guard to bar African-American students from entering a Little Rock high school.
1959 The Labor Reform Act was passed by Congress. The legislation moved to reign in the power of the nation’s Largest and most powerful unions.
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.”
1997 The last of the original Ford Thunderbird’s rolls off the assembly line.
1997 Suicide Bombers detonate their nail bombs in a packed pedestrian area of Jerusalem killing eight people and injuring 150 more. The militant Palestinian group Hamas has claimed responsibility the bombings.
1998 Google founded by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
