#TodayInHistory – September 4

September 4 – Some important events on this day.

476 👉🏼 Romulus Augustulus, last Western Roman Emperor, abdicates after forces led by Odoacer invade Rome. Traditional End of the Western Roman Empire.
When Romulus Augustulus came to power as the Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, it was but a fraction of what it had once been. The empire in the East essentially treated its Western realm as a client state. Rome itself had been sacked by barbarians twice in the fifth century.
Odoacer was a Germanic mercenary soldier for the Roman army, who when refused estates that he demanded, marched into Italy with an enormous garrison of soldiers. The previous Emperor and father of Romulus fled and was later captured and executed. Romulus, then only 16, was forced to abdicate on this day, and Odoacer became King of Italy. This would not last long however, as Odoacer was soon killed by rival barbarian factions.
Although this event is considered generally to be the end of the Western Roman Empire, at the time the event received little attention, and Rome had been subjected to control by Germanic kingdoms and barbarians for decades.
What became of Romulus Augustulus is not known. Odoacer spared him due to his young age, and it is believed he retired to a villa in southern Italy, and might possibly have lived into the early 6th century.

1609 👉🏼 Navigator Henry Hudson first European to discover island of Manhattan [or Sep 11]
1781 👉🏼 Los Angeles is founded by 44 Spanish speaking mestizos in the Bahia de las Fumas (Bay of Smokes)
1807 👉🏼 Steamboat inventor Robert Fulton begins operating his steamboat
1862 👉🏼 General Lee invades the North with 50,000 Confederate troops during Maryland Campaign (US Civil war)
1866 👉🏼 1st Hawaiian daily newspaper published.

1888 👉🏼 George Eastman patents the first roll-film camera & registers “Kodak”.

1893 👉🏼 English author Beatrix Potter first writes the story of Peter Rabbit for a 5 year old boy. ✔️ READ THE ARTICLE!

1957 👉🏼 Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, calls out National Guard to prevent 9 black students from entering a Little Rock’s Central High School.
In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled in the famous Brown v Board of Education case that segregation of schools in the American South was unconstitutional. Despite this ruling, integrating the schools was not a simple act.
The conflict over segregation in schools reached its height at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. Nine black students attempted to enroll in 1957, prompting a fierce backlash from the pro-segregation state government of governor Orval Faubus.
On this day, the Arkansas National Guard were mobilized by Faubus to prevent the integration of the students. The intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower proved decisive: he ordered the National Guard be federalized, taking them out of the Governor’s control, and ordered the US Army to support the integration of the school. The students were successfully integrated on September 23, 1957.
The nine students did not find it easy at Little Rock – they were regularly abused by the white students. Nevertheless integration eventually occurred in schools as a result of the Brown v Board decision.

1988 👉🏼 Mike Tyson crashes a silver BMW into a tree near Catskills NY
1998 👉🏼 1st ever “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” hosted by Chris Tarrant debuts on ITV in Britain
2012 👉🏼 Carpet that can help prevent falls among the elderly by warning them of unusual footsteps is developed
2018 👉🏼 F.B.I. announces they have recovered Dorothy’s ruby red slippers from “The Wizard of Oz”, stolen 13 years ago