0476 – Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the western Roman Empire, was deposed when Odoacer proclaimed himself King of Italy.

1609 – English navigator Henry Hudson began exploring the island of Manhattan.

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.” 

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.

1833 – Barney Flaherty answered an ad in “The New York Sun” and became the first newsboy/paperboy at the age of 10.

1882 – Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street electric power station began operations in New York City. It was the first display of a practical electrical lighting system.

1885 – The Exchange Buffet opened in New York City. It was the first self-service cafeteria in the U.S.

1886 – Geronimo, and the Apache Indians he led, surrendered in Skeleton Canyon in Arizona to Gen. Nelson Miles. 

1888 – George Eastman registered the name “Kodak” and patented his roll-film camera. The camera took 100 exposures per roll.

1894 – A strike in New York City by 12,000 tailors took place to protest sweatshops. 

1899 – An 8.3 earthquake hit Yakutat Bar, AK. 

1917 – The American expeditionary force in France suffered its first fatalities in World War I.

1921 – The first police broadcast was made by radio station WIL in St. Louis, MO.

1923 – The first American dirigible, the “Shenandoah,” began its maiden voyage in Lakehurst, NJ. 

1944 – During World War II, British troops entered the city of Antwerp, Belgium.

1949 – The longest pro tennis match in history was played when Pancho Gonzales and Ted Schroeder played 67 games in five sets.

1951 – The first live, coast-to-coast TV broadcast took place in the U.S. The event took place in San Francisco, CA, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference. It was seen all the way to New York City, NY.

1953 – The New York Yankees became the first baseball team to win five consecutive American League championships.

1957 – The Arkansas National Guard was ordered by Governor Orval Faubus to keep nine black students from going into Little Rock’s Central High School. 

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 – “Gilligan’s Island” aired for the last time on CBS-TV. It ran for 98 shows.

1967 – Michigan Gov. George Romney said during a TV interview that he had undergone “brainwashing” by U.S. officials while visiting Vietnam in 1965.

1971 – “The Lawrence Welk Show” was seen for the last time on ABC-TV.

1972 – Swimmer Mark Spitz captured his seventh Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter medley relay event at Munich, Germany. Spitz was the first Olympian to win seven gold medals.

1981 – The Soviet Union began war games with about 100,000 troops on the Polish border.

1983 – U.S. officials announced that there had been an American plane, used for reconnaissance, in the vicinity of the Korean Air Lines flight that was shot down.

1986 – South African security forces halted a mass funeral for the victims of the riot in Soweto.

1989 – A reconnaissance satellite was released by the Air Force’s Titan Three rocket. The Titan Three set over 200 satellites into space between 1964 and 1989.

1993 – Pope John Paul II started his first visit to the former Soviet Union.

1993 – Jim Abbott (New York Yankees) pitched a no-hitter. Abbott had been born without a right hand.

1995 – The Fourth World Conference on Women was opened in Beijing. There were over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.

1998 – In Mexico, bankers stopped approving personal loans and mortgages.

1998 – The International Monetary Fund approved a $257 million loan for the Ukraine.

1998 – Google was incorporated as a privately held company.

1999 – The United Nations announced that the residents of East Timor had overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia in a referendum held on August 30. In Dili, pro-Indonesian militias attacked independence supporters, burned buildings, blew up bridges and destroyed telecommunication facilities.

2002 – The Oakland Athletics won their AL-record 20th straight game. The A’s gave up an 11-run lead during the game and then won the game on a Scott Hatteberg home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

2003 – Keegan Reilly, 22, became the first parapalegic climber to reach the peak of Japan’s Mount Fuji.

Skyscraper Day is held annually on September 3. Celebrate this unofficial holiday by climbing or taking the elevator/lift up a skyscraper and by acknowledging the architectural and engineering feats that make such buildings possible.

1189 – England’s King Richard I was crowned in Westminster.

1783 – The Revolutionary War between the U.S. and Great Britain ended with the Treaty of Paris. 

1833 – The first successful penny newspaper in the U.S., “The New York Sun,” was launched by Benjamin H. Day.

1838 – Frederick Douglass boarded a train in Maryland on his way to freedom from being a slave. 

1895 – The first professional football game was played in Latrobe, PA. The Latrobe YMCA defeated the Jeannette Athletic Club 12-0.

1935 – Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first person to drive an automobile over 300 miles an hour. He reached 304.331 MPH on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

1939 – British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in a radio broadcast, announced that Britain and France had declared war on Germany. Germany had invaded Poland on September 1.

1943 – Italy was invaded by the Allied forces during World War II.

1967 – Nguyen Van Thieu was elected president of South Vietnam under a new constitution.

1967 – In Sweden, motorists stopped driving on the left side of the road and began driving on the right side.

1976 – The U.S. spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars. The unmanned spacecraft took the first close-up, color photos of the planet’s surface. 

1981 – Egypt arrested more than 1,500 opponents of the government.

1984 – Bruce Sutter (St. Louis Cardinals) set a National League record by earning his 38th save of the season.

1986 – Peat Marwick International and Klynveld Main Goerdeler of the Netherlands agreed to merge and form the world’s largest accounting firm.

1989 – The U.S. began shipping military aircraft and weapons, worth $65 million, to Columbia in its fight against drug lords.

1994 – Russia and China announced that they would no longer be targeting nuclear missiles or using force against each other.

1999 – Mario Lemieux’s ownership group officially took over the National Hockey League‘s Pittsburgh Penguins. Lemieux became the first player in the modern era of sports to buy the team he had once played for.

2013 – Hunters in Mississippi caught a 727-pound alligator.

 31 B.C. – The Roman leader Octavian defeated the alliance of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Octavian, as Augustus Caesar, became the first Roman emperor.

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.

1775 – Hannah, the first American war vessel was commissioned by General George Washington.

1789 – The U.S. Treasury Department was established. 

1864 – During the U.S. Civil War Union forces led by Gen. William T. Sherman occupied Atlanta following the retreat of the Confederates. 

1901 – Theodore Roosevelt, then Vice President, said “Speak softly and carry a big stick” in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair.

1930 – The “Question Mark” made the first non-stop flight from Europe to the U.S. The plane was flown by Captain Dieudonne Coste and Maurice Bellonte.

1938 – The first railroad car to be equipped with fluorescent lighting was put into operation on the New York Central railroad.

1945 – Japan surrendered to the U.S. aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II. The war ended six years and one day after it began.

1945 – Ho Chi Minh declared the independence the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1961 – The U.S.S.R. resumed nuclear weapons testing. Test ban treaty negotiations had failed with the U.S. and Britain when the three nations could not agree upon the nature and frequency of on-site inspections.

1963 – The integration of Tuskegee High School was prevented by state troopers assigned by Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Wallace had the building surrounded by state troopers. 

1969 – NBC-TV canceled “Star Trek.” The show had debuted on September 8, 1966.

1985 – It was announced that the Titanic had been found on September 1 by a U.S. and French expedition 560 miles off Newfoundland. The luxury liner had been missing for 73 years.

1991 – The U.S. formally recognized the independence of Lithuania, Lativa and Estonia.

1992 – The U.S. and Russia agreed to a joint venture to build a space station.

1996 – Muslim rebels and the Philippine government signed a pact formally ending 26-years of insurgency that had killed more than 120,000 people.

1998 – In Canada, pilots for Canada’s largest airline launch their first strike in Air Canada’s history.