In Calendar Form

September 8

1100 Death: Clement III, first antipope (1084-1100).

1157 Birth: Richard the Lionheart, King of England.

1565 Spanish explorer Pedro Menndez de Avils founds San Augustin, Florida, which will later become Saint Augustine; the oldest city in North America. Built on the site of an ancient Native American village and near the place where Ponce de Leon, the discoverer of Florida landed in 1513, Saint Augustine has been continuously inhabited since its founding. Note: St. Augustine is founded 42 years before the English settlement of Jamestown in Virginia.

1565 The Turkish siege of Malta is broken by Maltese Knights and Knights of St John.

1752 Alberne Unsinn introspectively ponders the enigmatic mystery of fulfilled prophecy, as the God-Fearing inhabitants of Lächerlicher, Pennsylvania extract their righteous justice. (See Sep 9)

1755 French and Indian War: In the Battle of Lake George, Colonel William Johnson and his English militia defeat a combined French and Indian force.

1760 French and Indian War: British troops under Jeffrey Amherst (above) defeat the French in the Battle of Montreal; after the loss, the French surrender their arms throughout Canada.

1831 Russians defeat 30,000 Poles in the battle for Warsaw in the second Polish rising. More than 9,000 Poles die in the three-day battle.

1847 Mexican War: Americans under General Winfield Scott defeat the Mexicans at the Battle of Molino del Rey.

1883 The Northern Pacific Railroad across the US is completed.

1888 Jack The Ripper: Annie Chapman, the second victim, is found disemboweled in an East London street.

1892 The original 'Pledge of Allegiance' is published in an issue of The Youth's Companion in Boston, written by Francis Bellamy.

1893 The Electoral Act of 1893 is passed by the Legislative Council in New Zealand. It is consented by the governor on September 19 and gives all women in New Zealand the right to vote.

1900 The worst hurricane in American history devastates Galveston, Texas, with 23 foot waves fronting winds up to 135 mph. 6,000 will perish as the storm batters Galveston for 18 hours. When the city, on an island connected to the mainland by a 2-mile long causeway, is rebuilt, it is raised 15 feet above its previous level; and a new sea wall is built six feet higher than the previous high-water mark.

1900 Birth: Claude Pepper, US Senator (Florida).

1914 WW1: Maubeuge, on France's northern border, falls to the Germans.

1917 Russian Revolution: General Lavr G. Kornilov attempts to establish a right-wing military dictatorship in Russia. He is backed by the Cadets, traditionally the party of liberal constitutionalism.

1917 Russian Revolution: Sep 8-14 Alexander Kerensky (above) puts down the conservative revolt led by General Kornilov and arrests the general. Kerensky quickly releases Trotsky and dozens of other terrorists from prison. Note: To Kornilov, the real enemy is socialism, personified by Kerensky. To Kerensky, the conservatives represent counterrevolution. Both factions despise and underrate Lenin because of his extremism. (Sturdza)

1922 Birth: Lyndon Larouche Jr.

1926 Germany is unanimously admitted to the League of Nations and given a permanent seat on the Council.

1930 Blondie premiers.

1933 The Second World Jewish Congress joins the anti-Nazi boycott.

1935 Kingfish: Huey Pierce Long is shot in the State Capitol at Baton Rouge by Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, a doctor of Jewish descent, less than a month after his anti-Semitic speech in the Senate. (See August 9) Note: More than 10,000 people attend Weiss' funeral in Baton Rouge.

1936 Spanish Revolution: France places an embargo on all military exports to Spain.

1938 The British Inner Cabinet meets to discuss the Czechoslovakian crisis.

1939 Holocaust: At Bedzin, 200 Jews are burned alive in a synagogue by Nazis who charge Poles with the crime; and then execute 30 of them in a public square.

1939 US president Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a 'limited national emergency' due to the war in Europe.

1941 WW2: Leningrad (St. Petersburg) is surrounded by a large German force.the blockade of Leningrad began as the German army encircled the city, cutting it off from the rest of the country. The siege lasts until January 1944 with nearly 1 million civilians being killed.

1943 WW2: US General Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the unconditional surrender of Italy to the Allied Powers, exactly as Hitler had been predicting for weeks.

1944 WW2: Shortly after Soviet troops cross the border into Bulgaria, Bulgaria accepts an armistice and declares war on Germany.

1944 WW2: Launched from The Hague, the first German flying V-2 bombs land at Chiswick in London. Three people are killed in this initial attack. Note: From its bases in the Low Countries, the V-2, the worlds first long-range missle, with speeds of 5,600 km/h (3,500 mph), would bury its 1-ton warhead into the ground before violently exploding. More than 1,000 V-2s will fall on England, and about 500 hit London, causing 10,000 casualties. Many are also directed at Antwerp. Note: The picture above is of a US captured V-2.

1945 Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister during most of WW2, attempts suicide rather than face a war crimes tribunal. The attempt fails.

1951 A peace treaty with Japan is signed by 48 other nations in San Francisco, CA.

1953 Death: Richard Walther Darre, an English-educated son of Argentinian-German parents; one of Heinrich Himmler's early ideological mentors; author of the Nazi "blood and soil" doctrine, which extolled the virtues of Nordic peasants; Director of the SS Office of Race and Resettlement and later Reich Agriculture minister.

1954 The South East Asia Defense Treaty is signed in Manila by representatives of eight nations including New Zealand, the US and the Philippines. The treaty provides for collective response should any signatory be attacked.

1958 The International Olympic Committee bars Communist China from the 1960 Olympic games.

1960 NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, is officially dedicated by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Note: The facility had been activated in July earlier in the year.

1960 Penguin Books is charged with public obscenity for publishing Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence.

1967 A new constitution comes into effect in Uganda, making the country a nominal republic.

1974 In a controversial move, US President Gerald R. Ford pardons former President Richard M. Nixon. Ford defends his decision by explaining that he wants to end the national divisions created by the Watergate Affair.

Note: Later polling will indicate that this move will ultimately deny Fords being elected president in his own right. A majority of Americans will remain convinced that a dirty deal had been struck between Ford and Nixon, giving Ford the top spot and Nixon the pardon.

1975 In Boston, MA, public schools begin their court-ordered citywide busing program amid scattered incidents of violence.

1991 The Yugoslav republic of Macedonia votes overwhelmingly to become an independent state.

1993 The US Senate approves President Clinton's national-service bill, which will give participants grants for taking part in community service work.

1994 Jeb Bush, the son of former President HW Bush, wins the Republican gubernatorial primary in Florida. Note: Two months later, he will lose the election to incumbent Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles.

1996 Hundreds of panicked Spaniards flood TV and radio switchboards over the weekend after a broadcast report showing space aliens hovering over New York. The purported news flashes on the Telecinco network are really adverts for the film Independence Day, which is scheduled to open at theaters in Spain in a few days. A text warning on the TV's screen said advertisement, but 'apparently people can't watch footage, listen, and read at the same time,' advert executive José Luis Andarias tells the Associated Press.

1997 The 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the conviction of Timothy McVeigh for his role in the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, OK.

1998 The US Justice Department opens a preliminary inquiry into President Clinton's participation in Democratic fundraising for the 1996 reelection campaign.

1999 Former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley returns to his hometown of Crystal City, Missouri, to announce he is a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1999 Russia's Mission Control switches off the Mir space station's central computer and other systems to save energy during a planned six months of unmanned flights.

1999 In a modern day instance of picking your own judge, US Attorney General Janet Reno names former US Senator John Danforth to head an independent investigation into the 1993 fire at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX.

2002 British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces plans to brief the heads of key Commons committees on plans to tackle Saddam Hussein and his regime's weapons.

2002 Over 2500 volunteers make a 5 mile long banner on San Francisco's coastline.

2002 WW2 planes honor 911 victims.

2004
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