POPnews - October 1st

[The Siege of Acre was the first engagement of the Third Crusade, which devastated Europe's aristocracy by pitting the good Christians of Europe - who came to the defense of the Kingdom of Jerusalem on the orders of Pope Gregory VIII and his successor Clement III - against Saladin.]
331 BCE - At the Battle of Gaugamela, Alexander the Great defeated Darius III.

1189 - Gerard de Ridefort - grandmaster of the Knights Templar since 1184 - was killed at the Siege of Acre.

1829 - South African College was founded in Cape Town; it was later separated into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools.

1894 - Cape Town's Owl Club held its first meeting.

1936 - Francisco Franco's rise to power at the helm of the Nationalists was nearly complete when he was named Generalísimo of the National army and Jefe del Estado (Head of State); following the end of the Spanish Civil War in April 1939 he served as Spain's dictator until his death in November 1975.

1938 - Nazi Germany stole annexed the Sudetenland.

1939 - After the month-long Siege of Warsaw, Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht occupied the city.

1946 - The opening round of the Nuremburg Trials closed; 24 prominent surviving Nazis were tried, four of whom were acquitted and 1 of whom committed suicide before the trial opened.

1949 - The People's Republic of China was proclaimed by Mao Zedong.

1960 - Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1961 - Following a truly bewildering colonial past which saw it passed between Germany, France, and the United Kingdom from 1884 onwards, East and West Cameroon merged as the Federal Republic of Cameroon and finally attained its independence from all of them.

1964 - The Shinkansen bullet train service began between Tokyo and Osaka.

1965 - Indonesia's General Suharto crushed a coup attempt aimed at unseating President Sukarno; millions of Indonesians were killed in its aftermath, which included the liquidation of the Communist Party. Suharto's real motive, however, appears to have been a plot to seize power for himself, which he did in 1967.

1969 - Concorde broke the sound barrier for the first time.

1975 - At a fight dubbed the Thrilla in Manila Joe Frazier was defeated by Muhammad Ali in the 14th round; despite trash-talking prior to the fight, Ali was magnanimous in victory, praising Frazier for 'bringing out the best' in him.

1978 - Tuvalu gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1982 - Sony launched the first CD player designed for the consumer market.

1991 - New Zealand's Resource Management Act went into effect.

2005 - 23 died and 129 were injured by suicide bombers in Bali.
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POPnews - September 3rd

[Frederick Douglass escaped slavery via train and ferry, taking
24 hours to travel from Maryland to New York City dressed
as a sailor and using another man's identification papers.]


36 BCE - At the sea-going Battle of Naulochus - fought off the coast of Sicily, oddly enough near Naulochus - Octavian's admiral Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa defeated Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey, thus ending Pompeian resistance to the Second Triumvirate and (not inconsequentially) freeing up a vital portion of Rome's grain supply.

301 CE - The Republic of San Marino was founded by its namesake, St. Marinus.

590 CE - Gregory I was elected Pope to replace the recently deceased Pelagius II.

1189 -England's King Richard I (since better known as 'Richard the Lionhearted') was crowned at Westminster Abbey; not only was his coronation marred by anti-Semitic violence - notably killed in sectarian attacks that day was the scholar Jacob of Orléans - but owing to his involvement in the Crusades, the King would spend a scant ten months of his ten-year reign in his kingdom, allowing his brother John pretty much free reign to hone his already considerable skills as an absolute douchebag monarch.

1777 - During a skirmish between British/Hessian and American forces at Cooch's Bridge in New Castle County, Delaware - known as the Battle of Cooch's Bridge* - the Stars and Stripes was flown in battle for the first time; while technically an American loss, the battle was an unqualified victory for the nascent nation's propagandists, who've been waving the flag over battlegrounds ever since.

*Incidentally, the only battle of the American Revolution to be fought in Delaware.

1783 - The American Revolution was officially concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by Americans John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay and British emissary David Hartley at the Hotel d'York in Paris.

1812 - 24 settlers were killed by Shawnee raiders near Underwood, Indiana, in what came to be known as the Pigeon Roost Massacre; the location of the killings, which occurred shortly after the opening of the War of 1812, is now a State Historic Site.

1838 - Frederick Douglass stole his freedom.

1870 - Prussia's Second Army under Prince Friedrich Karl undertook the Siege of Metz, which would result in a decisive Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War against the defenses of Metz when France's Marshal François Bazaine finally surrendered on October 23rd.

1878 - Over 640 people died when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collided with the coal ship Bywell Castle within sight of London's North Woolwich Pier; owing to severe pollution in the River Thames many of those who didn't die on that day perished in the subsequent months.

1914 - William, Prince of Albania left the country after just six months due to opposition to his rule.

1925 - The American zeppelin USS Shenandoah crashed near Caldwell, Ohio, killing 14 - including its commander, Zachary Lansdowne.

1935 - Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first person to ever drive a car faster than 300 mph.

1951 - Search for Tomorrow made its TV debut on CBS; it would be broadcast for 35 years, not going off the air until 1986.

1967 - On what came to be known as Dagen H in Sweden, traffic changed from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight; to be more precise, the change-over occurred at 4:50 AM.

1971 - Qatar gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1976 - The Viking 2 spacecraft landed at Utopia Planitia on Mars.

1995 - eBay was founded.

2004 - Day 3 of the Beslan school hostage crisis ended with the deaths of more than 300 people, over half of whom were children.
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POPnews - August 28th

[Whether or not this photo was actually taken on this day in 1917 only
matters to the sort of people who should never ever use the Internet.]

475 CE - The Roman general Flavius Orestes forced Julius Nepos - de jure ruler of the Western Roman Empire courtesy of his uncle-in-law, Leo I, who was ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire - to flee his capital city, Ravenna, for Dalmatia, where he completed the remainder of his rule... Meanwhile his successor, Romulus Augustus, would allow Rome to fall to Odoacer on his watch in September of the following year.

489 CE - Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, defeated the army of Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.

1189 - The Crusaders began the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan.

1565 - The city of St. Augustine, Florida, was founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.

1640 - During the Second Bishop's War King Charles I's English army under Lord Conway lost to a Scottish Covenanter force commanded by Alexander Leslie at the Battle of Newburn.

1789 - William Herschel discovered a new moon of Saturn (its sixth-largest) which was later named Enceladus by his son John Herschel in 1847; it's also known as Saturn II.

1845 - Scientific American magazine published its first issue.

1862 - During the American Civil War Union general John Pope engaged Robert E. Lee as the Second Battle of Bull Run - known in the South as the Second Battle of Manassas - began; the first battle was fought on the same ground in July 1861. Both were Confederate victories, although while the first one lasted a day the second one would stretch out over three.

1879 - Cetshwayo, the last King of the Zulus, was captured by British forces.

1884 - The first known photo of a tornado was taken; given the bulkiness of camera equipment at that time, as a photographer I consider this act to be as brave as it was reckless. History, however, does not record the name of the brave soul responsible for the ground-breaking shot, which was taken about 45 kilometers (22 miles) southwest of Howard, South Dakota.

1907 - United Parcel Service, better known as UPS (and not, apparently, pronounced 'oops') was founded as the American Messenger Service by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington. Its first delivery? A box of opium, which was still legal in the United States at that time. The name UPS came later - in 1919, to be exact.

1913 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands opened the Peace Palace in The Hague.

1917 - Ten suffragists were arrested while picketing in front of the White House.

1924 - Georgian opposition forces, in the guise of the Committee for the Independence of Georgia, staged the August Uprising against the Soviet Union; naturally the movement was ruthlessly suppressed by Sergo Ordzhonikidze on orders from Joseph Stalin.

1953 - Nippon Television broadcast Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement.

1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his I Have a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

1964 - A race riot began in North Philadelphia; when it finally ended, after 3 days, although no one had died 341 people were injured, 774 people were arrested, and 225 stores were damaged - many so badly that they never re-opened.

1982 - The first Gay Games were held in San Francisco; the brainchild of Tom Waddell, the Games were later denied the opportunity to call themselves the Gay Olympics because the International Olympic Committee was then (and still is) homophobic.

1996 - The rancorous divorce of the Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales was made final.
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