Today in History September 4

476 – Romulus Augustulus is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself “King of Italy”, thus ending the Western Roman Empire.

1282 – Peter III of Aragon becomes the King of Sicily.

1666 – In London,  the most destructive damage from the Great Fire occurs.

1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Harrison begins when the fort is set on fire.

1839 – Battle of Kowloon: British vessels open fire on Chinese war junks enforcing a food sales embargo on the British community in China in the first armed conflict of the First Opium War.

1862 – American Civil War Maryland Campaign: General Robert E. Lee takes the Army of Northern Virginia, and the war, into the North.

1882 – The Pearl Street Station in New York City becomes the first power plant to supply electricity to paying customers.

1886 – American Indian Wars: After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo, with his remaining warriors, surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona.

1888 – George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film.

1923 – Maiden flight of the first U.S. airship, the USS Shenandoah.

1950 – Darlington Raceway is the site of the inaugural Southern 500, the first 500-mile NASCAR race.

1957 – American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis: Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to prevent African American students from enrolling in Central High School.

1957 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel.

1972 – Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games.

1998 – Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.

William Kunstler was an lawyer and civil rights activist, known for his politically unpopular clients

973 – Al-Biruni, Persian physician and polymath (d. 1048)

1905 – Walter Zapp, Latvian-Estonian inventor, invented the Minox, a miniature camera (d. 2003)

1908 – Richard Wright, novelist, essayist, and poet (d. 1960)

1917 – Henry Ford II, American businessman (d. 1987)

1920 – Craig Claiborne, American journalist, author, and critic (d. 2000)

422 – Boniface I, pope of the Catholic Church

1063 – Tughril, Seljuq sultan (b. 990)

1907 – Edvard Grieg, Norwegian pianist and composer (b. 1843)

1965 – Albert Schweitzer, French-Gabonese physician, theologian, and missionary, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)

1982 – Jack Tworkov, Polish-American painter (b. 1900)

1995 – William Kunstler, American lawyer and activist (b. 1919)