@rh18bold:Today In History

Today is Saturday, September 8, the 251st day of 2007. There are 114 days left in the year.

on this date

In 1565, a Spanish expedition establishes the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Florida.

In 1664, the Dutch surrender New Amsterdam to the British, who rename it New York.

In 1926, Germany is admitted to League of Nations. The league was formed to foster international cooperation and world peace.

In 1941, German troops encircled Leningrad, beginning an 872-day siege in which almost one million people died. It is now St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1943, allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower announces Italy's unconditional surrender. The Germans take over Rome and northern Italy.

In 1944, in Chiswick, London three people are killed in the first of more than 1,000 German V-2 ballistic missiles lands in Britain.

In 1945, Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister during most of the Second World War, attempted suicide rather than face a war-crimes tribunal. He failed and was later found guilty and hanged.

In 1991, Macedonians vote to become the third of six Yugoslav republics to choose independence.

In 1994, British, French and American troops pull out of Berlin, leaving the city without foreign soldiers for the first time since the Second World War.

Thought for Today

That pestilent cosmetic, rhetoric — T.H. Huxley, English biologist and author (1825-1895).