Historical Events on Thursday, 4th September

04/09/2024

A 14-year-old gunman kills four people and injures seven in a mass shooting at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia.

On September 4, 2024, a school shooting occurred at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia, United States. The suspect, 14-year-old Colt Gray, allegedly shot eleven people. Two students and two teachers were killed, while seven others were injured by gunfire.

---

04/09/2022

Ten people are killed and 15 are injured in a stabbing spree in 13 locations on the James Smith Cree Nation and in Weldon, Saskatchewan.

On September 4, 2022, Myles Sanderson killed 11 and injured 17 people in a mass stabbing at 13 locations on the James Smith Cree Nation and in Weldon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Some of the victims are believed to have been targeted, while others were randomly attacked. It is one of the deadliest massacres in Canadian history.

---

04/09/2020

Pope Benedict XVI becomes the longest-lived pope, 93 years, four months, 16 days, surpassing Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903.

Pope Benedict XVI was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Following his resignation, he chose to be known as "pope emeritus", a title he held until his death on 31 December 2022.

---

04/09/2007

Three terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Qaeda are arrested in Germany after allegedly planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installations.

Al-Qaeda is a pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni Islamist jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic caliphate. Its membership is primarily composed of Arabs, with additional representation from other ethnic groups. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets of the U.S. and its allies; such as the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing, and the September 11 attacks. It has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations and over two dozen countries around the world.

---

04/09/2002

The Oakland Athletics win their 20th consecutive game, an American League record, until the Cleveland Indians surpassed it in 2017.

The Oakland Athletics were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California, from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) West Division and played its home games at the Oakland Coliseum throughout their entire time in Oakland. The franchise's nine World Series championships, fifteen pennants, and seventeen division titles are the second-most in the AL after the New York Yankees.

---

04/09/2001

Tokyo DisneySea opens to the public as part of the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan.

Tokyo DisneySea is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, just next to Tokyo. It opened on 4 September 2001, at a cost of 335 billion yen. The Oriental Land Company owns the park and licenses intellectual property from the Walt Disney Company. In 2024, Tokyo DisneySea hosted 12.4 million visitors, making it the seventh-most visited theme park in the world and the third-most visited in Japan.

---

04/09/1998

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

Google LLC is an American multinational technology corporation focused on information technology, online advertising, search engine technology, email, cloud computing, software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence (AI). It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" by the BBC, and is one of the world's most valuable brands. Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. has been described as a Big Tech company.

---

04/09/1995

The 1995 Okinawa rape occurred, when 3 US servicemen abducted and raped a schoolchild. This would cause widespread protest against the US military presence on the prefecture.

The 1995 Okinawa rape incident occurred on September 4, 1995, when three U.S. servicemen, 22-year-old U.S. Navy Seaman Marcus Dion Gill, 21-year-old U.S. Marines Rodrico Harp, and 20-year-old Kendrick Ledet, all serving at Camp Hansen in Okinawa Island, rented a van and kidnapped a 12-year-old Okinawan girl. Gill beat her, after the other two duct-taped her eyes and mouth shut, and bound her hands. Gill and Harp then raped her, while Ledet—who was described in news reports at the time as being small framed in school—claimed he only pretended to do so due to fear of Gill.

---

04/09/1989

In Leipzig, East Germany, the first of weekly demonstration for the legalisation of opposition groups and democratic reforms takes place.

Leipzig is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 633,592 residents as of 31 December 2025. It is the eighth-largest city in Germany and is part of the Central German Metropolitan Region. Leipzig is located about 150 km (90 mi) southwest of Berlin, in the southernmost part of the North German Plain, at the confluence of the White Elster and its tributaries Pleiße and Parthe.

---

04/09/1985

The discovery of Buckminsterfullerene, the first fullerene molecule of carbon.

Buckminsterfullerene is a type of fullerene with the formula C60. It has a cage-like fused-ring structure made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, and resembles a football. Each of its 60 carbon atoms is bonded to its three neighbors.

---

04/09/1977

The Golden Dragon massacre takes place in San Francisco.

The Golden Dragon massacre was a gang-related mass shooting that took place on September 4, 1977, inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California, United States. The shooting was planned and committed by members of the Joe Boys, a Chinese youth gang, who were attempting to kill leaders of the Wah Ching, a rival Chinatown gang. The attack left five people dead and 11 others injured, none of whom were gang members. Seven perpetrators were later convicted and sentenced in connection with the murders. The massacre led to the establishment of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force, credited with ending gang-related violence in Chinatown by 1983. The restaurant itself closed in 2006.

---

04/09/1975

The Sinai Interim Agreement relating to the Arab–Israeli conflict is signed.

The Sinai Interim Agreement, also known as the Sinai II Agreement, was a diplomatic agreement signed by Egypt and Israel on September 4, 1975, with the intention of peacefully resolving territorial disputes. The signing ceremony took place in Geneva.

---

04/09/1972

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

Mark Andrew Spitz is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, winning seven gold medals, each in world-record time. This achievement set a record that lasted for 36 years, until it was surpassed by fellow American Michael Phelps, who won eight golds at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Phelps, like Spitz, set seven world records.

---

The Price Is Right premieres on CBS. It currently is the longest running game show on American television.

The Price Is Right is an American television game show. A 1972 revival by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman of their 1956–1965 show of the same name, the new version adds many distinctive gameplay elements. Contestants compete in a variety of games to determine the prices of products or prizes which they may win. These contestants are selected from the studio audience and are called onstage to compete by the announcer using the show's catchphrase of "come on down!"

---

04/09/1971

Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 crashes near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight operated by Alaska Airlines from Anchorage, Alaska, to Seattle, Washington, with several intermediate stops in southeast Alaska. The aircraft was a Boeing 727-100 with U.S. registry N2969G manufactured in 1966. On September 4, 1971, the aircraft operating the flight crashed into a mountain in Haines Borough, about 18 miles west of Juneau, Alaska, while on approach for landing. All 111 people aboard were killed. The subsequent investigation found that erroneous navigation readouts led the crew to descend prematurely. No definitive cause for the misleading data was found. It was the first fatal jet aircraft crash involving Alaska Airlines, and remained the deadliest single-aircraft accident in United States history until June 24, 1975, when Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 crashed. It is still, however, the worst air disaster in Alaska state history.

---

04/09/1970

Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile.

Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 29th president of Chile from 1970 until his death in 1973. As a socialist committed to democracy, he has been described as the first Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy in Latin America.

---

04/09/1967

Vietnam War: Operation Swift begins when U.S. Marines engage the North Vietnamese in battle in the Que Son Valley.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

---

04/09/1964

Scotland's Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh officially opens.

The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the Firth of Forth in Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and, at the time, was the longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. The bridge connects Edinburgh to Fife; replacing a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists and pedestrians across the Forth. Railway crossings are made by the nearby Forth Bridge, opened in 1890.

---

04/09/1963

Swissair Flight 306 crashes near Dürrenäsch, Switzerland, killing all 80 people on board.

Swissair Flight 306, a Sud Aviation Caravelle named Schaffhausen, was a scheduled international flight from Zurich to Rome, via Geneva. It crashed near Dürrenäsch, Aargau, on 4 September 1963, shortly after take-off, killing all 80 people on board.

---

04/09/1957

American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis: The governor of Arkansas calls out the National Guard to prevent African American students from enrolling in Little Rock Central High School, resulting in the lawsuit Cooper v. Aaron the following year.

The civil rights movement was a social movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968 which aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement in the country, which most commonly affected African Americans. The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era in the late 19th century, and modern roots in the 1940s and in Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolent movement in India. After years of nonviolent protests and civil disobedience campaigns, the civil rights movement achieved many of its legislative goals in the 1960s, during which it secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

---

04/09/1951

The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, United States, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.

San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the fourth-most populous city in California and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with a population of 826,079 in 2025. Among U.S. cities with a population of 300,000 or more, San Francisco is ranked first by per capita income, second by population density, and sixth by aggregate income as of 2023. Some 4.6 million residents live in the city's metropolitan statistical area, which is the 13th-largest in the United States. Around 9.2 million live in the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area, the fifth-largest in the United States.

---

04/09/1950

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

Darlington Raceway is a 1.366 mi (2.198 km) egg-shaped oval track in Darlington, South Carolina. The track has hosted racing events since its inaugural season in 1950, primarily races sanctioned by NASCAR. The venue has a capacity of 47,000 as of 2021. Darlington Raceway is owned by NASCAR and led by track president Josh Harris.

---

04/09/1949

Paul Robeson performs a second concert in Peekskill, New York eight days after the Peekskill riots.

Paul Leroy Robeson was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances.

---

04/09/1948

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.

Wilhelmina was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, making her the longest-reigning monarch in Dutch history, as well as the longest-reigning female monarch outside of the United Kingdom. Her reign encompassed World War I, the Dutch economic crisis of 1933, and World War II.

---

04/09/1944

World War II: The British 11th Armoured Division liberates the Belgian city of Antwerp.

The 11th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army which was created in March 1941 during the Second World War. The division was formed in response to the unanticipated success of the German panzer divisions. The 11th Armoured was responsible for several major victories in the Battle of Normandy from in the summer of 1944, shortly after the Normandy landings, and it participated in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, the Rhine crossing in March 1945. It was disbanded in January 1946 and reformed towards the end of 1950. In 1956, it was converted into the 4th Infantry Division.

---

World War II: Finland exits from the war with Soviet Union.

The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet–Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union during World War II. It began with a Finnish declaration of war on 25 June 1941 and ended on 19 September 1944 with the Moscow Armistice. The Soviet Union and Finland had previously fought the Winter War from 1939 to 1940, which ended with the Soviet failure to conquer Finland and the Moscow Peace Treaty. Numerous reasons have been proposed for the Finnish decision to invade, with regaining territory lost during the Winter War regarded as the most common. Other justifications for the conflict include Finnish President Risto Ryti's vision of a Greater Finland and Commander-in-Chief Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim's desire to annex East Karelia.

---

04/09/1941

World War II: A German submarine makes the first attack of the war against a United States warship, the USS Greer.

USS Greer (DD–145) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy, the first ship named for Rear Admiral James A. Greer (1833–1904). In what became known as the "Greer incident," she became the first US Navy ship to fire on a German ship, three months before the United States officially entered World War II. The incident led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue what became known as his "shoot-on-sight" order, with the intention of creating a casus belli in the Atlantic, provoking Germany to declare war on the US.

---

04/09/1939

World War II: William J. Murphy commands the first Royal Air Force attack on Germany.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

---

04/09/1936

Spanish Civil War: Largo Caballero forms a war cabinet to direct the republican war effort.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans were loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic and included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 for what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

---

04/09/1923

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

An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air to achieve the lift needed to stay airborne.

---

04/09/1919

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the Republic of Turkey, gathers a congress in Sivas to make decisions as to the future of Anatolia and Thrace.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish field marshal and statesperson who was the founder of the Republic of Turkey and served as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He led sweeping reforms, turning Turkey into a secular, industrialising nation. Ideologically a secularist, republican and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism. Atatürk's personality cult and the Kemalist historiography developed around it have had significant and ongoing influences on Turkey's political culture and historical narrative.

---

04/09/1912

Albanian rebels succeed in their revolt when the Ottoman Empire agrees to fulfill their demands

Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, North Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south. With an area of 28,748 km2 (11,100 sq mi), it has a varied range of climatic, geological, hydrological and morphological conditions. Albania's landscapes range from rugged snow-capped mountains in the Albanian Alps and the Korab, Skanderbeg, Pindus and Ceraunian Mountains, to fertile lowland plains extending from the Adriatic and Ionian seacoasts. Tirana is the capital and largest city in the country, followed by Durrës, Vlorë, and Shkodër.

---

04/09/1888

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

George Eastman was an American innovator and entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he patented and sold a roll film camera, making amateur photography accessible to the general public for the first time. Working as the treasurer and later president of Kodak, he oversaw the expansion of the company and the film industry.

---

04/09/1886

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

The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were initially fought by European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States of America and Republic of Texas against various American Indian tribes in North America. These conflicts occurred from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the end of the 19th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for Indian tribes' lands. The European powers and their colonies enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.

---

04/09/1882

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

Pearl Street Station was Thomas Edison's first commercial power plant in the United States. It was located at 255–257 Pearl Street in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, just south of Fulton Street on a site measuring 50 by 100 feet. The station was built by the Edison Illuminating Company, under the direction of Francis Upton, hired by Thomas Edison.

---

04/09/1870

Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed and the Third Republic is declared.

Napoleon III was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last monarch of France. He created the Second French Empire in 1852, and this period saw rapid industrialization in France, rapid expansion of infrastructure and rise of French influence in world politics after several decades of instability. He was the son of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland and the nephew of Napoleon, Emperor of the French. As head of state of France for 22 years, he was the longest-reigning French head of state since the end of the ancien régime.

---

04/09/1862

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

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

---

04/09/1839

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.

The Battle of Kowloon was a skirmish between British and Chinese vessels off the Kowloon Peninsula, China, on 4 September 1839, located in Hong Kong, although Kowloon was then part of the Guangdong province. The skirmish was the first armed conflict of the First Opium War and occurred when British boats opened fire on Chinese war junks enforcing a food sales embargo on the British community. The ban was ordered after a Chinese man died in a brawl with drunk British sailors at Tsim Sha Tsui. The Chinese authorities did not consider the punishment to be sufficient as meted out by British officials, so they suspended food supplies in an attempt to force the British to turn over the culprit.

---

04/09/1827

The Great Fire of Turku almost completely destroys Finland's former capital city.

The Great Fire of Turku was a conflagration in the city of Turku in 1827. It is still the largest urban fire in the history of Finland and the Nordic countries. The city had faced several large fires before, including an especially devastating one in 1681.

---

04/09/1812

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

The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812. Although peace terms were agreed upon in the December 1814 Treaty of Ghent, the war did not officially end until the peace treaty was ratified by the United States Congress on 17 February 1815.

---

04/09/1800

The French garrison in Valletta surrenders to British troops who had been called at the invitation of the Maltese. The islands of Malta and Gozo become the Malta Protectorate.

Valletta, also known as Città Umilissima, is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta's capital city, it is a commercial centre for shopping, bars, dining, and café life. It is also the southernmost capital of Europe, and, at just 0.61 square kilometres (0.24 sq mi), it is the European Union's smallest capital city.

---

04/09/1797

Coup of 18 Fructidor in France.

The Coup of 18 Fructidor, Year V, was a seizure of power in France by members of the Directory, then forming the government of the First French Republic, with support from the military. The coup was provoked by the results of elections held months earlier, which had given the majority of seats in the country's Corps législatif to royalist candidates, threatening a restoration of the monarchy and a return to the ancien régime. Three of the five members of the Directory, Paul Barras, Jean-François Rewbell and Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux, with support of foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, staged the coup d'état that annulled many of the previous election's results and ousted the monarchists from the legislature.

---

04/09/1781

Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels) by 44 Spanish settlers.

El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, shortened to the Pueblo de los Ángeles, was the Spanish civilian pueblo settled in 1781 which became the modern American metropolis of Los Angeles. The pueblo was built using labor from the adjacent village of Yaanga and was totally dependent on local Indigenous labor for its survival.

---

04/09/1774

New Caledonia is first sighted by Europeans, during the second voyage of Captain James Cook.

New Caledonia is a French territory comprising a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, 220 km (140 mi) southwest of Vanuatu and 1,210 km (750 mi) east of Australia. Located 16,100 km (10,000 mi) from Metropolitan France, it forms a sui generis collectivity of the French Republic, having a unique legal status enshrined in a dedicated chapter of the French Constitution.

---

04/09/1666

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

The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that occurred in central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the wall to the west. The death toll is generally thought to have been relatively small, although some historians have challenged this belief.

---

04/09/1607

The Flight of the Earls takes place in Ireland (14 September N.S.).

The Flight of the Earls took place on 14 September [O.S. 4 September] 1607, when Irish earls Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, permanently departed Rathmullan in Ireland for Catholic Europe during a period of extreme political tension with the English Crown. The Flight's exact motivation is unclear and the subject of debate. They were accompanied by their extended families, retinue, followers and fellow nobility, numbering about 100 people. The earls were patriarchs of the two most powerful clans in Ulster—the O'Neill and O'Donnell clans—and their emigration is considered to symbolise the end of Gaelic Irish society. The earls' lands were later escheated and settled by British Protestants as part of the Plantation of Ulster.

---

04/09/1479

The Treaty of Alcáçovas is signed by the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon on one side and Afonso V and his son, Prince John of Portugal.

The Treaty of Alcáçovas was signed on 4 September 1479 between the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon on one side and Afonso V and his son, Prince John of Portugal, on the other side. It put an end to the War of the Castilian Succession, which ended with a victory of the Castilians on land and a Portuguese victory on the sea. The four peace treaties signed at Alcáçovas reflected that outcome: Isabella was recognized as Queen of Castile while Portugal reached hegemony in the Atlantic Ocean.

---

04/09/1282

Peter III of Aragon becomes the King of Sicily.

Peter III of Aragon was King of Aragon, King of Valencia, and Count of Barcelona from 1276 to his death. At the invitation of some rebels, he conquered the Kingdom of Sicily and became King of Sicily in 1282, pressing the claim of his wife, Constance II of Sicily, uniting the kingdom to the crown.

---

04/09/1260

The Sienese Ghibellines, supported by the forces of Manfred, King of Sicily, defeat the Florentine Guelphs at Montaperti.

Siena is a city in Tuscany, in Central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. With a population of 52,991, it is the 12th-largest city in the region as of 2025.

---

04/09/0929

Battle of Lenzen: Slavic forces (the Redarii and the Obotrites) are defeated by a Saxon army near the fortified stronghold of Lenzen in Brandenburg.

The Battle of Lenzen was a land battle between a Saxon army of the Kingdom of Germany and the armies of the Slavic Redarii and Linonen peoples, that took place on 4 September 929 near the fortified Linonen stronghold of Lenzen in Brandenburg, Germany. The Saxon army, commanded by Saxon magnate Bernhard, destroyed a Slavic Redarii army. It marked the failure of Slavic attempts to resist German king Henry the Fowler's expansionism to the Elbe.

---

04/09/0626

Li Shimin, posthumously known as Emperor Taizong of Tang, assumes the throne over the Tang dynasty of China.

A posthumous name is an honorary name given mainly to revered dead people in East Asian culture. It is predominantly used in Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Timor-Leste and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishments or reputation, the title is assigned after death and essentially replaces the name used during life. Although most posthumous names are given to royalty, some posthumous names are given to honor significant people without hereditary titles, such as courtiers or military generals.

---

04/09/0476

Romulus Augustulus is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself "King of Italy", thus ending the Western Roman Empire.

Romulus Augustus, nicknamed Augustulus, was Roman emperor of the West from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476. Romulus was placed on the imperial throne while still a minor by his father Orestes, the magister militum, for whom he served as little more than a figurehead. After a rule of ten months, the barbarian general Odoacer defeated and killed Orestes and deposed Romulus. As Odoacer did not proclaim any successor, Romulus is typically regarded as the last Western Roman emperor, his deposition marking the end of the Western Roman Empire as a political entity. The deposition of Romulus Augustulus is also sometimes used by historians to mark the transition from antiquity to the medieval period.

---