History: Salamis, Sam Adams, Gojoseon, Groucho, Warsaw Uprising, Lawrence of Arabia, Confucius, Rembrandt, Gallic Wars &More
“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history,” said the great Abraham Lincoln. We are impacted by the events of the past, but we are also shaping history in the present. Hence it is important to know about the important births, deaths, and events that occurred this past week in history.
September 27
1722 - Samuel Adams, famous and fiery Son of Liberty, orchestrator of the Boston Tea Party, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, is born.
1779 - John Adams is assigned to negotiate peace terms with Great Britain to end the American Revolution.
1822 - “Jean-François Champollion announced his decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs” using the Rosetta Stone.
2023 - Shakespearean actor Michael Gambon dies.
2024 - British actress Maggie Smith dies. Read more here.
September 28
551 BC - Reported birth date of influential Chinese philosopher Confucius.
48 BC - The ruler of Egypt has Roman general Pompey the Great assassinated.
935 - King St. Wenceslaus of Bohemia is murdered by his treacherous pagan brother Boleslaus.
1781 - American Revolution: the Americans launch the decisive Siege of Yorktown.
1887 - China’s Yellow River Flood, “deadliest flood in history,” kills 900,000+.
September 29
522 BC - Reported date on which Darius I becomes king of Persia by killing the monarch Gaumâta.
480 BC - Naval Battle of Salamis is a victory for the Greeks over the Persians, one of the most significant battles in history.
1547 - Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, author of “Don Quixote,” is born.
1864 - U.S. Civil War: At the Battle of New Market Heights, regiments of U.S. Colored Troops launch an assault on a Confederate position near the Rebel capital of Richmond. Fourteen black soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroism that day. It is particularly significant that this came at a time when Confederate law mandated that all black soldiers captured by the Rebels be killed or enslaved (see the Ft. Pillow Massacre for one egregious example).
1904 - Oscar-winning English actress Greer Garson is born.
2001 - Nguyen Van Thieu, last president of the Republic of Vietnam (democratic South Vietnam) before it fell to the Communist Viet Cong, dies.
September 30
1791 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducts the premiere of his opera “The Magic Flute” in Vienna.
1868 - The first volume of Louis May Alcott’s iconic novel “Little Women” is published.
1919 - The Elaine Race Massacre begins in Arkansas as a reaction against black sharecroppers forming a union.
1938 - Nazi Germany, Great Britain, fascist Italy, and France sign the Munich Agreement, which foolish and appeasing British PM Neville Chamberlain calls “peace for our time,” as Czechoslovakia is forced to surrender land to the Nazis. Not long after, the Nazis launched WWII.
October 1
331 BC - “[O]ne of history’s most significant battles occurred: The Battle of Gaugamela in which Alexander the Great dealt a decisive defeat to the then largest empire the world had ever seen,” Persia.
1918 - WWI: Legendary British officer “Lawrence of Arabia” leads Arab forces and captures Damascus from the Ottoman Turks.
1935 - British actress and singer Julie Andrews is born.
October 2
1187 - Muslim leader Saladin captures Jerusalem from the Christians, a military and religious disaster.
1452 - Infamous King Richard III, last Plantagenet/Yorkist king of England, is born.
1789 - U.S. President George Washington sends the Bill of Rights to the states for ratification.
1800 - Nat Turner, later leader of a bloody Virginia slave revolt, is born.
1869 - Mahatma Gandhi, anti-British activist and leader of Indian independence movement, is born.
1890 - Iconic comedian, vaudevillian, and king of one-liners Julius “Groucho” Marx of the Marx Brothers is born.
1944 - WWII: The Nazis succeed in brutally crushing the Polish resistance fighters’ Warsaw Uprising. It had been the largest resistance uprising against Nazis of WWII. Most of Warsaw was then destroyed and residents deported to camps.
1957 - Classic WWII film “The Bridge on the River Kwai” premieres.
October 3
2333 BC - Legend says this is the date Gojoseon, what is now Korea, is founded by Dangun Wanggeom. Celebrated as National Foundation Day in Korea.
52 BC - Gallic Wars (in what is now France): Gallic leader Vercingetorix and his forces surrender to Roman Julius Caesar, ending the Battle of Alesia and the Gallic bid for independence from Rome.
42 BC - Gaius Cassius, a Roman writer, military leader, and assassin of Julius Caesar, commits suicide at the Battle of Philippi wrongly believing his troops had lost to Mark Antony’s.
1226 - Francis of Assisi, one of the greatest Catholic saints, dies.
1935 - The Second Italo-Ethiopian War begins as Italy attacks Ethiopia.
1990 - East and West Germany reunite, almost a year after the Berlin Wall fell. The dream of Ronald Reagan, the Germans suffering under Soviet rule, and all freedom lovers had come true.
2004 - U.S. actress Janet Leigh dies.
October 4
1363 - Naval Battle of Lake Poyang is a Ming Dynasty victory over the other Han Chinese.
1582 - The last day of the Julian calendar in much of the Christian world, following a papal bull from Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced the more accurate Gregorian calendar we now use.
1669 - Prolific Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn dies.
1884 - American writer Damon Runyon, author of “Guys and Dolls,” is born.
1895 - Silent film star Buster Keaton is born.
1904 - Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, dies.
1923 - American actor, civil rights advocate, and NRA president Charlton Heston is born.
Did I miss any important events? Let me know in the comments.