This is a compilation of roughly a week of "Today in History" posts by Alexander's Library on my Minds.com account
4th of September, 476 AD, the Western Roman Empire came to an end as Odoacer the barbarian deposed the last Emperor of Rome(Romulus Augustus) and became the first King of Italy. This date is commonly used to mark the fall of the Roman Empire and the begining of the Middle Ages.
More on Odoacer: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Odoacer
5th of September, 1905 marked the end of the Russo Japanese War with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth at the Portsmouth navy shipyard in Maine. Starting on February 8 1904 the war claimed the lives of 80,000 to 100,000 soldiers from battle and a further 31,000 to 46,000 from desease. With the decisive victory at the Naval Battle Tsushima, which saw the Japanese sink the Russian fleet 35 to 3, Japan was able to pull ahead and win the war. This had been the first time an asian power had been able to defeat any European empire and secured Japan's control of Korea and much of Manchuria. The treaty was signed after 21 days and 12 sessions of negotiation in which US Presedent Theodore Roosevelt played a large role for which he won a Nobel Peace Prize.
6th of September, 1914; The tide of World War 1 is changed as the British Expeditionary Force(BEF) and the French 5th army begin a counter attack against the 1st and 2nd German armies, outside Paris, at the Battle of the Marne and after 3 days forced the German Armies to retreat. The result was an end to the sucess of the german advance and a transition into the static trench warfare for which the Great War was infamous.
Below: French troops at the Marne
7th of September, 1764, Stanislaw August Poniatowski was elected as king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His rule was marked by several crisis for the Commonwealth as he faced opposition from his own nobility as well as the states of Russia, Prussia and Austria. He reigned from 1764 to 1795 when he abdicated his throne after the Third Partition of Poland stripped him of power and ended the Commonwealth.
More on the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth:
http://www.worldheritage.org/articles/Polish–Lithuanian_Commonwealth
8th of September, 1941 marked the begining of the Seige of Leningrad(St Petersburg) by German Army Group North. The seige lasted almost 900 days and was one of the bloodiest in history resulting in over four and a half million casualties, the vast majority of which were suffered by the Russians.
