On this day

476 - Last emperor of the western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by Odoacer, a German barbarian. Odoacer declared himself king of Italy, but later recognized Emperor Zeno of the east as the Roman ruler.

1609 - English navigator Henry Hudson, working for the Dutch East India Company, arrived at the island of Manhattan, before sailing up the river that now bears his name.

1781 – Los Angeles, California, is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola) by 44 Spanish settlers.

1884 - Britain stopped sending convicts to New South Wales in Australia.

1886 - After almost 30 years of fighting, Geronimo, the great Apache leader, surrendered to General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.

1951 – The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, California, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.

1964 – Scotland's Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh officially opens.

1985 - The wreck of the Titanic was photographed for the first time, 73 years after it sank with the loss of 1,500 lives.

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

1959: UK's first trunk call from a pay phone
The UK's first trunk dialling system from a public call-box has been inaugurated in Bristol today.
It is the start of a countrywide service that will eventually replace the current Button A and Button B pre-payment system.

The Deputy Lord Mayor phoned the Lord Mayor of London, dialling the number himself.

The new streamlined coin phone boxes have slots for 3d, 6d and 1s pieces. Money cannot be put in until the call is answered.

A series of pips indicates when the time paid for is running out and the caller must insert more coins to carry on talking.

Queen launches trunk dialling

Subscriber Trunk Dialling was introduced in the Bristol area last December which meant 18,000 subscribers are now able to make trunk calls without the aid of the operator.

The system was launched by Her Majesty the Queen on 5 December 1958 during a ceremony in which she made a direct long-distance call from Bristol Central Telephone Exchange to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, more than 300 miles (482km) away.

Her call lasted two minutes five seconds and cost 10d (four pence).

This latest move to introduce coin boxes is part of Post Master General Ernest Marples' £35m scheme to modernise the phone system in an effort to popularise use of the telephone.

Mr Marples described the new system as "quite revolutionary" and "good value for money".

However, automatic dialling will inevitably lead to job losses.

The GPO employs 50,000 operators and this number will be halved by 1970, saving an estimated £15m a year.


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The new direct-dial call boxes will make phone calls cheaper and easier



In Context
The Button A and Button B pay phones, first introduced in 1925, connected callers via an operator on insertion of the call fee.
The caller then pushed Button A to deposit the coins and make the connection. If a call could not be connected for some reason, or if there was no reply, Button B was pushed and all the coins were returned.

In 1976 the last manual exchange in the United Kingdom at Portree in the Isle of Skye closed making the British telephone system fully automatic.

British Telecom took over the running of the phone system from the Post Office in 1981.

Ten years later the government ended the duopoly shared by BT and Mercury Communications that had existed since 1983 and opened up the market to other telecoms companies.

In 1985 BT began on a £160m programme to replace the UK's world famous red phone boxes with blue payphones in aluminium and stainless steel booths.


Stories From 5 Sep
1975: London Hilton bombed
1997: Mother Teresa dies
1986: Karachi hijack ends in bloodshed
1979: Mountbatten buried after final parade
1959: UK's first trunk call from a pay phone

1666 – Great Fire of London ends: 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral are destroyed, but only 16 people are known to have died.

1800 - Following a blockade by Admiral Horatio Nelson, French troops surrendered the Mediterranean island of Malta to Britain.

1839 – The First Opium War begins in China.

1877 - Sioux chief Crazy Horse was killed in jail by a U.S. soldier. A year earlier, Crazy Horse and his followers defeated General George Custer at Little Bighorn in Montana, killing Custer and 264 others.

1914 - Battle of Marne began. The British and French fought the Germans for six days, resulting in 500,000 casualties.

1960 – The boxer Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) is awarded the gold medal for his first place in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.

1969 - The British commercial television channel, ITV, began broadcasting in colour.

1972 – Munich Massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attack and take hostage 11 Israel athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. 2 die in the attack and 9 die the following day.

1997: Diana's funeral watched by millions
Britain and the world have said farewell to Diana, Princess of Wales, at the end of an unprecedented week of mourning.
A four mile procession brought her coffin to Westminster Abbey, where politicians and celebrities joined the Royal Family in a subdued congregation.

Over a million people lined the route of the funeral cortege to the abbey and along her final journey to the Spencer family home in Northamptonshire.

The day began at 0908 BST, when the coffin left Kensington Palace on a gun carriage.

Some of the crowd wept, some applauded quietly, but most watched in silence.

On top of the coffin was a poignant reminder that this woman loved by millions was also a mother - a card to "Mummy" from one of her sons.

The two princes, William and Harry, joined their father, grandfather and the princess's brother walking behind the coffin.


She was the very essence of compassion

Earl Spencer

Other members of the Royal Family watched the funeral cortege pass from the gates of Buckingham Palace.

The union jack on top of the palace was lowered to half mast for the first time ever.

Both Diana's sisters read tributes to her at the funeral service and Elton John played his re-worked version of Candle in the Wind.

Her brother, Lord Spencer, made a funeral address in which he described as Diana the "very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty".

He used the speech to blame the media for her death, calling her the "most hunted person of the modern age".

The grieving earl also pledged to protect William and Harry and prevent them suffering a similar fate.

The sometimes controversial oration was greeted with spontaneous applause.

A very public day of mourning ended with a private ceremony when Diana was finally buried on an island in the heart of her family estate at Althorp.


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Diana's brother, two sons and former husband watch the hearse arrive


Diana's funeral cortege passes through a motorway lined with people






In Context
Diana's death resulted in an outpouring of grief never before seen in the UK.
It was estimated that a total of 2.5 billion people watched the princess's funeral, a testament to her global celebrity.

Her image remained as iconic in death as it had been in life, and within weeks of her funeral there was worldwide demand for memorabilia of the princess.

The French authorities concluded their investigation into the crash two years later.

It found the driver, Henri Paul, to be three times over the drink-drive limit and breaking the speed limit.

The photographers chasing the car were severely criticised for their behaviour, but no criminal action was taken against them.

An inquest into the princess's death was opened in the UK in 2004. It has been adjourned while the Metropolitan police carry out an investigation into the crash.


Stories From 6 Sep
1997: Diana's funeral watched by millions
1972: Olympic hostages killed in gun battle
1965: Indian Army invades W Pakistan
1970: Hundreds held in series of hijacks
1952: Dozens die in air show tragedy

1522 – The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.

1620 - 149 Pilgrims (The Pilgrim Fathers), set sail from England on the Mayflower bound for America - the New World.

1651 - Charles II famously spent the night hidden in an oak tree at Boscobel after his defeat by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester.

1907 - The Lusitania set sail from Liverpool for New York on her maiden voyage. She set a record, crossing the Atlantic in five days at an average speed of 23 knots.

1943 – The Monterrey Institute of Technology, one of the largest and most influential private universities in Latin America, is founded in Monterrey, Mexico.

1960 - Ten skeletons were found in 3800 year old graves at Stonehenge.

1966 – In Cape Town, South Africa, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death during a parliamentary meeting.

1991 – The name Saint Petersburg is restored to Russia's second largest city, which had been renamed Leningrad in 1924.

1997 – Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London. Over a million people lined the streets and 2.5 billion watched around the world on television.

Births:

1950 – Julie Kavner, American actress (voice of Marge Simpson)
1954 – Michael Emerson, American actor
1963 – Eazy-E, American rapper (N.W.A.) (d. 1995)
1971 – Shane Mosley, American boxer
1973 – Shannon Elizabeth, American actress
1976 – Oliver Hudson, American actor
1977 – Jon Macken, British Footballer
1980 – Gabriel Milito, Argentine footballer
1984 – Farveez Maharoof, Sri Lankan cricketer
1987 – Evan Rachel Wood, American actress

1664 - The Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam and governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered to the British, who renamed it New York (1669), in honor of the Duke of York.

1822 - Brazil declared independence from Portugal.

1901 – The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.

1940 – World War II: The Blitz – Nazi Germany begins to rain bombs on London. This will be the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.

1978 - Keith Moon, drummer with 'The Who', died of a drugs overdose.

1986 – Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.

2004 – Hurricane Ivan, a Category 5 hurricane hits Grenada, killing 39 and damaging 90% of its buildings.

2005 – The first presidential election is held in Egypt.

2009 - Sir Terry Wogan announced that he was to step down as presenter of BBC Radio 2's breakfast show. The veteran broadcaster first hosted the breakfast show in 1972, returning to the role in 1993. Wake Up to Wogan was the UK's most popular breakfast radio show with 7.93 million listeners each week.

1943: Italy's surrender announced
Italy has signed an unconditional armistice with the Allies, General Dwight D Eisenhower has announced.
The surrender was signed five days ago in secret by a representative of Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Italy's prime minister since the downfall of Benito Mussolini in July.

General Eisenhower - the commander in chief of Allied forces in the Mediterranean - said the Italian Government had agreed to end all hostilities with the United Nations.

In a broadcast on Algiers radio at 1730 local time, he said: "All Italians who now act to help eject the German aggressor from Italian soil will have the assistance and support of the United Nations."


The Italian garrison in Porto Valtravaglia deserted and the barracks were ransacked. I came home with boots and as much clothing as I could carry.

People's War memories »

Afterwards, in a personal message to the Italian people, Marshal Badoglio confirmed the surrender and even hinted his people should turn against their former allies, the Germans.

"The Italian forces will cease all acts of hostilities against the Anglo-American forces, wherever they may be. They will, however, oppose attacks of any other forces."

The Italian Government first suggested an armistice in August, three weeks after the fall of Mussolini during a meeting on neutral territory - probably Portugal.

When the surrender was finally signed on 3 September in Sicily, it was agreed to keep it secret until the Allied invasion of Italy was well under way.

German radio has broadcast a furious attack of Marshal Badoglio for asking for an armistice, calling it "open treason".

Marshal Badoglio and the Italian King Victor Emmanuel had insisted to the Germans that there had been no surrender, but now the truth was out.

"With this," said the German broadcaster, "a veil has been torn from a treacherous intrigue which for weeks had been enacted by an Italian clique, serfs to Jews and alien to their own people."

The surrender indicates the Axis and the Tripartite Pact is now in tatters.

But US President Franklin D Roosevelt has said it is too early to assume this is the end of war in the Mediterranean.

In a broadcast from Washington he said: "The great news you have heard from General Eisenhower does not give you licence to settle back in your rocking chair and say 'Well, that does it. We've got 'em on the run. Now we start celebrating.' The time has not yet come for celebration."



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The surrender was signed five days ago in secret


Italy surrenders and joins the war on Germany






In Context
Italy, under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, had allied itself with Adolf Hitler from 1936 and joined World War II in June 1940.
But military defeats in the Balkans and North Africa severely dented confidence in Mussolini as a leader and he was ousted in July 1943 by a group of senior military and politicians with King's approval.

His successor, Marshal Badoglio, had resigned as chief of the Supreme General Staff after opposing the invasion of Greece in October 1940.

After negotiating the armistice with the Allies he left Rome just before it was occupied by the Germans and set up Italy's new government, first in Brindisi and then Salerno.

On 12 September, four days after the surrender was announced, German special forces rescued Mussolini from detention in the Abruzzi mountains and set him up as leader of a puppet state in northern Italy.

The Germans reacted so swiftly when Italy surrendered that the Allies were able to gain little advantage from their surprise invasion of the mainland.

Germans disarmed Italian troops and they were treated harshly if they fought against their former allies.


Stories From 8 Sep
1943: Italy's surrender announced
1950: Miners trapped underground by landslide
1998: Real IRA announce ceasefire
2000: French fuel protests spread to UK
1986: Pinochet survives rebel ambush

1504 - Michelangelo's 13-foot marble statue of David was unveiled in Florence, Italy.

1888 – In London, the body of Jack the Ripper's second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found.

1941 - Nazi Germany began its siege of Leningrad, which lasted 900 days. When the siege finally ended in January of 1944, Leningrad's population had been reduced to 600,000 people from 2,500,000 million.

1944 - The first German V2 flying bombs fell on Britain, exploding at Chiswick in London, killing 3 people.

1951 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.

1960 - Publishers Penguin Books were charged with public obscenity for publishing D.H. Lawrence's controversial book - 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'.

1966 - The television program Star Trek premiered on NBC.

1987: Liverpool fans to stand trial in Belgium
Twenty-five English football fans involved in the Heysel stadium disaster have been extradited to Belgium.
Thirty-nine people died in the tragedy before the 1985 European Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool.

The English club supporters may be charged with manslaughter for their charge towards Juventus fans which led to a wall collapsing onto the panicked Italians as they tried to escape.

Their trial is expected to start in the new year - if convicted they face a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Britain's biggest mass-extradition began at 1025 BST when two large vans transported the prisoners from Wormwood Scrubs in London to an RAF base in Oxfordshire.

They were flown to Belgium in a military aircraft and driven immediately to the law courts in central Brussels, where they were questioned and formally remanded by magistrates.

One man remains in the UK awaiting trial for a separate offence.

'Red animals'

The extradition warrants were signed on 9 September 1986, but a year of argument from lawyers representing the accused men has held up the proceedings.

They fear it will be impossible for the English fans to receive a fair trial in a country where they have been vilified by the press.

Today a Belgian newspaper said the men had let down their club, their city and their country in an article with the headline: "Welcome in Belgium red Animals".


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39 people died in the Heysel Stadium disaster



In Context
Fourteen of the extradited fans were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter after a five-month trial.
Seven men were given three-year prison terms and the remainder received three-year suspended sentences.


Stories From 9 Sep
1971: British diplomat freed after eight months
1987: Liverpool fans to stand trial in Belgium
1999: Report urges sweeping reform of RUC
1976: Chairman Mao Zedong dies
1988: Indian cricket tour 'cancelled'