Scott Allsop's Blog, page 209

3rd October 1990: East and West Germany reunited

On the 3rd October 1990, Germany was reunified when the territory of the communist German Democratic Republic joined with the Federal Republic of Germany to create a single, united ...

2nd October 1919: US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a stroke while in office

United States President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on his left-hand ...

1st October 1928: USSR introduces first five-year plan

On the 1st October 1928, the Soviet Union introduced Joseph Stalin’s first five-year ...

30th September 737: Umayyad Caliphate defeated in the Battle of the Baggage

The Battle of the Baggage saw the defeat of an army from the powerful Umayyad Caliphate by Turgesh forces. The Umayyads had seized the region of Transoxiana, now in northern Afghanistan, in the early 700s. They were unpopular rulers, and by 720 the native Iranian and Turkic populations had begun to revolt with the support of the nearby Turgesh kingdom. Over the next two decades the Umayyads faced a number of attacks and revolts in Transoxiana. In 724 they were forced to retreat across the riv...

29th September 1938: Munich Conference agrees annexation of Sudetenland

On the 29th September 1938, Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Édouard Daladier reached an agreement on the Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland areas of Czechoslovakia. Seen by many as the ultimate act of failed appeasement, the Munich Agreement that was tabled on the 29th and signed in the early hours of the 30th was broken by Hitler six months later when he annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia. As a result of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War, Germ...

28th September 1066: William of Normandy lands in England

William, duke of Normandy, landed in England to begin the Norman Conquest. Edward the Confessor died childless in January 1066, prompting a succession crisis that had a dramatic effect on the course of English history. William was a distant cousin of Edward and claimed that he had been promised him the throne of England in 1051. He further maintained that Harold Godwinson, the king’s brother-in-law and the most powerful man in England after the king, had sworn in 1064 to support William’s cla...

27th September 1908: First Model T Ford produced in Detroit

On the 27th September 1908, the first Model T Ford automobile rolled out of the Piquette Avenue factory in Detroit. Although some sources claim that the first Model T was built four days later – on 1st October – research shows that this was actually the date on which the new model was available for delivery. The new Model T wasn’t the first to be produced by the Ford company, but it was significant for being the first widely-affordable car. While the low cost was ultimately achieved thanks to...

26th September 1960: Kennedy and Nixon’s first televised debate

The first United States presidential debate took place between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Political debates had taken place in the United States as far back as 1858’s series of seven meetings between Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. It wasn’t until 1956 that University of Maryland student Fred A. Kahn first suggested a national presidential debate, but that would have to wait for four years when Kennedy and Nixon met at the CBS studios in Chicago. Going in to...

25th September 1513: European ‘discovery’ of the Pacific Ocean

On the 25th September 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa became the first European to successfully lead an expedition to the Pacific Ocean from the New World. He and his men crossed the Isthmus of Panama – the narrow strip of land between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean – and saw what was then known as the ‘South Sea’ from the summit of one of the mountain ranges. It took another four days for them to descend to sea level. Balboa had first sailed to the New World in 1500, an...

24th September 1789: The Judiciary Act becomes law in the United States of America

The Judiciary Act was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by President George Washington. Article III of the United States Constitution created the Supreme Court, and stated that it would be vested with ‘the judicial Power of the United States’. As it was to be the head of a federal court system, the Constitution further specified that the Supreme Court’s composition was to be determined by Congress. The Judiciary Act of 1789 was consequently adopted by the First United S...