Today in History for Sept. 4, 2015

Sept. 4, 1609 - English navigator Henry Hudson began exploring the island of Manhattan.

Sept. 4, 1774 – New Caledonia was first sighted by Europeans, during the second voyage of Captain James Cook.

Sept. 4, 1780 - Patriot Francis Marion’s Carolina militia routed Loyalists at Blue Savannah, South Carolina, and in the process Marion won new recruits to the Patriot cause. The success of Marion’s militia broke the Loyalist stronghold on South Carolina east of the PeeDee River and attracted another 60 volunteers to the Patriot cause.

Sept. 4, 1781 – Los Angeles was 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.

Sept. 4, 1824 – During his tour of the United States, the Marquis de Lafayette visited Hartford, Conn. and Middletown, Conn.

Sept. 4, 1833 - Barney Flaherty answered an ad in "The New York Sun" and became the first newsboy/paperboy at the age of 10.

Sept. 4, 1843 – William F. Saunders was commissioned as Monroe County, Alabama’s Sheriff.

Sept. 4, 1861 - Barely three days after being appointed to command at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Gen. U.S. Grant set up in business in Cairo, Illinois. Being the town with the largest concentration of Union forces and the location of most of the training centers and “camps of instruction” in the Midwest, it seemed more logical to be on the scene. Polk, meanwhile, was justifying his invasion of Kentucky with a Confederate army by claiming that the Union was “concentrating forces” across the river from Columbus, Ky. and that he had just invaded the state to “protect it.”

Sept. 4, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Great Falls, Md.

Sept. 4, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Shelbina, Mo.

Sept. 4-9, 1862 – During the Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee invaded the North with 50,000 troops and moved toward Harpers Ferry as part of what is now known as the Maryland Campaign. Union General George B. McClellan pursued Lee with 90,000 troops.

Sept. 4, 1863 – During the Civil War, Rear Admiral John Dahlgren began an attack aimed at capturing Charleston. The Confederates evacuated Battery Wagner and Morris Island, S.C., two days later.

Sept. 4, 1863 – General William Rosecrans’ Union Army of the Cumberland crossed the Tennessee River today at Bridgeport, Ala., and Shellmound, Tenn.

Sept. 4, 1864 – During the Civil War, John Hunt Morgan, the feared Confederate cavalry leader and 39-year-old Alabama native, was shot and killed during a Union cavalry raid on the town of Greenville, Tenn. At the time of his death, Morgan was preparing for a raid on Knoxville, Tennessee when, alerted to his presence, Union cavalry attacked his headquarters at Greenville. Morgan was shot and killed while trying to join his men.

Sept. 4, 1886 - Geronimo, and the Apache Indians he led, surrendered in Skeleton Canyon in Arizona to General Nelson Miles. Geronimo and his band of Apaches were sent to Florida and then to Mount Vernon, Ala. before eventually ending up at the Comanche and Kiowa reservation near Fort Sill in the Oklahoma Territory.

Sept. 4, 1905 – The 13th annual session of the Southwest Alabama Agricultural School in Evergreen, Ala. was scheduled to open. The school’s president was J.A. Liner.

Sept. 4, 1905 – Historical novelist Mary Renault was born Eileen Challans in Forest Gate, England.

Sept. 4, 1908 – Novelist Richard Wright was born near Roxie, Miss.

Sept. 4, 1921 - The first police broadcast was made by radio station WIL in St. Louis, Mo.

Sept. 4, 1925 - Author Forrest Carter was born in Oxford, Ala.

Sept. 4, 1933 – Former Conecuh County Sheriff A.M. Barfield announced that he would be a candidate in the upcoming Conecuh County Sheriff’s race, despite rumors that he had decided to withdraw from the race.

Sept. 4, 1939 - Fredrick D. Richardson Jr. was born in Nymph, Ala. to Fredrick “Fred” and Helen Richardson. He would become a Mobile City Councilman in 1997.

Sept. 4, 1940 – Monroe County, Ala. voters voted in a referendum to become a dry county. At the time, it was one of 24 counties operating with state liquor stores and licensed sales of alcohol under the Alabama ABC law.

Sept. 4-21, 1947 - In Florida, Louisianna, Mississipi and Alabama, 51 people were killed in a hurricane.

Sept. 4, 1950 – Major League Baseball pitcher Doyle Alexander was born in Cordova, Ala. During his career, he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Baltimore Orioles, the New York Yankees, the Texas Rangers, the Atlanta Braves, the San Francisco Giants, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Detroit Tigers.

Sept. 4, 1950 - In the waters off Nova Scotia, Duncan Hodgson caught a 997 lb. tuna.

Sept. 4, 1951 – Army Pvt. William E. Watson of Wilcox County, Ala. was killed in action in Korea.

Sept. 4, 1951 - Alabama lawmakers passed legislation requiring a new look for the state's license plates. Beginning in October 1954, tags were to carry an image of a heart and the phrase, "Heart of Dixie," a slogan that had been used for several years by the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce to promote the state.

Sept. 4, 1953 - The New York Yankees became the first baseball team to win five consecutive American League championships.

Sept. 4, 1964 – In the first year that preseason high school football jamborees were allowed in Alabama, Evergreen High School hosted a jamboree on this date that included Evergreen, Lyeffion, Frisco City and W.S. Neal. They played four, 10-minutes quarters will teams changing at the end of each quarter.

Sept. 4, 1968 – Major League Baseball catcher Mike Piazza was born in Norristown, Pa.

Sept. 4, 1969 – On this Thursday night in Atmore, Ala., Evergreen High School beat Atmore, 13-0. Hollis Tranum and Ivon Gomes scored Evergreen’s touchdowns, and Jeb Barron kicked an extra point. Other standout Evergreen players in that game included Jimmy Bell, John Brantley, Ronald Halford, Jimmy Hamiter, Larry Peacock, Eric Pugh, Eddie Ralls, Ernest Shipp, Reggie Smith and Richard Wilson.

Sept. 4, 1970 – Monroe Academy played its first official football game, beating South Choctaw, 54-0, in Monroeville, Ala.

Sept. 4, 1978 – The first sighting of “Issie” by a large group of people occurred when over 20 people saw the massive, snakelike creature in Lake Ikeda, Japan.

Sept. 4, 1979 – In Lovecraftian fiction, a boater discovered Henri-Laurent de Marigny clinging desperately to a buoy in the Thames River with all of his limbs broken and no recollection of how he had spent the last 10 years. He’d last been seen on Oct. 4, 1969 when Blowne Manor, the residence of Titus Crow on Leonard’s-Walk Heath, was destroyed by a freak windstorm.

Sept. 4, 1985 - The first pictures of the Titanic wreck were released, after a joint American-French expedition discovered the sunken ship.

Sept. 4, 1986 – Eighteen locations in Greenville, Ala. were added to the National Register of Historic Places. Those locations included the Buell-Stallings-Stewart House on Fort Dale Street, the W.S. Blackwell House on Fort Dale Street; the Butler Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church on Oglesby Street, Confederate Park, the Dickenson House on South Conecuh Street, the Evens-McMullan House on Bolling Street, the First Baptist Church of Greenville, the First Presbyterian Church of Greenville, the Gaston-Perdue House on Cedar Street, the Graydon House on Cedar Street, the Greenville Public School Complex, the Hawthorne-Cowart House on Bolling Street, the Hinson House on Oliver Street, the Lane-Kendrick-Sherling House on Fort Dale Street, the McMullan-Skinner House on Oliver Street, the Theological Building-A.M.E. Zion Theological Institute on Conecuh Street, the Ward Nicholson Corner Store on West Parmer Street and the Wright-Kilgore House on Walnut Street.

Sept. 4, 1986 – National Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman Hank Greenberg passed away at the age of 75 in Beverly Hills, Calif. During his career, he played for the Detroit Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1956.

Sept. 4, 1987 – Hugh Wilson, in his 13th year as Repton High School’s head football coach, collected his 100th win at Repton with a 24-12 win over Conecuh County High School in Repton, Ala. That was his 151st win overall in 25 years as a head football coach.

Sept. 4, 1990 - Barbara Turner, who had been an English teacher at J.F. Shields High School in Beatrice for the past two years, picketed on the west side of the Monroe County Courthouse in protest for not having her employment contract renewed by the county board of education despite the recommendations of her school principal, trustees, board member, parents and students. Sam Hollingsworth was superintendent at the time.

Sept. 4, 1992 – The John W. Howard House and Outbuildings on State Route 10 East in Greenville, Ala. was added to National Register of Historic Places.

Sept. 4, 1993 - Jim Abbott of the New York Yankees, who was born without a right hand, pitched a no-hitter.

Sept. 4, 1998 – J.U. Blacksher High School’s football field was dedicated in honor of former head football coach and principal John M. Sawyer. The field is now known as the John Sawyer Memorial Field.

Sept. 4, 2002 - The Oakland Athletics won their American League-record 20th straight game. The A's gave up an 11-run lead during the game and then won the game on a Scott Hatteberg home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Sept. 4, 2002 - St. Louis manager Tony La Russa got his 1,905th major league win, tying Casey Stengal for eighth place on the all-time list.

Sept. 4, 2002 - U.S. President Bush promised to seek Congress' approval for "whatever is necessary" to oust Saddam Hussein.