On this day

480 BC – The Battle of Thermopylae 10 years after the failed first Persian invasion of Greece, Darius I son, Xerxes I, picked up where his father had left off 10 years earlier. Moving to invade Greece and bring her city states into the vast Persian Empire. The Greek city states came together & formulated a plan to stop the Persian advance. Thermopylae (Or the Hot Gates) was chosen as the best path to block the Persian advance due to its narrowness. At the same time a navel blockade was also to take place concurrent to the battle on land. If both of these battles ended in victory for the allied Greeks then the Persian advance would be stopped.

This battle is depicted in the films The 300 Spartans (1962) and also more recently the Film 300 (2007). Both of these films inaccurately depict 300 Spartans alone, lead by their king Leonadis I, holding off the entire Persian army. In Truth, although King Leonadis I did lead the army, there is thought to have been over 7,000 allied Greeks & slaves present at the battle. Only after they were out flanked, due to a Greek Persian sympathiser showing them a small goat herding path leading behind them, did Leonadis send the bulk of the army away and remained to hold the rear or be the "Rear Guard". It's said that even at this point there were more than just 300 Spartans remaining and the true figure would've been closer to 1000 with members of other city states also remaining with the rear guard.

1778 - 1st treaty between the US & Indian tribes signed (Fort Pitt) also known as the Treaty With the Delawares, the Delaware Treaty, or the Fourth Treaty of Pittsburgh,[1] — was signed on September 17, 1778 and was the first written treaty between the new United States of America and any American Indians—the Lenape (Delaware Indians) in this case. Although many informal treaties were held with Native Americans during the American Revolution years of 1775–1783, this was the only one that resulted in a formal document. It was signed at Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, site of present-day downtown Pittsburgh. It was essentially a formal treaty of alliance.

1356 - The Battle of Poitiers was fought between England and France. Edward "the Black Prince" captured France's King John.

0451 According to some sources, this was the date of the Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.

1187 Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.

1519 Ferdinand Magellan - set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.

1596 Diego de Montemayor founded the city of Monterrey in New Spain.

1633 Galileo Galilei is tried before the Inquisition for teaching that the Earth orbits the Sun.

1737 Runner Edward Marshall completes his journey in the Walking Purchase forcing the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.

1777 Battle of Freeman's Farm (Bemis Heights) or first Battle of Saratoga

1792 French troops stop allied invasion of France, during the War of the First Coalition at Valmy.

1835 Farroupilha's Revolution begins in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

1846 Elizabeth Barrett & Robert Browning elopes

1848 Bond (US) & Lassell (England) independently discover Hyperion, moon of Saturn

1849 First commercial laundry established, in Oakland, California

1854 Battle of Alma: British and French troops defeat Russians in the Crimea.

1857 The Indian Mutiny ends with the recapture of Delhi by troops loyal to the East India Company.

1860 The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) visits the United States.

1862 Battle of Luka, Miss

1863 Battle of Chickamauga, Tenn (near Chattanooga) begins; Union retreat

1864 Third Battle of Winchester, Virginia

1870 Bersaglieri corps enters Rome through Porta Pia and completes the unification of Italy; see capture of Rome.

1871 Bishop John Coleridge Patteson martyred on the island of Nukapu a Polynesian outlier island now in the Temotu province of the Solomon Islands. He was the first bishop of Melanesia.

1873 Black Friday: Jay Cooke & Co fails, causing a securities panic

1879 Cliftonville Football Club, the oldest club in Ireland, are founded by John McCredy McAlery.

1881 Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States.

1890 Turkish frigate "Ertogrul" burns off of Japan, kills 540

1891 The single track St. Clair tunnel under the St. Clair River is opened by the Grand Trunk Railway. Construction had commenced in 1888 upon this tunnel which connects Sarnia with Port Huron.

1893 New Zealand grants women the vote

1906 Visitor posting - Harry Robert Whistler was born - USA

1917 Paraguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1926 The San Siro is inaugurated with a match between AC Milan and Inter.

1928 Mickey Mouse's screen debut (Steamboat Willie at Colony Theater NYC)

1929 Adam West, actor (Batman) born

1930 Syro-Malankara Catholic Church was formed by Archbishop Mar Ivanios

1934 Bruno Hauptmann arrested for kidnapping the Linbergh baby

1939 A German Messerschmitt Bf 109 is shot down by Fairey Battle gunner Sgt. F. Letchard during a patrol near Aachen. This is the RAF's first aerial victory of the Second World War.

1940 Genevieve Grotjan completes the decryption of the Japanese Purple code.

1940 Nazi decree forbids gentile women to work in Jewish homes

1941 HMCS Levis (Corvette) torpedoed

1946 The first Cannes Film Festival is held.

1949 Twiggy, British actress/model born

1952 The U.S. bars Charlie Chaplin from reentering the country after a trip to England.

1954 New Zealand's Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents reports just ten days after concluding hearings.

1955 Juan Peron, president of Argentina since 1946, was deposed and exiled in a military coup,

1957 Bathyscaph Trieste, in a dive sponsored by the Office of Naval Research in the Mediterranean, reaches record depth of 2 miles

1959 Brion Gysin makes his first cut-up in the Beat Hotel in Paris.

1959 Nikita Krushchev is denied access to Disneyland

1962 James Meredith, an African-American, is barred from entering the University of Mississippi.

1967 The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched at John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland. It is operated by the Cunard Line.

1968 A baby was born on Golden Gate Bridge yes the event slowed traffic

1969 John Lennon leaves The Beatles but does not make a public announcement

1970 "Mary Tyler Moore" show premiers

1970 Number one hit on UK music charts - Freda Payne - Band Of Gold

1970 Syrian tanks roll into Jordan in response to continued fighting between Jordan and the fedayeen. The Jordanians knock out 30 of the Syrian tanks.

1974 Visitor posting - September19, 1974 Koorosh was born

1977 The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is admitted to the United Nations

1979 A coup d'état in the Central African Empire overthrows Emperor Bokasa I.

1979 Assassination of French left-wing militant Pierre Goldman.

1979 Lee Iacocca is elected president of the Chrysler Corporation.

1979 Visitor posting - Robert is born

1979 The Punjab wing of the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist-Leninist) formally splits and constitutes a parallel UCCRI(ML).

1980 Titan II missile explosion (Damascus, AR)

1981 Number one hit on UK music charts - Adam & The Ants - Prince Charming

1981 Satellites China 10 & 11 launched into Earth orbit by B-1 rocket

1981 Visitor posting - day lisa sylvia smith now berry was born - United Kingdom lisasb@yahoo.com

1981 Simon & Garfunkel reunite for a NYC Central Park concert

1982 Streetcars stop running on Market St after 122 years of service

1982 The first sideways smiley face was invented!!

1983 St Christopher-Nevis gains independence from Britain (Nat'l Day)

1984 A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people.

1984 The popular American sitcoms The Cosby Show and Who's The Boss? premiere on NBC and ABC respectively.

1985 9,500 die in Mexico's earthquake (6.9)

1986 Federal health officals announce AZT will be available to AIDS patients

1988 Israel launches first satellite, for secret military reconnaissance

1989 Appeals court restores America's Cup to US after NY Supreme Court gave it to New Zealand (NZ protested US's use of a catamaran)

1989 Chase Manhattan Discovery Center at Brooklyn Botanic Garden opens

1990 South Ossetia declares its independence from Georgia.

1991 Otzi the Iceman is discovered by a couple of German tourists.

1992 Joint Task Force Marianas stands down after providing assistance to Guam after Typhoon Omar

1992 Visitor posting - Kasey Lynn Guthrie was born. - USA

1992 Visitor posting - Cody's birthday

1992 Visitor posting - Siarra A West was born

1994 Visitor posting - Peyton's birthday - USA

1995 The Washington Post publishes the "Unabomber's Manifesto"

2000 The British MI6 Secret Intelligence Service building was attacked by a Russian-built Mark 22 anti-tank missile

2001 In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American People president George W. Bush declares "war on terror".

2002 Kolka-Karmadon rock/ice slide started.

2003 A referendum is held in Latvia to decide the country's accession to the European Union.

2003 Hurricane Isabel disapates over the Atlantic Ocean after giving a hard hit in the Bahamas and on the US east Coast.

2003 Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem sparks a day of rioting in Malé.

2006 Richard Hammond has his near-fatal crash in the Vampire Dragster.

2006 Visitor posting - Proud parents Krista and Weston are blessed with the arrival of their daughter, Alysson Hunt - Canada

2007 The government raises the debt portfolio limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two public companies that together administer about 50% of the nation's mortgage loans, by more than 2 percent annually

2008 The U.S. Fed and Treasury shore up money market funds which have also come under pressure as a result of the crisis

2008 the Bush Administrator develops a plan to buy bad mortgages and other forms of toxic debt that have been dragging down the U.S. financial companies at a cost of $700 billion

2009 Visitor posting - The best day of my life at Wekiwa Springs. The day u kissed my lips, touched my soul, held me in your arms & caught my falling heart in your love. I love u hunner - USA

You've done your research there Bravo!! Must be a significant day for you

1997 Elton John started a six week run at No.1 in the UK singles chart with "Candle in the Wind '97'' as a tribute to Princess Diana. It became the best-selling single of all time.

1986 Prince Charles admitted that he talked to his plants.

Some really good ones for today so I'll give you a couple:

1735 Sir Robert Walpole became the first prime minister to occupy 10 Downing Street.

1955 Independent Television (ITV) began operating. Only six minutes of advertisements were allowed each hour and there was no Sunday morning TV permitted. The first advertisement screened was for Gibbs SR toothpaste.

1967 The liner Queen Mary began her 1000th and last Atlantic crossing. A New York docks strike meant that passengers had to carry their own luggage aboard.

1986 Surgeons at Harefield Hospital performed a heart & lung transplant operation on the world's youngest patient - a baby just 10 weeks old.

1991 Bryan Adams made chart history when his song - Everything I Do, I Do It For You, had its twelfth consecutive week as the UK No.1.

1999 Screaming Lord Sutch's Official Monster Raving Loony Party honoured his memory with a two minute scream at a pub in Ashburton, Devon. The singer, born David Sutch, hanged himself on 16th June 1999.

1999 Singer Diana Ross was arrested on Concorde after an incident at Heathrow Airport. The singer claimed that a female security guard had touched her breasts when being frisked, and she retaliated by rubbing her hands down the security guard.

1989 - Columbia Pictures Entertainment agreed to buyout Sony Corporation for $3.4 billion.

1889 - The first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon.

1889 The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco..........

....oh dear.....you copied me Lily!!.........ok

1915 The famous First World War song 'Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag' was published by Welsh brothers

Nice to know you always look before you leap

.........funny!!...ha!!...looks like we're both on the same page tho!!.............wot about........... ...

1956 Bill Haley was voted the 'World's Outstanding Vocal Personality' in an NME poll, with ElvisPresley in 2nd place. Presley also came runner up to Frank Sinatra in the 'World's Most Outstanding Singer' category

1971 - The People's Republic of China was seated in the United Nations Security Council.

1910 Dr Hawley Crippen was executed in Holloway prison, London for the murder of his wife, Cora

1963 Standing at the top of the charts were Gerry and the Pacemakers with 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.

1950 - Dr. Ralph J. Bunche was presented the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first African-American to receive the award. Bunche was awarded the prize for his efforts in mediation between Israel and neighboring Arab states.

1832.....The birth of Alice in Wonderland author...Lewis Carroll!!......

1939......The death of Irish poet ...William Butler Yeats!!......

1959......Fidel Castro became Premier of Cuba..

1841...the birth of French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir.....

1927 composer armand -louis couperin was born

not a lot of people know that hee hee

I knew that!!....... ..I did!!!!.....swear to god I did!!..

yeah right

I did!!.. ....I knew it before Lizzie even said it!!.... ..in fact I woz just gonna say that myself!!........