History Facts - September 4th
On This Day In History in 476, it was the end of an era.
The 4th of September, 476, is the date the Western Roman Empire ended when Romulus Augustus was deposed by Odoacer, who then proclaimed himself King of Italy.
Romulus Augustus was also known as Augustulus, or little Augustus, a nickname his wife gave him on their wedding night.
It was also due to him being mostly useless as an Emperor. He was barely a flicker of the man hundreds of years before who became the first Roman Emperor, the legend that was Augustus Caesar.
On This Day in 1882, Thomas Edison switched on the first commercial electric power station. It was only able to light a single square mile of lower Manhattan, but that was a heck of an achievement for that time.
This was the day commonly referred to as the start of the Electrical Age.
"Finally," said Edison after flipping the switch, "Somewhere to plug in my iPhone charger."
On this day in 1241, Alexander III of Scotland was born.
He had a mildly interesting life, becoming King of Scotland at the age of 7 after his father, Alexander II, died.
He then seduced and married King (of England) Henry III's daughter at the tender age of 10, after seeking out and capturing all known Pokémon, which deeply impressed the young princess.
When Alexander entered his years of majority, he basically invited the Norwegian King, Haakon, to invade Scotland, which he did.
But, luckily for Alexander, there is a lot of storms north of Scotland, and half Haakon's fleet was destroyed, with Haakon being killed against some rocks on Orkney on his way home.
Ironically, that's exactly how Alexander died.
After Alexander's first wife passed away, along with all three of his children, he was forced to marry again so he could produce a male heir to the throne.
On his way to celebrate after getting the chance to play leapfrog with his new French Queen, he fell off his horse in the dark, rolled down a hill, and broke his neck on some rocks at the bottom.
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