History Today

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 4th. It’s the day that set an obscure mathematical term on its way to becoming a household world: On this day in 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed the paperwork to incorporate Google, the company they famously started in a Menlo Park, California, garage.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 3rd. Do you know which country is the world’s oldest republic? It’s San Marino, which was founded on this day in the year 301. With a population of less than 35,000 and an area of about 25 square miles, San Marino is one of the world’s smallest countries. Landlocked and completely surrounded by Italy, its existence is a throwback to the time when small city states existed across Europe.

Hello and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 2nd. It was a day celebrated all over the world--V-J day, marking “victory over Japan”--when Japan formally surrendered to the Allies on this day in 1945, effectively ending World War II, after more than five bloody years of fighting. The Japanese army and navy had already been largely destroyed, and in early August, the U.S. had dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing and wounding more than 200,000 people.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on September 1st. The plight of the doomed Titanic has fascinated the public for decades, and scientists got a lot closer to understanding what happened to the notorious ship on this day in 1985, when a U.S. and French expedition finally located the wreck of the Titanic. Efforts to locate and salvage the Titanic began almost immediately after it sank in 1912.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on August 31st. You may remember where you were when you heard this sad news--on this day in 1997, Great Britain’s Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris when she was just 36 years old. The day before, Diana had arrived in Paris after vacationing on the French Riviera with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on August 30th. Today, Americans celebrate two milestones in Black history: On this day in 1967, Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the country’s first African American Supreme Court justice. Prior to his appointment, Marshall served as chief counsel for the NAACP and won renown for his victory in the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed segregation in public schools. Sixteen years later, U.S.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on August 29th. Just weeks after Hurricane Isaias battered the East Coast, we look back to this day in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana. The storm flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and caused damage across coastal Louisiana and Mississippi. All told, the storm killed 1,300 people, displaced tens of thousands more and caused some $150 billion in damage, much of it not covered by insurance.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on August 28th. “I have a dream.” They are four of the most stirring words in American history and, 57 years ago today, they were spoken by civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. as he addressed 250,000 people attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C. Other speakers at the rally included activist A.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on August 27th. From the world’s highest jump on a pogo stick to the world’s tallest hat, it seems these days there’s a world record for almost anything--a trend started on this day in 1955 with the debut of the Guinness Book of Records in Great Britain.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on August 26th. Today, Americans across the country will celebrate the formal adoption of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed American women the right to vote, 100 years ago today.