September 4 in History

The French garrison in Valletta surrendered to British forces invited by the Maltese population, ending two years of French occupation and establishing British control over the strategic Mediterranean islands. Malta's transformation into a British protectorate secured a naval base that would prove essential during both World Wars and reshaped the archipelago's political identity for over 160 years.

In 476 AD, Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by Odoacer, who declared himself King of Italy. This event is often cited as the fall of the Western Roman Empire, marking the end of ancient Rome's political dominance and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe. The deposition of Romulus Augustus symbolizes the fragmentation of power and the transition to a new era in European history.

Romulus Augustulus was 16 years old when he was deposed. His name was almost cosmically ironic — Romulus, the city's legendary founder, combined with Augustulus, 'little Augustus,' a diminutive the Romans themselves used mockingly. Odoacer didn't bother killing him. He sent the boy to a castle in Campania with a pension of 6,000 gold pieces a year, apparently finding him too pathetic to execute. The Western Roman Empire — 500 years of it — ended not with a battle but with an exile and an allowance.

Li Shimin had just arranged the killing of two of his own brothers to take the throne. The Xuanwu Gate Incident — a carefully planned ambush inside the palace — ended with Li Shimin's men killing his brothers and reportedly their sons as well. His father, the reigning emperor, abdicated two months later under pressure. And yet the man who seized power by massacre became one of the most celebrated rulers in Chinese history, presiding over a period of expansion, legal reform, and cultural flourishing. Emperor Taizong of Tang. Built on a gate and a bloodbath.

Saxon troops crushed the Redarii and Obotrite alliance at Lenzen, shattering Slavic resistance along the Elbe River. This decisive victory forced the region into direct Saxon control and secured the eastern frontier for Otto I's expanding realm.

Sienese Ghibellines, reinforced by King Manfred's German cavalry, annihilated a much larger Florentine Guelph army at Montaperti, leaving thousands dead along the Arbia River. The victors debated razing Florence entirely before Farinata degli Uberti famously argued to spare the city. Montaperti ended Florentine dominance in Tuscany for six years and remains a bitter memory in the rivalry between the two cities.

Castile and Portugal signed the Treaty of Alcáçovas, ending a succession war and dividing the Atlantic world between two Iberian powers. Portugal secured exclusive rights over West Africa and its gold trade; Castile gained the Canary Islands. The agreement became the template for the later Treaty of Tordesillas, which split the entire non-European world between Spain and Portugal.

British warships opened fire on Chinese war junks enforcing a food embargo, igniting the first armed clash of the First Opium War. This skirmish shattered diplomatic negotiations and forced Britain to escalate its military campaign, directly leading to the eventual cession of Hong Kong and the opening of Chinese ports to foreign trade.

Atatürk organized the Sivas Congress while the Ottoman Empire still technically existed — Sultan Mehmed VI still sat on the throne in Constantinople, Allied forces occupied the city, and the British had already tried to arrest Atatürk once. He traveled to Sivas in disguise. The 38 delegates who gathered there were defying both the Sultan and the occupying powers to declare that Anatolia would determine its own fate. Within four years, the sultanate was abolished, the Republic declared, and the man who'd run this clandestine congress was its president.