TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2018 On this day in history:

1812 - Napoleon defeated the Russian army of Alexander I at the battle of Borodino.

1813 - The nickname “Uncle Sam” was first used as a symbolic reference to the United States. The reference appeared in an editorial in the New York’s Troy Post.

1815 - Australian explorer John McDouall Stuart is born.

1822 - Brazil declared its independence from Portugal.

1825 - Major Edmund Lockyer arrives in Brisbane to explore the upper reaches of the Brisbane River.

1901 - China and the Eight-Nation Alliance signed the Boxer Protocol ending the Boxer Rebellion (Boxer Uprising, Yihequan Movement).

1936 - The last known Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, dies.

1940 - London received its initial rain of bombs from Nazi Germany during World War II.

1942 - During World War II, the Russian army counter attacked the German troops outside the city of Stalingrad.

1977 - The Panama Canal treaties were signed by U.S. President Carter and General Omar Torrijos Herrera. The treaties called for the US to turn over control of the canal’s waterway to Panama in the year 2000.

1983 - In Ireland, voters approved a constitutional amendment that banned abortion.

1986 - The last section of the sealed National Highway around Australia is completed, between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek.

1986 - President Augusto Pinochet survived an assassination attempt made by guerrillas.

1986 - Desmond Tutu was the first black to be installed to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

1987 - Erich Honecker became the first East German head of state to visit West Germany.

1996 - National Threatened Species Day is initiated in Australia.