What happened on 4 September?

14 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 476 Fall of Western Roman Empire Romulus Augustulus deposed by Odoacer.
2. 1839 First Opium War begins Britain attacks Qing China after seizures of opium; trigger of the 'unequal treaties' era.
3. 1870 French Third Republic Longest-lived French parliamentary government; survives WWI, ends in Vichy collapse 1940.
4. 1998 Google founded Larry Page and Sergey Brin start the search company that comes to dominate the web.
5. 1666 St Paul's burns On the fire's worst night old St Paul's goes up — the lead roof running molten down Ludgate Hill, the booksellers' stock stored in the crypt burning for a week. The stones, an eyew
6. 1683 The mines reach the Burg bastion Rejecting a costly assault, the Ottomans dig — a war of tunnels and counter-tunnels under the fortifications, with defenders listening for picks through the walls of cellars. By ea
7. 1981 Born: Beyoncé American singer; one of the best-selling artists of all time.
8. 1882 Pearl Street power station Edison opens the world's first commercial central power station in lower Manhattan; serves 85 customers with DC electricity.
9. 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women Hillary Clinton declares 'women's rights are human rights'; the Platform for Action sets a global agenda.
10. 1989 Monday demonstrations in Leipzig Weekly mass protests in East German cities; tens of thousands chant 'Wir sind das Volk' and erode the regime's authority.
11. 1970 Allende elected in Chile Salvador Allende becomes the first Marxist freely elected to lead a Latin American state, until the 1973 coup.
12. 1962 Kennedy warns Moscow against missiles in Cuba Responding to reports of Soviet shipments to Cuba, President Kennedy publicly warns that offensive ground-to-ground missiles on the island would raise 'the gravest issues'. Moscow
13. 1944 Antwerp falls but the Scheldt stays shut Antwerp's port is captured intact — and useless: the Germans still hold the Scheldt estuary between it and the sea, and clearing them costs the First Canadian Army two months and 1
14. 1797 The Fructidor coup purges the royalists When elections return a royalist majority, the French Directory annuls the results, deports opposition deputies to Guiana and calls in the army to hold Paris. The Republic saves it