0476 - Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the western Roman Empire, was deposed when Odoacer proclaimed himself King of Italy.

1530 - Russian Czar Ivan “The Terrible” was born.

1609 - English navigator Henry Hudson began exploring the island of Manhattan.

1776 - Francois Rene Chateaubriand was born. He was a French poet, novelist, statesman, historian and explorer.

1781 - Los Angeles, CA, was founded by Spanish settlers. The original name was “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula,” which translates as “The Town of the Queen of Angels.”

1825 - New York Governor Clinton ceremoniously emptied a barrel of Lake Erie water in the Atlantic Ocean to consummate the “Marriage of the Waters” of the Great Lakes and the Atlantic.

1833 - Barney Flaherty answered an ad in “The New York Sun” and became the first newsboy/paperboy at the age of 10.

1882 - Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street electric power station began operations in New York City. It was the first display of a practical electrical lighting system.

1885 - The Exchange Buffet opened in New York City. It was the first self-service cafeteria in the U.S.

1886 - Geronimo, and the Apache Indians he led, surrendered in Skeleton Canyon in Arizona to Gen. Nelson Miles.

1888 - George Eastman registered the name “Kodak” and patented his roll-film camera. The camera took 100 exposures per roll.

1894 - A strike in New York City by 12,000 tailors took place to protest sweatshops.

1899 - An 8.3 earthquake hit Yakutat Bar, AK.

1917 - Henry Ford II was born. He was the head of the Ford Motor Company for 40 years.

1917 - The American expeditionary force in France suffered its first fatalities in World War I.

1921 - The first police broadcast was made by radio station WIL in St. Louis, MO.

1944 - During World War II, British troops entered the city of Antwerp, Belgium.

1948 - The Dutch Queen Wilhelmina left her throne for health reasons.

1949 - The longest pro tennis match in history was played when Pancho Gonzales and Ted Schroeder played 67 games in five sets.

1951 - The first live, coast-to-coast TV broadcast took place in the U.S. The event took place in San Francisco, CA, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference. It was seen all the way to New York City, NY.

1953 - The New York Yankees became the first baseball team to win five consecutive American League championships.

1957 - The Arkansas National Guard was ordered by Governor Orval Faubus to keep nine black students from going into Little Rock’s Central High School.

1957 - The Ford Motor Company began selling the Edsel. The car was so unpopular that it was taken off the market only two years.

1967 - “Gilligan’s Island” aired for the last time on CBS-TV. It ran for 98 shows.

1967 - Michigan Gov. George Romney said during a TV interview that he had undergone “brainwashing” by U.S. officials while visiting Vietnam in 1965.

1971 - An Alaska Airlines jet crashed killing 111 people near Juneau.

1971 - “The Lawrence Welk Show” was seen for the last time on ABC-TV.

1972 - Swimmer Mark Spitz captured his seventh Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter medley relay event at Munich, Germany. Spitz was the first Olympian to win seven gold medals.

1973 - John Ehrlichman and G. Gordon Liddy were indicted with two others in connection with the burglary of a psychiatrist’s office two years earlier.

1982 - The Dorothy May Apartment-Hotel building in Los Angeles, CA was set on fire by an arsonist killing 25 people.

1983 - U.S. officials announced that there had been an American plane, used for reconnaissance, in the vicinity of the Korean Air Lines flight that was shot down.

1986 - South African security forces halted a mass funeral for the victims of the riot in Soweto.

1987 - West German pilot Mathias Rust was convicted by a Soviet court and sentenced to four years in a labor camp. The charges were concerning his daring flight into Moscow’s Red Square. He was released after one year.

1988 - Bangladesh officials reported that at least 882 people had been killed by floods that had inundated their nation.

1989 - A reconnaissance satellite was released by the Air Force’s Titan Three rocket. The Titan Three set over 200 satellites into space between 1964 and 1989.

1993 - Pope John Paul II started his first visit to the former Soviet Union.

1993 - Jim Abbott, pitcher for the New York Yankees, pitched a no-hitter. Abbott had been born without a right hand.

1995 - The Fourth World Conference on Women was opened in Beijing. There were over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.

1997 - A triple suicide bombing in the heart of Jerusalem killed seven people, including the three assailants.

1997 - Three Buddhist nuns acknowledged in testimony to the U.S. Senate that their temple outside Los Angeles illegally reimbursed donors after a fund-raiser attended by Vice President Al Gore, and later destroyed or altered records.

1998 - In Mexico, bankers stopped approving personal loans and mortgages.

1998 - The International Monetary Fund approved a $257 million loan for the Ukraine.

1998 - While in Ireland, U.S. President Clinton said the words “I’m sorry” for the first time about his affair with Monica Lewinsky and described his behavior as indefensible.

1999 - The United Nations announced that the residents of East Timor had overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia in a referendum held on August 30. In Dili, pro-Indonesian militias attacked independence supporters, burned buildings, blew up bridges and destroyed telecommunication facilities.

2002 - The Oakland Athletics won their AL-record 20th straight game. The A’s gave up an 11-run lead during the game and then won the game on a Scott Hatteberg home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

2003 - Keegan Reilly, 22, became the first parapalegic climber to reach the peak of Japan’s Mount Fuji.

Link: http://www.waynebrownministries.com

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

3 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
16 fluid ounces (2 cups) half-and-half
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 ounces grated Parmesan

Peel and dice potatoes, making sure all are relatively the same size. Place in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce heat to maintain a rolling boil. Cook until potatoes fall apart when poked with a fork.
Heat the half-and-half and the garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.

Remove the potatoes from the heat and drain off the water. Mash and add the garlic-cream mixture, salt, and Parmesan; stir to combine. Let stand for 5 minutes so that mixture thickens and then serve.

The Gazette

The Pulpit

Mark Barna

On Tuesday, Sept. 7, my Rosh Hashana story will run at gazette.com. In the story I write about what the Jewish observance means and about a 19th-century scroll that has been used for 110 years during Rosh Hashana services.

Most synagogues use a scroll, on which is written the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, during services. But how are they created?

Jewish historian Perry B. Bach gives the following run-down:

“Religious Jews believe that God gave the first Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai, shortly after he led the Israelites out of Egypt.  Since ancient times, the Torah has been inscribed in Hebrew on scrolls of parchment using the same process. 

“Specially trained devout scribes start by making parchment from the skins of kosher animals.  A special black ink is prepared with the ashes of gallnut tree wood, gum Arabic and copper sulphate.  Before the scribe even starts his holy task, he takes a ritual bath and prays that he’ll be worthy to perform the task.  He then writes the words of the Torah in Hebrew calligraphy, using a quill, making sure that every letter and word is perfect.  It takes a scribe about one year to finish the task; there are no shortcuts. 

“Next is the task of authenticating the scroll, with a student reading aloud and spelling out the text of the Torah, while the scribe verifies word-by-word in the scroll. The sheets of parchment are then sewn together with a thread made of sheep ligament.   The finished scroll is attached to wooden rollers.  No instrument containing iron or steel may be used in the creation of a Torah scroll, because these metals are used to create instruments of war.  This process, still used today, was used in making the Torah that was brought to Colorado Springs in 1900.”

The Gazette

The Pulpit

Mark Barna

There’s a lot of talk about President Barack Obama’s faith. Is he a Christian, a Muslim, an agnostic, an (gulp) atheist?

But would any of that change the way he leads America?

America, after all, has a Constitution and Bill of Rights, and Supreme Court judges have set lots of precedent in cases. All this might be seen as the secular moral fibre of America, and it seems to have done a pretty good job, leading to the end of slavery, pushing against racism and keeping many freedoms intact, including freedom of religion.

But are secular moral ordinances and laws sufficient? Or does religion need to be in the mix, as well?

An author and blogger makes the point in an essay for the Washington Posts’ On Faith site that Obama’s faith shouldn’t matter. We should judge him by his actions. Read the essay here.