September 6 (A Triple)

394 - Battle of the River Frigidus.

Theodosius was the emperor of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire, and in this battle he defeated Eugenius, emperor of the western portion...As a result, Theodosius re-united the entire Roman Empire. He was the last to do so, and the empire split for good shortly after his reign.

Another important result of this battle was Theodosius was a Christian and Eugenius a pagan. Eugenius's defeat is seen as a final victory in the empire for Christianity over paganism.

1522 - One of the five ships which set out on Ferdinand Magellan's trip around the world made it back to Spain. Only 15 of the original 265 men who began the trip survived.  Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.

Magellan was one of the ‘astronauts’ of his time. Too bad he didn’t finish the trip, like the other 95% of his crew...As captain of the fleet, though, Magellan receives credit for circumnavigating the globe, but it was really his lieutenant, Juan Sebastian Del Cano, who captained the final leg of the journey.

1566 - Suleiman 'the Lawgiver (also called 'the Magnificent') died.

Suleiman was a 'magnificent' ruler and the Ottoman Empire reached its greatest strength and size during his reign: Stretching from Vienna to Yemen and Aden, from Persia to Oran, and his navy dominated the Mediterranean Sea, which put him within arms reach of much of Europe, Asia and North Africa.

Here’s what Suleiman had to say about himself: “I, who am Sultan of the Sultans of East and West, fortunate lord of the domains of the Romans, Persians, and Arabs, Hero of creation, Neriman of the earth and time, Padishah and Sultan of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, of the extolled Kaaba and Medina the illustrious and Jerusalem of the noble, of the throne of Egypt and the province of Yemen, Aden, and San'a, of Baghdad and Basra and Lhasa and Ctesiphon, of the lands of Algiers and Azerbaijan, of the region of the Kipshaks and the lands of the Tartars, of Kurdistan and Luristan and all Rumelia, Anatolia and Karaman, of Wallachia and Moldavia and Hungary and many kingdoms and lands besides; the Sultan Suleyman Khan, son of the Sultan Selim Khan.”

That's fantastic!!  Needless to say, Suleiman thought very highly of himself; something which was as much a reality as a figment of his imagination.

Note:  You may have noticed he claimed to rule the "domains of the Romans"...This is true, but it wasn't Rome he was talking about; it was Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine portion of the Roman Empire.

1776 - The first submarine attack occurred when an American sub attacked the British warship Eagle in New York harbor:  American Revolutionary War.

Calling this vessel a 'submarine' is a stretch, but it was a submersible boat...More like a can in the water than a modern sub, though.

1901 - President William McKinley was shot while attending a reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

McKinley died eight days later, becoming the third American President to be assassinated.

The death of a president is a terrible event for the nation to recover from, but the U.S. was lucky to have a worthy successor in the person of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt....Looking back, this is easy to identify but at the time many were horrified by the reality of the 'roughneck Roosevelt' becoming president.

Luckily, the U.S. has almost always been blessed with the 'right man at the right time,' and a better leader could not have been asked for, because Roosevelt proved to be one of the greatest presidents in American history...The most conservative Liberal president ever, and the most liberal Conservative president ever.

I hope you understand what I mean by this, and the differentiation between the capital and lower case C/c and L/l.

1941 - Jews six years of age and older were ordered to wear yellow Stars of David in Nazi-occupied areas:  WWII.

Making it easier to identify them prior to processing and extermination.

1943 - The United States asked the Chinese Nationalists to join with the Communists to present a common front against the Japanese:  WWII.

This would have been nice, but in reality the only 'common front' they established was the one between each other.

1953 - Operation Big Switch: The last American and Korean prisoners were exchanged - the final official act of the Korean War.

The last American reached 'Freedom Village,' and the Korean War came to an unofficial end.

This war was the first America didn’t win, but we didn’t lose either. Ties are disgraceful to many Americans, but the millions of South Koreans who have lived in relative peace and freedom for the past 50-years are proof that ties are better than losses.

I highly recommend you read this excerpt from “Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul: Freedom Village”.

1995 - Baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr., broke Lou Gehrig's iron man record by playing in his 2,131st straight game.

I love Cal, and he was one of my favorite players when I was a boy...That said, had I been Cal I would have tied the record, not broken it.

The beauty of the record isn’t the number of games played. The beauty of the record is it was Lou Gehrig’s record, and I would have wanted my name right next to the ‘Iron Horse’, not on top of it...But that’s just me.