Sept. 8 historic events
70 C.E. Roman forces under Titus sack Jerusalem.
1264 The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews safety and personal liberties and giving battei din jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Boleslaus the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland. (If you have a couple of minutes, I recommend reading the full Wikipedia article.)
1565 A Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Fla.
1664 The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York. (Bedford-Stuyvesant a.k.a. Bed-Stuy bears the name of Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant.)
1900 Galveston, Texas, was struck by a hurricane that killed about 6,000 people. ( A major cause of the scope of the disaster and loss of life was the fact that Galveston was only a few feet above sea level, and natural protective sand barriers had been removed for use in landscaping other parts of the island. To date no one knows exactly how many people were lost, with estimates of 6,000 – 12,000.)
1935 Sen. Huey P. Long, the “Kingfish” of Louisiana politics, was shot at the state capital building in Baton Rouge; he died two days later.
1941 A 900-day siege of Leningrad by German forces began during World War II.
2003 The Recording Industry Association of America filed 261 copyright lawsuits against Internet users for trading songs online.
2004 “60 Minutes Wednesday” aired a report questioning President George W. Bush’s National Guard service. CBS News later apologized for a “mistake in judgment” after memos featured in the report were challenged as forgeries. (What a nice, genteel way of putting it – “challenged as forgeries”. Actually, they were proven forgeries by a conservative blogger, who demonstrated that the documents exactly matched the default font, font-size, spacing and line setup of Microsoft Word default settings. Dan Rather continued to insist on the documents’ authenticity well after most other media considered them forgeries. This continued a pattern of Bush-hatred by Rather, who years earlier had all-but-called Bush Sr. a liar in an interview, rudely cut him off, and put words in his mouth. Rather’s resignation shortly after the forged documents scandal broke was attributed to his embarrassing CBS with his behavior.)
2006 A Senate report faulted intelligence gathering in the lead-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, and said Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a threat rather than a possible ally, contradicting assertions President George W. Bush had used to build support for the war.