On this day…

In 476 The fall of the Western Roman Empire was completed as Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the German warrior Odoacer.

In 1910 Montenegro proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman Empire, with Nicholas I as ruler.

In 1939 Journalist Care Hollingworth observes the “large numbers of troops, literally hundreds of tanks, armored cars and field guns” Germany had aligned along the Polish border. Three days later, Hitler invades Poland and WWII begins

In 1963, some 200,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., an event that became a high point of the civil rights movement, especially remembered for the famous “I Have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King, Jr.

In 1988 Seventy people were killed when planes from an Italian Air Force display team collided in mid-air and one crashed into the crowd during an air show at Ramstein, West Germany.

In 1996 the 15-year marriage of Charles, prince of Wales, and Diana, princess of Wales, ended as a final divorce decree was issued.

Via Britannica / On This Day / Reuters