September 30: The Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto enters the territory of Tula, Arkansas today, on September 30, 1541, managing to overcome a native strong resistance.

Hernando de Soto route through the Caddo area, with known archaeological phases marked.

Don Hernando was the first European to reach the Mississippi River. De Soto commanded 400 soldiers in issue and did not put much attention to the discovery of the river because of the difficulty caused to cross it and meet the expeditionary goal of reaching the West.

Discovery of the Mississippi by William H. Powell  (1823–1879) is a Romantic depiction of de Soto seeing the Mississippi River for the first time. It hangs in the United States Capitol Rotunda. 

His tour included Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. He died disappointed not to have found the riches he was seeking.

Library of Congress’ engraving. The Spanish caption reads: "HERNANDO DE SOTO: Extremaduran, one of the discoverers and conquerors of Peru: he travelled across all of Florida and defeated its previously invincible natives, he died on his expedition in the year 1543 at the age of 42".

Don Hernando died of fever on the banks of the Mississippi River, the May 21, 1542.

Depiction of the burial of Hernando de Soto

Luis de Moscoso happened to bury Don Hernando and did hide his body because Guachoya native village considered him immortal. Therefore, the Spanish soldiers wrapped in blankets weighted with sand and sank in the river overnight.

September 29: The Argentine cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado, better known by his pen name or pseudonym “Quino” publishes the "comic strip" with the name of Mafalda in 1964.

Quino and Mafalda

Quino was an Argentine cartoonist who drew a middle-class girl from Argentina and expressed his thoughts through her on the real situations of the late twentieth and early 21st century.

Joaquin Salvador Lavado Badger published his cartoonist drawings in Argentina, from 1964 to 1973. Mafalda features a 6-year-old girl, who depicts the Argentinian middle class and progressive youth.

Mafalda starred as a girl of progressive middle class expressing her thoughts in terms of the Latin American reality, world peace, and young thinking against establishment, society, family and even politics.

Publication of Mafalda was so successful that it was translated into more than 30 languages, expressing uneasiness with the surrounding world left by their parents.

September 28: William "The Bastard" as it was dubbed at that time, invaded England in 1066 and thus began the Norman conquest of England.

Location of major events during the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

William the first has passed into history as William "The Conqueror". However, at the time it was dubbed "The Bastard" because he was born of a relationship of his single father, Robert I and Duke of Normandy, with his mistress, Herleva, of mysterious origin.

Map showing William's lands in 1087 (the light pink areas were controlled by William).

At that time the Normans were descendants of the Vikings who invaded and conquered Normandy, northern France today.

William the Conqueror statue at Falaise, France.

William managed to quell a rebellion in Normandy in 1047, and established his authority over the duchy. Once able to consolidate his authority in Normandy, he launched into a conquest of England in 1066, where he reigned until his death in 1087, for 21 years.

Remember that the origin of the Norman adjective means "Northmen". Danish majority invaded northern France.

 William the Conqueror.

Viking invaders swore allegiance to the French king, Charles "The Simple", so they received the title of Duchy of Normandy and reciprocity of the king of France in the ninth century.

September 27th: Suleiman I, known as "The Magnificent" and also Sultan of the Ottoman Turkish Empire as well, attacked the city of Vienna in 1529.

The Battle of Vassilika in 1821 marked an early turning point in the war.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire laid siege to Vienna for the first time on September 27, 1529. However, Fernando I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, won the support of Carlos V of Spain and the Prussians so he was able to repel the Turkish invasion in the Vienna streets.

Suleiman laid siege to Vienna in 1529.

Three years later, in 1532, the Turks attacked again to Vienna. If they had defeated Vienna, they would have taken over Central Europe. Austria was very weak.

Suleiman ruled from 1520-1560. In his time was regarded as the most significant ruler in the world, by both Muslims and Europeans. His military empire expanded greatly both to the east and west, and he threatened to overrun the heart of Europe itself. 

Carlos V of Spain, who was the brother of Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria; King of Hungary and Bohemia; and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, had to send Spanish troops under the Duke of Alba to beat back the armies of Suleiman. Ferdinand of Austria and Carlos of Spain were brothers and sons of Philip "The Handsome".

One hundred and fifty years of hostilities between Turks and Germanic ended in the Battle of Vienna. The Turks captured Constantinople, now Istanbul, and seized Eastern Europe.

They wanted to capture the heart of Europe and else. Suleiman wanted first to become the king of Hungary, and then absorb the Holy Roman Empire.

Sultan Suleiman I (1494 – 1520 – 1566) “The Magnificent” and “The Law Giver” reigned for 46 years from 1520 as the tenth and greatest ruler of the Ottoman Empire. His father, Selim “the Grim”, who ruled from 1512 to 1520, had conquered Egypt and become the first Ottoman Sultan to also take the title of Caliph.

September 26: Abbey Road, the last album recorded by The Beatles was released in 1969 and has been the most successful of the eleven albums that they recorded. The Beatles changed the world!

Abbey Road

Abbey Road is the title of the eleventh and last full-length album recorded in a studio by the band The Beatles, and was offered to the market on September 26, 1969, in London, with immediate success in the UK and in United States.

Many people argue that the last album was The Beatles’ Let It Be. However, the songs on that album were recorded before Abbey Road. The band disbanded in April 1970. Even John Lennon was not involved in four of the songs on the album Let It Be, by differences with Paul, who later left the group, too.

The long-awaited Abbey Road LP was released in the UK on September 26th, 1969.

A single disc with the songs "Something" and "Come Together" took the top places in the Billboard chart in the United States since October 1969. Until today, Abbey Road has been the most successful album of The Beatles.

The Beatles ABBEY ROAD 1969 ORIGINAL MISALIGNED APPLE SLEEVE 1ST ISSUE LP

The influence of The Beatles was not only at the grassroots level. From the cultural point of view, The Beatles changed the whole way of life; beliefs (values); customs; knowledge and degree of artistic; scientific, technological, industrial and commercial development.

The Home of Rock and Pop Legends

It is appropriate to recall a public expression of John Lennon on Elvis Presley: "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there had not been Elvis, there would have been no Beatles. "(From: Harry, Bill (2000b) The John Lennon encyclopedia Virgin London).

1969, Abbey Road, Beatles Posted in Beatle Photos

The Beatles were the icons of the "counterculture of the 60's" during twentieth century. All negative critics had to change their minds as they lost the hearing and support of general public. The Beatles were catalysts for liberationist movements: Female Releases, gays, environmentalists, and anti-racist movements, anti-religious, and even libertarian anarchism.

The last group Beatles project turned out to be the recording of Abbey Road in July and August, 1969. John's auto accident in Scotland on July 1st meant ...

September 25: Today is the anniversary of the Peace of Augsburg, also known as "Peace of religions", signed by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the princes of the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League on September 25th, 1555, where today is Bayern, Germany.

Representatives of the German estates at the Augsburg conference discuss the possibilities of a religious peace.

The disputes began to arise when some Catholic bishops converted to Lutheranism and the property of the diocese became on behalf of them, as new followers of the new Lutheran confession. Of course, the Catholic Church opposed, expressing that the assets and goods (temples, buildings, parcels, territories, artwork, furniture and fixtures) were not owned by the bishops but of the Church.

We are the precious chosen few, let all the rest be damned …The essential determination of Augsburg was cuius regio, eius religion — each local bossman, secular or religious, would determine whether his fief was Catholic or Lutheran.

These inconsistencies began to escalate the conflict to skirmishes between Catholics and new Lutherans, in order to to defend the assets that were being usurped. Peace gave official recognition to the worship of Lutheranism by the Holy Roman Empire, based in Vienna, Austria.

Charles V making peace with the German Protestant princes at Augsburg, 1530.

The Peace of Augsburg ended, temporarily; however, both parties agreed to four key points as follows:

1. The Lutherans who had captured territories of the Catholic Church before the Treaty of Passau in 1552, could retain them on their favor.

2. Church leaders of the Catholic Church, archbishops and bishops, who converted to Lutheranism after the Peace of Passau, had to give up their lands and leave them in the hands of the Catholic Church.

3. All those Lutherans who lived in ecclesiastical state, but under the control of a Catholic bishop, will serve as Lutherans: ecclesiastical reservation.

4. The Germanic princes would be free to choose the religion that was professed in their territories according to their consciences: "Whose realm, his religion".

September 24: The Honda Motor Company is founded in 1848 by Soichiro Honda.

Starting production with a single bike that was nothing more than a motor stuffed in a bicycle frame, Honda went on to become the world leader.

A Japanese race car driver and self-taught mechanic, Soichiro Honda, founded a company of small and efficient motorcycle engines that two years later became Honda Motor Co.

While racers think of the more potent dirt bike, most of America thinks of these units when the name Honda is mentioned. From left to right: ST-90, CT-90, CT70 and CT70H K1.

Honda created a clean-burning CVCC engine that caused a real revolution in motor bikes. When Soichiro Honda opened up a small bike shop in Los Angeles, in 1959, bike freaks really started to look at the Honda street bikes with fenders that call teens’ attention.

How many of these are still around? Left to right: XL175, XL250 and the SL350 K2.

There were three groups of bikers at the time: crazy ones; racers; and a small group of people who needed bikes for transportation or touring. By the end of 1959, Honda had 15 dealers who had sold about 1,700 bikes.

Honda T360 in the Honda collection hall.

Honda released the first automotive car in 1963 with the Honda T360 for the Japanese market. In 1969, Honda launched its first four-door sedan, Honda 1300, 99S with air conditioning included, four-cylinder and gasoline powered….then the successful Honda Civic in 1972, and followed by Honda Accord in 1976., and so on.

Honda´s first four-door sedan 1300 99S, 1969.

September 23: Today is the anniversary of the founding of Nintendo Koppai in 1889, then Nintendo Company, by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the game Hanafuda cards or "Game of Flowers" with decks of Japanese playing cards.

Nintendo poster from late Meiji Era with Nintendo cards.

Nintendo launched a product that revolutionized the game industry forever. As a matter of fact, on July 15, 1983, the Family Computer, better known as the Famicom was released to the world market.

A Nintendo hanafuda card, showing the company's logo at the time.

Nintendo made foreign investment in the United States under the name Nintendo Entertainment Systems -NES-. The game marketed in the United States was called Super Mario Bros with instant success.

Nintendo's first video game system, the Color TV Game 6.  

Fusajiro Yamauchi, founder of the company, died in 1940, and his son-in-law adopted the surname Sekiryo Kaneda Yamauchi when he married the daughter of Fusajiro and became the second president of the company. His grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi, became President of the company until 2002.

The Nintendo Famicom, released in 1983, sold well in Japan.

Hiroshi was who turned a family business producing playing cards and board games into a multinational electronic games corporation.

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), released in 1985, is one of the most popular consoles of all time.

Nintendo has been the largest producer of video game consoles of all time.

The original North American SNES,  c. 1991

September 22: Iraq invades Iran in 1980. The war ended in a draw and both regimes were declared winners.

The Iraqi invasion ordered by Saddam Hussein against Iran, began on September 22, 1980. Its origins lie in the long Arab-Persian animosity and regional rivalries; in particular, Iraqi Hussein wanted to annex the region of Shatt al-Arab.

The surprise invasion of Iraq to Iran produced immediate gains that took control of the Iranian border cities

Saddam Hussein believed to have the support of the Sunni Arab Iranians who were not happy with the Shiite regime of the ayatollahs in Iran since 1979, when they overthrew the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi regime. Contrary to the thinking and wishes of Hussein, all those Iranian Sunni Muslims volunteered to support the defense of their homeland.

Iran Air superiority was a decisive factor in the confrontation, with the help of the United States.In June 1982, the withdrawal of Iraqi troops began because they were demoralized and aware of the loss. Saddam Hussein ordered his troops back to the starting point.

Ayatollah Khomeini refused to make peace and order to invade Iraq, in the same month of June 1982. Saddam's Arab friends offered US $ 70 million in compensation to Iran, but Ayatollah refused the offer and insisted to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and replace it with a Shiite Islamic republic.

Iran made the mistake of putting human shields of thousands of children escorted by the Iranian army, but they were all massacred in July 1982. Iraq was about to lose access to the Persian Gulf.

Aid changed when the Iranians began to destroy Iraki oil tankers which caused the US entry into the war against Iran and saved the life of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi entire country.

In July 1988, after expelling Iran from Iraqi territory, the United Nations intervened as conciliators. On August 1988 a peace agreement was achieved.