20130926 This Day In History, September 26

46 BC: Julius Caesar dedicated a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix, in keeping with a vow he made at the Battle of Pharsalus (see The Politics Of Rome and A History Of Jerusalem: Pompey And The Caesars; also Whatever Happened To Those Romans?).

1345: During the Friso-Hollandic Wars, the Frisians defeated Holland at the Battle of Warns.

1396: German and French "Crusaders" (see Constantine's Crusades In History And Prophecy) were defeated by Ottoman forces at Nicopolis. The Ottoman Empire, centered in Turkey, was the dominant imperial force in the Middle East for centuries, including over the land of Israel, until the end of the First World War (see A History Of Jerusalem: The British Mandate).

1580: Francis Drake returned to England after completing the first English voyage around the world.

1626: Lancelot Andrewes died at age 71. The English theologian and court preacher during the reigns of James I and Charles I oversaw the translation of the King James Version of the Holy Scriptures.

1687: The city council of Amsterdam voted to support the invasion of England by William of Orange.

1687: The Parthenon (the great pagan temple that was built in 447 BC; see Paul In Athens) in Athens was severely damaged in a battle between the Ottomans and the Venetians.

1777: During the rebellion of the New England colonies that were established by the British in the wilderness over a century earlier, the British army temporarily took back control of the British-built city known as Philadelphia. The city was planned, built and named by William Penn, an English land developer sent by King James. Ironically, Pennsylvania was named after William Penn - a life-long loyal servant of the king (Penn was born, died and is buried in England) who was not involved in the rebellion.

1829: The British "Scotland Yard" police organization was founded.

1854: The "Charge of The Light Brigade" during the Crimean War (1853-1856). The suicidal charge of an English light-cavalry brigade during the Battle of Balaklava in the Ukraine was made famous in a poem by Alfred Tennyson.

1872: The first Shriners Temple (called "Mecca") was established in New York City.

1907: New Zealand and Newfoundland became dominions of the British Empire.

1934: The British liner Queen Mary was launched.

1937: During the British Mandate that established the present-day state of "Israel" (see Israel In History and Prophecy: Balfour Declaration and Israel In History and Prophecy: Israel Of Judah) Lewis Andrews, British district commissioner of Galilee and Acre and known friend of the Jews, shot by a group of Arabs while he was walking to church in Nazareth. Also killed was a police constable who was walking with him.

1945: Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. OSS officer (the "Office of Strategic Services," that later became the Central Intelligence Agency), was killed by Vietnamese forces after he was mistaken as a French military man and ambushed. Dewey is regarded as both the first U.S. soldier and the first CIA agent to die in the Vietnam civil war i.e. it was imperial France that divided Vietnam into North and South. France was driven out in the 1950s; the U.S. replaced the French, while taking the side of the South. When the U.S. left in the early 1970s, the North overran the South and Vietnam was restored to what it was before France and the U.S. involved themselves in the southeast Asia nation.

1950: United Nations troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from the North Koreans.

1959: Typhoon Vera, the most powerful typhoon to hit Japan in recorded history, made landfall. It killed over 4,500 people.

1967: During the Vietnam civil war, the government of North Vietnam rejected a U.S. peace proposal that would have made the French-imposed division of Vietnam permanent.

1984: Britain and China agreed that Hong Kong would revert to Chinese control in 1997 (which it did).

1990: In Russia, the Supreme Soviet ended decades of religious repression with a new law that prohibited government interference in religious activities.

1997: With Germany re-united (again), Chancellor Helmut Kohl laid the foundation stone for a new Chancellery building in Berlin (see Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Euro!).

2009: Typhoon Ketsana struck the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, causing 700 fatalities.