01010922 This Day In History, September 22

66: Roman Emperor Nero created the Legion I Italica (see also Legions Of Men And Angels and Nero's Torches).

904: The Chinese warlord Zhu Quanzhong executed Emperor Zhaozong after seizing control of the imperial government.

1499: The Peace of Basel ended the Swiss (also known as the Swabian War) between the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I and the Swiss Confederation.

1530: The first version of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession was presented to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg (see The Holy Roman Empire Of The German Nation) after the Emperor had declared that the Confutation (August 3 1530) prepared by the Catholic theologians to refute the Augsburg Confession (June 25 1530) properly presented his Catholic faith. The Emperor demanded that the reformers return to the Catholic church and refused to accept the Apology when it was presented to him. See Emperors and Popes to understand that emperors always (past and yet future) claimed superiority to popes (listen also to our Sermon Constantine's Papacy).

1556: Johann Agricola died at age 72. The "protestant" reformer, a friend of Martin Luther (he convinced Luther to study Roman theology instead of medicine) was an advocate of antinomianism (anti = "against", nomos = "law") - a Satanic blasphemy that falsely claims that Christians are "freed by grace" from the need to obey The Ten Commandments (see Antinomianism).

1692: The last official executions for witchcraft (see What Is Sorcery?) in Massachusetts. During the Salem Witch Trials, 8 people who been falsely accused of witchcraft were hung, bringing to a total of 13 women and 7 men who were put to death over the course of the brief witch-hunt era (see also What Does Wicked Mean? to understand how the word for witchcraft, wicca, is the same as the word for those who make false accusations against innocent people).

1761: George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz were crowned King and Queen of Great Britain.

1784: A Russian colony was established in what is today Alaska. Russia sold the territory to the U.S. in 1867.

1862: Abraham Lincoln issued his first Emancipation Proclamation attempt to free U.S. slaves.

1888: The first issue of National Geographic Magazine was published.

1896: Queen Victoria surpassed King George III (her grandfather) as the longest reigning monarch in British history. Queen Victoria reigned 63 years and 7 months. As of 2013, Queen Elizabeth II has reigned 61 years, the second-longest reign in British history (Queen Elizabeth II is the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria).

1914: During the First World War, the German submarine SM U-9 torpedoed and sank the British cruisers, HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy on the Broad Fourteens off the Dutch coast. Over 1,400 men were lost.

1918: During World War 1 (1914-1918), British forces in Israel (then known as "Palestine," an English rendering of "Philistine") captured Nazareth and Haifa from the Ottoman (Turkish) forces (see A History Of Jerusalem: The British Mandate).

1949: The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb, ending the U.S. monopoly of atomic weapons.

1965: The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 (also known as the Second Kashmir War) between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, ended with a UN sponsored cease-fire.

1975: Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.

1980: Polish workers won the right to form independent unions, from which came the Solidarity movement with Lech Walesa as its elected leader.

1980: The Persian Gulf conflict between Iran and Iraq erupted into full-scale war.

1991: The Dead Sea Scrolls were made available to public viewing for the first time (listen to our Sermon The Dead Sea Scrolls).

2011: CERN scientists claimed a discovery of neutrinos breaking the speed of light.