September 4 Through History

Explanation: The proclamation of the IIIrd Republic came after the capture of Napoleon III by the Prussians at Sedan. This Republic would last until 1940, becoming the longest-running regime in French history.

Explanation: Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University. The name "Google" is a play on the word "googol", which refers to the number 10 to the power of 100, symbolizing their ambition to organize an astronomical amount of information.

Explanation: Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers under the name "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles". It didn't truly become American until after the Mexican-American War of 1848 and is today the 2nd largest city in the United States.

Explanation: Geronimo, whose real name was Goyaałé, was the last great Apache resistance leader. His surrender symbolically marked the end of the Indian Wars in the American West. He died in captivity in 1909, never able to return to his ancestral lands.

Explanation: Nokia, which was the world's number 1 in mobile phones until 2011, sold its business for 7.2 billion dollars. The acquisition didn't save Microsoft, which abandoned the Lumia range a few years later, marking the failure of Windows Phone.

Explanation: Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti québécois, became the 30th Premier of Quebec. Her minority government lasted until 2014. She remains to this day the only woman to have held this position in the province.

Explanation: The deposition of Romulus Augustulus is traditionally considered the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the end of Antiquity. Odoacer, Germanic chieftain of the Heruli, then became king of Italy. This date is one of the conventions used to mark the beginning of the Middle Ages.

Explanation: Beyoncé Knowles started her career in the group Destiny's Child before going solo. She is one of the most awarded artists in Grammy Awards history and a major figure in global pop culture since the 2000s.

Explanation: James Cook, lors de son second voyage autour du monde, baptise l'île « Nouvelle-Calédonie » en référence au nom latin de l'Écosse. La France en prendra possession en 1853 sous Napoléon III et en fera un territoire d'outre-mer, statut qu'elle conserve encore aujourd'hui.

Explanation: Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1950. Albanian by birth, she spent most of her life in India serving the poorest of the poor. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was beatified in 2003 by John Paul II.