Hollow Leg History | What Happened on This Date, September 10?

Hollow Leg Podcast

1813

American flotilla under Oliver Hazard Perry wrests naval supremacy from the British on Lake Erie. Nine vessels of the United States Navy defeated and captured six vessels of the British Royal Navy. This ensured American control of the lake for the rest of the war, which in turn allowed the Americans to recover Detroit and win the Battle of the Thames to break the Indian confederation of Tecumseh. It was one of the biggest naval battles of the War of 1812. The Americans controlled Lake Erie for the remainder of the war. This accounted for much of the Americans' successes on the Niagara peninsula in 1814 and also removed the threat of a British attack on Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Western New York.

1897

First Drunk Driving Arrest. A 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming his cab into a building. Smith later pleaded guilty and was fined 25 shillings.

1967

Gibraltar votes to remain a British dependency instead of becoming part of Spain. The vote was overwhelming, with over 12,000 votes to remain, and only 44 votes to join Spain. The sovereignty of Gibraltar is a point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations because Spain asserts a claim to the territory. In 1969, the Spanish government closed the border between Spain and Gibraltar, cutting off all contacts and severely restricting movement. The border was not fully reopened until February 1985.

1977

Last Person to be Executed in France, Hamida Djandoubi was also the last person to be executed by a guillotine. Djandoubi was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 21-year old Elisabeth Bousquet.

2008

Scientists successfully flip the switch for the first time on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) lab in Geneva, kicking off what many called history’s biggest science experiment. The world’s largest particle collider was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). It is an 18-mile (27km) long experimental machine which passes through the French-Swiss border. The Collider was constructed to find the Higgs Boson particle, an elementary particle in physics.