Today in History: September 2

1666: The Great Fire of London destroys five-sixths of the City, including St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Royal Exchange, and the Guildhall, and leaves 100,000 homeless.

1752: The United Kingdom finally gives in an adopts that dangerous Papistical invention, the Gregorian calendar.

1817: The defendants in Adams v. Lindsell mail their offer to sell “eight hundred tons of wether fleeces, of a good fair quality of our country wool, at 35s. 6d. per ton,” but send it to the wrong address.

1833: Two Presbyterian clergymen found Oberlin College, which will become the oldest coeducational college in the U.S. and the first to admit African-Americans.

1850: Albert Spalding is born at at Byron, Illinois.  He’ll get some fame as a baseball player, but his lasting impact will be his creation of the modern U.S. sporting goods industry.

1901: Speaking at the Minnesota State Fair, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt quotes an African proverb he’d heard on safari:  “Walk softly and carry a big stick.”

1973: Author and Oxford don John Reuel Ronald Tolkien dies at age 82, too early to see his final triumph:  The Super Poseable Mount Doom Frodo action figure with Electronic Sound Base.

1995: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio.  Two men actually have three plaques each in the Hall: Eric Clapton (for his work in Cream and The Yardbirds, along with his solo career), and Sam Cooke (as an “early influence,” for his solo work, and as a member of The Soul Stirrers).