Today in History: September 4

476: The Western Roman Empire officially ends when child emperor Romulus Augustus is deposed by Germans under Odoacer.

1780: Sir John Fielding, the blind magistrate who co-founded the Bow Street Runners, London’s first police force, dies at age 59.  It was said “the Blind Beak” could recognize 3,000 London criminals by the sounds of their voices.

1781: Forty-four settlers from the San Gabriel Mission found a small settlement along the Porciuncula River in California, that they name for Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles (“Our Lady the Queen of the Angels”).

1888: George Eastman registers the trademark “Kodak” for his new photography business.

1918: Paul Harvey Aurandt — he’ll later drop the last name — is born at Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Today he has 22 million listeners a week and at age 87 has a ten-year, $100 million contract with ABC radio.

1950: King Features Syndicate publishes the first of Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey comic strips.  The original characters are based on Walker’s fraternity brothers at the University of Missouri-Columbia; Beetle will enter the Army during the Korean War and stay there.

1967: The last episode of Gilligan’s Island, the show that Tina Louise blames for ending her career as a serious actress, airs on CBS.

1971: ABC cancels the popular but widely derided Lawrence Welk Show, on the grounds that it’s too cheesy and the audience is way too old.  Today the reruns are on PBS.

1997: The last Ford Thunderbird rolls off the assembly line at Lorain, Ohio.  Five years later Ford will figure out this was a mistake and bring the marque back.