On this day: September 3
The American Revolutionary War ends, baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb collects his last hit, the Allies declare war on Germany during World War II, and a U.S. Supreme Court chief justice dies, all on this day.
AD 301: San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, is founded by Saint Marinus. The country is an enclaved microstate surrounded by Italy. Pictured is the highest point in the 24-square-mile nation, Monte Titano.
AD 301: San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, is founded by Saint Marinus. The country is an enclaved microstate surrounded by Italy. Pictured is the highest point in the 24-square-mile nation, Monte Titano.
1189: Richard I of England (a.k.a. Richard "the Lionheart"), portrayed here in this painting by N.C. Wyeth, is crowned at London's Westminster Abbey.
1777: During the American Revolution's Battle of Cooch's Bridge, the flag of the United States is flown in battle for the first time.
1783: The American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain. Pictured is Benjamin West's painting of the delegations at the treaty signing: John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens and William Temple Franklin. The British delegation refused to pose, and the painting was never completed.
1803: English scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.
1838: Future abolitionist Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery.
1875: Automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche, best known for creating the Volkswagen Beetle, the first of many Porsche automobiles and the first hybrid vehicle, is born in northern Bohemia, during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, what is today the Czech Republic.
1878: More than 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collides with the SS Bywell Castle in the River Thames in England.
1925: The USS Shenandoah, the United States' first American-built rigid airship, is destroyed in a squall line over Noble County, Ohio. Fourteen of her 42-man crew perish, including her commander, Zachary Lansdowne.
1935: Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile more than 300 mph.
1939: At the start of World War II, France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allies. The United Kingdom and France also begin a naval blockage of Germany that would last until the end of the war.
1943: The Allied invasion of Italy begins during World War II.
1944: Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from the Westerbork transit camp to the Auschwitz concentration camp, arriving three days later.
1950: "Nino" Farina becomes the first Formula One Drivers' champion after winning the 1950 Italian Grand Prix.
1951: The first long-running American television soap opera, "Search for Tomorrow," airs its first episode on CBS. The show would switch to NBC in 1982 and go off the air after 35 years on Dec. 26, 1986. Seen here is a scene from the first episode showing Mary Stewart as Joanne Gardner with Lynn Loring, who played her daughter, Patti.
1962: Poet E. E. Cummings dies from a stroke at the age of 67 in North Conway, N.H.
1965: Actor Charlie Sheen ("Platoon," "Wall Street," "Two and Half Men") is born in New York City.
1966: The television series "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" ends after 14 years.
1966: Singer Donovan hits No. 1 with his song "Sunshine Superman."
1970: Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, who led the Green Bay Packers to three straight league championships and five in seven years, including winning the first two Super Bowls, dies from cancer at the age of 57 in Washington, D.C. The NFL's Super Bowl trophy is named in his honor.
1976: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars. The lander would operate on the surface for 1,281 Mars days before being turned off on April 11, 1980, when its batteries failed. Pictured is the first color picture it sent back from the planet.
1986: Snowboarder and skateboarder Shaun White, known by his nickname of "The Flying Tomato," is born in San Diego.
1991: Film director Frank Capra ("It Happened One Night," "It's a Wonderful Life") dies in La Quinta, Calif., of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 94.
1999: Mario Lemieux's ownership group officially takes over the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins after buying the team out of bankruptcy. The then-retired Lemieux becomes the first player in the modern era of sports to buy the team he had once played for. Lemieux would come back to play with the team in 2000 before retiring for good in January 2006.
2005: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist dies from thyroid cancer at his Arlington, Va., home at the age of 80.
2006: Tennis great Andre Agassi retires from the sport after losing in the third round of the U.S. Open. He retires with 60 career titles, eight of those Grand Slam titles.
