This Day in History
On Sept. 3, 1943, Allied forces invaded Italy during World War II, the same day Italian officials signed a secret armistice with the Allies.
On this date:
In 1783, representatives of the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War.
In 1939, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland; in a radio address, Britain’s King George VI said, “With God’s help, we shall prevail.” The same day, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner SS Athenia some 250 miles off the Irish coast, killing more than 100 out of the 1,400 or so people on board.
In 1962, poet E.E. Cummings died in North Conway, N.H., at age 67.
In 1967, Nguyen Van Thieu was elected president of South Vietnam under a new constitution.
In 1970, legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, 57, died in Washington, D.C.
In 1976, America’s Viking 2 lander touched down on Mars to take the first closeup, color photographs of the red planet’s surface.
In 1978, Pope John Paul I was installed as the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1994, China and Russia proclaimed an end to any lingering hostilities, pledging they would no longer target nuclear missiles or use force against each other.
In 1995, the online auction site eBay was founded in San Jose, California, by Pierre Omidyar under the name “AuctionWeb.”
In 1999, a French judge closed a two-year inquiry into the car crash that killed Princess Diana, dismissing all charges against nine photographers and a press motorcyclist, and concluding the accident was caused by an inebriated driver.
In 2005, President George W. Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty forces to the Gulf Coast as his administration intensified efforts to rescue Katrina survivors and send aid to the hurricane-ravaged region in the face of criticism it did not act quickly enough. U.S. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died in Arlington, Virginia, at age 80, after more than three decades on the Supreme Court.