ON THIS DAY SEPTEMBER 3

301 San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world’s oldest republic, is founded by Saint Marinus.

1260 The Mamluks defeat the Mongols in Palestine, marking the latter’s first real defeat and checking their advance from the east. 1752 The British Empire adopts the Gregorian Calendar, losing 11 days. People riot, believing the government had stolen 11 days of their lives. 1783 The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain.

1841 Cape Governor Sir George Napier refuses to acknowledge the independence of Natalia, the short-lived Boer republic in what is today Kwazulu-natal.

1916 The Allies turn back the Germans at the Battle of Verdun, on the Western Front.

1929 The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches an all-time high of 381.17, to be followed soon by the Great Crash of 1929. 1939 Britain declares war on Germany.

1956 US Army tanks are deployed against racist demonstrators in Clinton, Tennessee. 1978 A Vickers Viscount airliner is shot down over Rhodesia by Zipra insurgents. Thirty-eight passengers and crew are killed on impact, 10 are shot by Zipra fighters, but 8 survive.

1988 About 50 000 Kurds are killed by Iraq. 1989 Thousands of blacks swim at South Africa’s ‘white’ beaches in a nationwide show of defiance.

| THE HISTORIAN