Associated Press
On Sept. 3, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland.
On this date in:
1189- England’s King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) was crowned in Westminster.
1658- Oliver Cromwell, England’s lord protector, died.
1783- The Treaty of Paris officially ended America’s Revolutionary War.
1929- The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 381.17, it’s pre-crash high.
1962- Poet E.E. Cummings died in North Conway, N.H., at age 67.
1970- Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi died at age 57.
1976- The unmanned U.S. spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the planet’s surface.
1978- Pope John Paul I was installed as the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
2004- A three-day hostage siege at a school in Beslan, Russia, ended in bloody chaos after Chechen militants set off bombs and Russian commandos stormed the building; more than 330 people were killed, most of them children.
2005- President George W. Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty forces to the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
2005- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died at age 80.
2006- Tennis player Andre Agassi announced his retirement.
Today’s Birthdays:
Olympic snowboarder Shaun White turns 29 years old today.
Mort Walker, Cartoonist (“Beetle Bailey”), 92
Pauline Collins, Actress (“Upstairs, Downstairs”), 75
Valerie Perrine, Actress, 72
Steve Jones, Rock guitarist (The Sex Pistols), 60
Steve Schirripa, Actor (“The Sopranos”), 58
Charlie Sheen, Actor (“Two and a Half Men”), 50
Rock singer-musician Al Jardine (The Beach Boys) turns 73 years old today.