September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years). There are 119 days remaining until the end of the year. (Painting: The Signing of the Treaty of Paris, by Benjamin West. The painting is unfinished because the British commissioners refused to pose.)

Today in History

• The republic of San Marino, the world’s oldest republic still in existence, is founded (301)
• Richard I “the Lionheart” is crowned King of England (1189)
• The Mongol Empire reaches its point of maximum expansion and suffers its first major defeat at the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260)
• American Revolutionary War: The war ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris between the fledgling US and the Kingdom of Great Britain (1783)
• Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery (1838)
• The first US rigid airship, USS Shenandoah, is destroyed in a storm (1925)
• World War II: Great Britain declares war on Germany (1939)
• World War II: Italy surrenders (1943)
• Holocaust: Anne Frank and her family are placed on a transport train for Auschwitz (1944)
• Viking 2 lands on Mars (1976)

Birthdays

• Louis Sullivan, architect (1856)
• Ferdinand Porsche, car designer (1875)
• Loren Eiseley, anthropologist and author (1907)
• Kitty Carlisle, singer and game show panelist (1910)
• Alan Ladd, actor (1913)
• Memphis Slim, singer-songwriter (1914)
• Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell (1923)
• Mort Walker, cartoonist, creator of Beetle Bailey (1923)
• Whitey Bulger, mobster (1929)
• Albert DeSalvo, serial killer known as the Boston Strangler (1931)
• Dick Motta, basketball coach (1931)
• Eileen Brennan, actress (1932)
• Freddie King, blues guitarist (1934)
• Al Jardine, singer-songwriter, member of The Beach Boys (1942)
• Valerie Perrine, actress (1943)
• Mario Draghi, banker and economist (1947)
• Malcolm Gladwell, author (1963)
• Adam Curry, MTV VJ (1964)
• Charlie Sheen, actor (1965)
• John Fugelsang, television personality (1969)

Deaths

• Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector (1658)
• Ива́н Турге́нев (Ivan Turgenev), author (1883)
• e e cummings, poet (1962)
• Vince Lombardi, football coach (1970)
• Johnny Marks, songwriter, author of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and other Christmas songs (1985)
• Beryl Markham, aviator and author (1986)
• Frank Capra, filmmaker (1991)
• Pauline Kael, film critic (2001)
• William Rehnquist, US Chief Justice (2005)
• Sun Myung Moon, self-proclaimed messiah, founder of the Unification Church (2012)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Armed Forces Day (Republic of China/Taiwan)
• Feast of San Marino and the Republic (San Marino)
• Flag Day (Australia)
• Independence Day (Qatar)
• Levy Mwanawasa Day (Zambia)
• Memorial Day (Tunisia)
• Merchant Navy Remembrance Day (Canada)
• Merchant Navy Day (United Kingdom)
• Victory over Japan (V-J) Day (People’s Republic of China)

Informal and made-up holidays include Another Look Unlimited Day, National Skyscraper Day (in honor of Louis Sullivan), and National Welsh Rarebit Day.

(*O.S., or Old Style, when used, refers to the fact that Russia did not convert from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar until 1918.)