EVENTS
- 1752 – Day skipped in the British Empire. The British Empire skipped 11 days starting September 3 when it adopted the Gregorian calendar.
- 1777 – 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
- 1833 – The New York Sun newspaper first appeared, marking the beginning of the ‘penny press,’ inexpensive newspapers sold on sidewalks by newspaper boys. The paper focused on human interest stories and sensationalism and by 1836 was the largest seller in America with a circulation of 30,000.
- 1838 – Anti-slavery leader Frederick Douglass began his escape from slavery by boarding a train in Baltimore dressed as a sailor. He rode to Wilmington, Delaware, where he caught a steamboat to the free city of Philadelphia, then took a train to New York City where he came under the protection of the Underground Railway network.
- 1895 The first professional American football game is played
- 1939 – France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia declare war on Germany.
- 1943 – Italy signed an armistice with the Allies during World War II in Europe as the British Eighth Army, commanded by General Bernard Montgomery, invaded the Italian mainland from Sicily.
- 1967 – Dagen H in Sweden. On this day, Swedish drivers switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right.
- 1971 – Qatar independence. The Persian Gulf state gained its independence after 55 years of British rule.
- 1995 – Internet giant eBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar. The company owns ebay.com, an online marketplace and auction website.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1875 – Ferdinand Porche (Car Engineer)
- 1899 – Frank Macfarlane Burnet (Australian biologist, Nobel Prize laureate)
Frank Macfarlane Burnet - 1900 – Percy Chapman (English cricketer)
- 1913 – Alan Ladd (Actor)
- 1929 – Whitey Bulger (American mobster)
- 1965 – Charlie Sheen (Actor)
- 1986 – Shaun White ( Olympic Snowboarder)
DEATHS
- 1634 – Edward Coke (English judge, politician)
- 1658 – Oliver Cromwell (English general, politician)
- 1962 – E. E. Cummings (American poet)
E. E. Cummings - 1991 – Frank Capra (Italian/American director, producer, screenwriter)
- 2005 – William Rehnquist (American lawyer, jurist, 16th Chief Justice of the United States)
