| Events for 3 September |
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| • | 1189 Coronation of King Richard I of England (r.1189–99), known as Richard the Lionheart, at Westminster Abbey. |
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| • | 1658 Death of Oliver Cromwell (b.1599 in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire), English soldier and statesman. |
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| • | 1752 The Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar; 3 September 1752 became 14 September 1752. |
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| • | 1777 The American stars and stripes flag was carried into battle for the first time at the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware, during the Revolutionary War. |
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| • | 1783 Signing of peace in Paris, ending the War of American Independence. |
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| • | 1833 Publication of the first penny newspaper, The New York Sun, in the USA. |
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| • | 1856 Failure of the Royal British Bank, with debts of over £500,000. |
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| • | 1875 Birth of Ferdinand Porsche in Hafersdorf, Germany (d.1951), automobile designer, who produced the Volkswagen and (1950) sports car. |
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| • | 1891 Birth of Marcel Grandjany in Paris (d.1975), composer and harpist, whose compositions were mostly for the harp and strings. |
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| • | 1913 Birth of Alan Ladd in Hot Springs, Arkansas (d.1964), actor, whose films include the title role in the Western Shane (1953). |
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| • | 1916 The first Zeppelin airship shot down over Britain during World War 1 crashed in Cuffley, Hertfordshire. |
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| • | 1935 Briton Sir Malcolm Campbell (1885–1948) set a new world land speed record of 301·13 mph in Bluebird at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. |
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| • | 1939 Beginning of World War 2, when Britain and France declared war on Germany. |
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| • | 1940 Birth of Brian Lochore in Masterton, New Zealand, rugby player, former All Black captain, New Zealand's leading forward. |
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| • | 1942 US singer Frank Sinatra left the Tommy Dorsey Band to begin his solo singing career. |
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| • | 1954 Transmission of the last episode of the radio series The Lone Ranger, after 2596 episodes. |
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| • | 1962 Opening of the 4800-mile Trans-Canada highway, linking St John's Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia. |
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| • | 1963 Death of Louis MacNeice (b.1907 in Belfast), writer, whose books include Autumn Journal (1939). |
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| • | 1967 Sweden's traffic system switched from left- to right-lane driving. |
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| • | 1969 Death of Ho Chi Minh (b.1892 in Kim-Lien, North Vietnam), North Vietnamese president (1954–69). |
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| • | 1976 Landing of Viking 2 on Mars, on Utopia Planitia, after nearly a year's journey. |
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| • | 1991 Death of Frank Capra (b.1897 in Palermo, Italy), director, whose films include You Can't Take It with You (1938, Oscar). |
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| • | 2004 Ending of the siege at Beslan, North Ossetia-Alania, Russia, when over a thousand hostages were held by 32 Islamic terrorists for 52 hours; over 340 died, more than half of them children. |
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