What Happened on September 3rd in History

Wilhelm, Prince of Albania leaves the country after just six months due to opposition to his rule.

Wilhelm, Prince of Albania was sovereign of the Principality of Albania from 7 March to 3 September 1914. His reign officially came to an end on 31 January 1925, when the country was declared an...

French composer Albéric Magnard is killed defending his estate against invading German soldiers.

Lucien Denis Gabriel Albéric Magnard was a French composer, somewhat influenced by César Franck and Vincent d'Indy. Magnard became a national hero in 1914 when he refused to surrender his property...

World War I: Start of the Battle of Grand Couronné, a German assault against French positions on high ground near the city of Nancy.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the...

World War I: Leefe Robinson destroys the German airship Schütte-Lanz SL 11 over Cuffley, north of London; the first German airship to be shot down on British soil.

William Leefe Robinson VC was the first British pilot to shoot down a German airship over Britain during the First World War. For this, he was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for...

USS Shenandoah, the United States' first American-built rigid airship, was destroyed in a squall line over Noble County, Ohio. Fourteen of her 42-man crew perished, including her commander, Zachary Lansdowne.

USS Shenandoah was the first of four United States Navy rigid airships. It was constructed during 1922–1923 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, and first flew in September 1923. It developed the U.S....

Yevgeniy Abalakov is the first man to reach the highest point in the Soviet Union, Communism Peak (now called Ismoil Somoni Peak and situated in Tajikistan) (7495 m).

Yevgeniy Mikhaylovich Abalakov was a Soviet mountaineer and sculptor.

Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph.

Major Sir Malcolm Campbell was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called Blue Bird, including a...

World War II: France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allied nations. The Viceroy of India also declares war, but without consulting the provincial legislatures.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...

World War II: The United Kingdom and France begin a naval blockade of Germany that lasts until the end of the war. This also marks the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic.

The Blockade of Germany (1939–1945), also known as the Economic War, involved operations carried out during World War II by the British Empire and by France in order to restrict the supplies of...

The Holocaust: Karl Fritzsch, deputy camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, experiments with the use of Zyklon B in the gassing of Soviet POWs.

The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million...

World War II: In response to news of its coming liquidation, Dov Lopatyn leads an uprising in the Ghetto of Lakhva (present-day Belarus).

Łachwa Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto in Łachwa, Nazi German-occupied Poland during World War II. The ghetto was created with the aim of persecution and exploitation of the local Jews. The ghetto existed...

World War II: British and Canadian troops land on the Italian mainland. On the same day, Walter Bedell Smith and Giuseppe Castellano sign the Armistice of Cassibile, although it is not announced for another five days.

Operation Baytown was an Allied amphibious landing on the mainland of Italy that took place on 3 September 1943, part of the Allied invasion of Italy, itself part of the Italian Campaign, during the...

Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from the Westerbork transit camp to the Auschwitz concentration camp, arriving three days later.

A diary is a written or audiovisual memorable record, with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been...

A three-day celebration begins in China, following the Victory over Japan Day on September 2.

Victory over Japan Day is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on which the initial...

"Nino" Farina becomes the first Formula One Drivers' champion after winning the 1950 Italian Grand Prix.

Emilio Giuseppe "Nino" Farina was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1956. Farina won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in its inaugural 1950 season with...

The People's Liberation Army begins shelling the Republic of China-controlled islands of Quemoy, starting the First Taiwan Strait Crisis.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the primary armed forces of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four services—Ground...

Dagen H in Sweden: Traffic changes from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight.

Dagen H (H-day), today usually called "Högertrafikomläggningen", was on 3 September 1967, the day on which Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. The "H" stands...

Qatar becomes an independent state.

Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares its sole land border...

Viking program: The American Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.

The Viking program consisted of a pair of identical American space probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2 both launched in 1975, and landed on Mars in 1976. The mission effort began in 1968 and was managed...

During the Rhodesian Bush War a group of ZIPRA guerrillas shot down civilian Vickers Viscount aircraft (Air Rhodesia Flight 825) with a Soviet-made SAM Strela-2; of 56 passengers and crew 38 people died in crash, 10 were massacred by the guerrillas at the site.

The Rhodesian Bush War, also known as the Rhodesian Civil War, Second Chimurenga and the Zimbabwe War of Independence, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised state...

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, an international bill of rights for women, is instituted by the United Nations.

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly. Described as an...

In a coup d'état in Burundi, President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza is deposed by Major Pierre Buyoya.

The 1987 Burundian coup d'état was a bloodless military coup that took place in Burundi on 3 September 1987. Tutsi president Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was deposed whilst traveling abroad and succeeded by...

Cubana de Aviación Flight 9046 crashes into a residential area of Havana shortly after takeoff from José Martí International Airport, killing 150.

Cubana de Aviación Flight 9046 was a chartered Ilyushin Il-62M airliner operated by Cubana, which crashed on 3 September 1989, shortly after takeoff from José Martí International Airport.

Varig Flight 254 crashes in the Amazon rainforest near São José do Xingu in Brazil, killing 12.

Varig Flight 254 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from São Paulo, Brazil, to Belém, capital city of the state of Pará in the country's North Region. On 3 September 1989, the Boeing 737...

Vietnam Airlines Flight 815 (Tupolev Tu-134) crashes on approach into Phnom Penh airport, killing 64.

Vietnam Airlines is the flag carrier of Vietnam. The airline was founded in 1956 and later established as a state-owned enterprise in April 1989. Vietnam Airlines is headquartered in Long Biên...

In Belfast, Protestant loyalists begin a picket of Holy Cross, a Catholic primary school for girls.

Belfast is the capital city and main port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel. It is the largest...

Beslan school siege results in over 330 fatalities, including 186 children.

The Beslan school siege, also referred to as the Beslan school hostage crisis or the Beslan massacre, was a terrorist attack that occurred from 1 September 2004 to 3 September 2004 in the town of...

After taking off from Dubai International Airport, UPS Airlines Flight 6 develops an in-flight fire in the cargo hold and crashes near Nad Al Sheba, killing both crew members on board.

Dubai International Airport is the primary international airport serving Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the world's busiest airport by international passenger traffic as of 2025. It is also the...

The U.S. and China, together responsible for 40% of the world's carbon emissions, both formally ratify the Paris global climate agreement.

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the second-most populous country after India, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, across an area of...

North Korea conducts its sixth and most powerful nuclear test.

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the...