Today is Monday, Sept. 3, the 246th day of 2007. There are 119 days left in the year. This is Labor Day.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain officially ended the Revolutionary War.
On this date:
In 1189, England’s King Richard I (the Lionhearted) was crowned in Westminster.
In 1658, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth, died.
In 1939, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland.
In 1943, the British 8th Army invaded Italy during World War II, the same day Italy signed a secret armistice with the Allies.
In 1967, Nguyen Van Thieu was elected president of South Vietnam under a new constitution.
In 1967, motorists in Sweden began driving on the right-hand side of the road instead of the left.
In 1967, the original version of the television game show “What’s My Line?” broadcast its final episode after more than 17 years on CBS.
In 1976, the unmanned U.S. spacecraft Viking II landed on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the planet’s surface.
In 1978, Pope John Paul I was installed as the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 2004, the three-day hostage siege at a school in Beslan, Russia, ended in bloody chaos after Chechen militants set off bombs as Russian commandos stormed the building; 334 people were killed.
Ten years ago: Arizona Gov. Fife Symington was convicted of lying to get millions in loans to shore up his collapsing real estate empire. (Symington’s conviction was overturned in 1999; he was pardoned by President Clinton in January 2001 as prosecutors were pursuing the case anew.) The U.S. Senate voted to ban most federal financing for abortions provided by the managed-care industry.
Five years ago: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the Bush administration had secret information supporting its claims that Saddam Hussein was close to developing nuclear weapons. The Senate opened debate on legislation creating a new Homeland Security Department.
One year ago: Authorities announced the capture of al-Qaida in Iraq’s No. 2 leader, Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, accusing him of “brutal and merciless” terror operations. An apartment fire in Chicago killed six children ages 3 to 14. Andre Agassi retired after losing the third-round match at the U.S. Open.
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Helen Wagner (“As the World Turns”) is 89. “Beetle Bailey” cartoonist Mort Walker is 84. Country singer Hank Thompson is 82. Actress Anne Jackson is 81. Country singer Tompall Glaser is 74. Actress Pauline Collins is 67. Rock singer-musician Al Jardine is 65. Actress Valerie Perrine is 64. Rock musician Donald Brewer (Grand Funk Railroad) is 59. Rock guitarist Steve Jones (The Sex Pistols) is 52. Rock singer-musician Todd Lewis is 42. Actor Costas Mandylor is 42. Actor Charlie Sheen is 42. Singer Jennifer Paige is 34. Actor Nick Wechsler is 29.
Thought for Today: “Nothing is so useless as a general maxim.” — Thomas Macaulay, English historian (1800-1859).