On this day - September 3
2009-09-03 08:08
Today is Friday, September 3, the 246th day of 2010. There are 119 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1189 - England's King Richard I is crowned in Westminister.
1497 - Manuel, king of Portugal, marries Isabella of Spain. One of the conditions for the marriage is that he expel all Jews from Portugal.
1603 - France's King Henry IV permits Jesuits to return to France despite opposition.
1609 - English navigator Henry Hudson discovers Manhattan, looking for a passage to India on behalf of the Dutch West India Company.
1758 - Revolution in Portugal is led by Marquis of Tavora and his wife, who wound King Joseph, but subsequently is arrested.
1783 - Britain, France, Spain and United States sign peace treaty of Versailles, officially ending Revolutionary War.
1791 - French constitution is passed by National Assembly, making France a constitutional monarchy.
1879 - Afghans massacre British legation at Kabul, leading to British occupation of the city.
1904 - Japan defeats Russian forces at Liaoyang in China.
1913 - City of Nanking falls to Chinese revolutionary forces under Yuan Shih-Kai.
1916 - The first German Zeppelin bomber is shot down over England.
1939 - Britain, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany; Germans sink passenger liner "Athenia" off Ireland, killing 112 people.
1943 - The British 8th Army invades Italy during World War II, the same day Italy signs a secret armistice with the Allies.
1945 - Singapore is returned to British control after being occupied by the Japanese since 1942.
1950 - Several Viet Minh terrorists assigned to kill US Minister-to-Indo-China Donald R. Heath are arrested.
1957 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser begins talks in Cairo on proposed negotiations for international control of the Suez Canal.
1962 - Katanga government accepts UN Secretary-General U Thant's plan for Congolese reunification.
1967 - Nguyen Van Thieu is elected president of South Vietnam under a new constitution.
1971 - Oil state of Qatar gains independence from Britain.
1976 - US Viking II spacecraft lands on Mars.
1978 - Pope John Paul II becomes the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
1981 - US Coast Guardsmen and federal agents seize 20 tons of Colombian marijuana and arrest 33 people in several raids on Long Island, New York, and offshore.
1989 - Thousands of blacks march and bathe at "whites only" beaches in nationwide defiance campaign in South Africa.
1990 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin unveils plan for Soviet republics to take control of their own economies.
1991 - Fierce fighting in Croatia effectively scuttles a new European Community peace plan for Yugoslavia.
1992 - Italian relief plane shot down by ground-to-air missiles outside Sarajevo.
1993 - Ukraine agrees to give Russia its nuclear warheads and the Black Sea fleet in return for financial compensation, easing two main disputes between the former Soviet republics.
1994 - China and Russia proclaim an end to any lingering hostilities, pledging they would no longer target nuclear missiles or use force against each other.
1995 - A French airplane is hijacked and forced to land at Geneva's airport. Police overpower the lone hijacker minutes after he releases all 279 passengers.
1996 - US President Bill Clinton unleashes cruise missiles at military targets in southern Iraq twice to punish Saddam Hussein for attacking Kurds in a UN-designated safe zone in northern Iraq.
1997 - A Vietnam Airlines jet crashes at Phnom Penh, Cambodia, airport, killing 65 people.
1998 - Fresh fighting breaks out near one of few remaining strongholds of the Kosovo Liberation Army, in an area believed to be packed with thousands of refugees.
2000 - Russian President Vladimir Putin debuts on the world stage at the UN Millennium Summit in an effort to restore Russia's clout and develop new partners.
2001 - Sierra Leone's president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah shakes hands with his rebel counterpart Gen. Issa Sesay, and declares the West African nation's war over.
2002 - Fifteen North Koreans climb over the wall of a German diplomatic compound in Beijing, becoming the latest in a wave of North Koreans to storm into foreign diplomatic grounds seeking asylum.
2003 - North Korea's parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, votes unanimously to re-elect the country's leader, Kim Jong Il, to a new five-year-term as chairman of the National Defence Commission.
2004 - Commandos storm a school in southern Russian town of Beslan and battle separatist rebels holding hundreds of hostages, as crying children flee through explosions and gunfire. More than 330 adults and children are killed.
2005 - More than 100 supporters of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez march through Caracas to demand justice against American religious broadcaster Pat Robertson for suggesting their president should be killed.
2006 - Europe's first spacecraft to the moon smashes into a volcanic plain as planned, signalling the end of a successful mission to test a new propulsion system and navigation technology for flights to other planets.
2007 - Myanmar wraps up a 14-year-old national convention to draw up guidelines for a new constitution, completing what the military government calls a successful first step back to democracy but what critics dismiss as a sham.
2008 - President George W Bush announces the US will send an extra $1bn to Georgia to help the pro-Western former Soviet republic in the wake of Russia's invasion.
Today's Birthdays:
Diane de Poitiers, French adventuress (1499-1566); Jacques Necker, Swiss economist (1732-1804); Ferdinand Porsche, German designer of Volkswagen car (1875-1951); Urho Kekkonen, president of Finland (1900-1986); Sir McFarlane Burnet, Australian Nobel-prize winning physician (1899-1985); Mort Walker, US "Beetle Bailey" cartoonist (1923--); Charlie Sheen, US actor (1965--).
Thought for Today:
Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man - Robert G Ingersoll, American lawyer and politician (1833-1899).
Sapa-AP