Today is Wednesday, Sept. 3, the 246th day of 2014. There are 119 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On September 3, 1939, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany, two days after
the Nazi invasion of Poland; in a radio address, Britain’s King George VI said, "With God’s help,
we shall prevail." The same day, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner SS Athenia
some 250 miles off the Irish coast, killing more than 100 out of the 1,400 or so people on board.
On this date:
In 1658, Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, died in London; he was succeeded by his son,
Richard.
In 1783, representatives of the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, which officially
ended the Revolutionary War.
In 1944, British forces liberated Brussels during World War II.
In 1951, the television soap opera "Search for Tomorrow" made its debut on CBS.
In 1976, America’s Viking 2 lander touched down on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of
the planet’s surface.
In 1989, a Cubana de Aviacion jetliner crashed after takeoff in Havana, killing all 126 aboard and 45
people on the ground.
Ten years ago: A 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; more than 330 people, over
half of them children, were killed.
Five years ago: A private funeral service was held in Glendale, California, for pop superstar Michael
Jackson, whose body was entombed in a mausoleum more than two months after his death.
One year ago: Ariel Castro, who’d held three women captive in his Cleveland home for nearly a decade
before one escaped and alerted authorities, was found hanged in his prison cell, a suicide.