On this day in history, September 3

301 San Marino, the world’s oldest republic, is founded by Saint Marinus.

1752 The British Empire adopts the Gregorian Calendar, losing 11 days. People riot, thinking the government stole 11 days of their lives.

1841 Cape Governor Sir George Napier refuses to recognise Natalia, the short-lived Boer republic in what is today KwaZulu-Natal.

1916 The Allies turn back the Germans in the Battle of Verdun, on the Western Front.

1939 Britain declares war on Germany.

1939 Unity Mitford, English socialite and part of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle of friends, is so distraught about the outbreak of war between England and Germany that she shoots herself in the head. Allowed safe passage back to England, she never recovers from the extensive brain damage, dying from meningitis related to the bullet in her brain, in 1948.

1956 US Army tanks are deployed against racist demonstrators in Clinton, Tennessee.

1978 A Vickers Viscount airliner is shot down over Rhodesia by Zipra insurgents. Thirty-eight passengers and crew are killed on impact, 10 are shot by Zipra fighters; 8 live.

1988 Iraq murders about 50 000 Kurds.

1989 Thousands of blacks swim at ‘white’ beaches in a nationwide show of defiance.

2004 The Beslan school massacre ends in the deaths of 344 people, 186 of them children, as well as 31 of the 32 attackers. 800 are injured. It is the deadliest school shooting in history.

2007 Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti, the greatest tenor of his generation, dies of cancer.

2020 MacKenzie Scott, former wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, becomes world’s richest woman, worth $68 billion. She promises to give it all away, ‘until the safe is empty’ and has been making donations at a faster rate than any billionaire. To date, she has donated in excess of $19 billion to more than 2 000 organisations since 2019, according to a February 2025 report by The Center for Effective Philanthropy. Scott’s donations are characterised by a lack of restrictions on how the money can be spent, giving recipient organisations significant flexibility.

2024 A veritable hell on earth: Phoenix, Arizona, endures a temperature of at least 100°F (37.8°C) for the 100th day in a row.