On this day, Sept. 3 …

1995: The online auction site eBay is founded in San Jose, Calif., by Pierre Omidyar under the name "AuctionWeb."

Also on this day:

  • 1783: Representatives of the United States and Britain sign the Treaty of Paris, which officially ends the Revolutionary War.
  • 1943: Allied forces invade Italy during World War II, the same day Italian officials sign a secret armistice with the Allies.
  • 1962: Poet E.E. Cummings dies in North Conway, N.H., at age 67.

Legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi would win the Super Bowl again in 1968, but he died just two years later. (AP)

  • 1970: Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, 57, dies in Washington, D.C.
  • 1976: America's Viking 2 lander touches down on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the red planet's surface.
  • 1978: Pope John Paul I is installed as the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
  • 1999: A French judge closes a two-year inquiry into the car crash that killed Princess Diana, dismissing all charges against nine photographers and a press motorcyclist, and concluding the accident was caused by an inebriated driver.
  • 2003: Paul Hill, a former minister who said he murdered an abortion doctor and his bodyguard to save the lives of unborn babies, is executed in Florida by injection, becoming the first person put to death in the United States for anti-abortion violence.
  • 2005: President George W. Bush orders more than 7,000 active-duty forces to the Gulf Coast as his administration intensified efforts to rescue Katrina survivors and sends aid to the hurricane-ravaged region in the face of criticism it did not act quickly enough. 
  • 2005: U.S. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist dies in Arlington, Va., at age 80, after more than three decades on the Supreme Court.
  • 2019: Walmart announces it will end sales of handguns in Alaska and will discontinue the sale of short-barrel rifle and handgun ammunition in stores nationwide.