Today in History: September 3

301: A Dalmatian builder, St. Marinus, founds the little community of San Marino, which in the tenth century will become the world’s oldest republic and the last surviving Italian city-state.

1260: The Mongol invasion reaches its furthest penetration and is stopped by the Mameluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut “Spring of Goliath”) in Palestine.

1634: Sir Edward Coke dies at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire.

1658: Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, the Cambridge-trained Puritan who nearly decided to move to Virginia in 1628 but chose to enter Parliament instead, dies at Whitehall at age 59.

1875: Ferdinand Porsche is born at Vratislavice in what is now the Czech Republic.  His plans to build a small, inexpensive car for workers, financed with loans on his life insurance policies, will be on the brink of failure until Adolf Hitler decides that every German needs a “Volkswagen.”

1895: In Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the local YMCA beats the Jeannette Athletic Club 12-0 in the first professional football game in U.S. history.

1951: Joy dishwashing liquid and Spic and Span cleaning liquid sponsor the first episode of TV’s first great soap opera, CBS’s Search for Tomorrow.

1967: At 5:00 a.m., everyone in Sweden has to stop driving on the left side of the road and drive on the right from now on.