* Astronomy

Last stand of the Madagascan spider tortoise Under a worst case scenario, scientists calculate that spider tortoises could disappear in a matter of a few decades: less than a single tortoise's lifespan. As a result, in 2008 it was listed as critically endangered on the IUCN's Red List for Threatene...

What is the smallest possible space in the universe? Science's ongoing quest to find the smallest possible objects remains tantalisingly incomplete, as physicist Prof Andy Parker explains. Physics has a problem with small things. Or, to be more precise, with infinitely small things. We imagine...

Prudence Crandall (September 3, 1803 - January 28, 1890), a schoolteacher raised as a Quaker, stirred controversy with her education of African-American girls in Canterbury, Connecticut. Her private school, opened in the fall of 1831, was boycotted when she admitted a 17-year-old African-Ame...

Edward Pigott (1753 - 27 June 1825) was an English astronomer, and the son of astronomer Nathaniel Pigott (1725-1804) and Anna Mathurine de Bériot (1727-1792). Probably born in Whitton, Middlesex, his elder brother, Charles Gregory, died in young age. He also had a younger sister, Mathurina (bor...

Cherry Wilder (3 September 1930 - 14 March 2002) was the pseudonym of science fiction and fantasy writer Cherry Barbara Grimm, née Lockett, who was born in Auckland, New Zealand. Read more

Stephen Philip "Steve" Jones (born 3 September 1955) is an English rock guitarist, singer and actor, best known as guitarist and founding member of punk rock band, the Sex Pistols. Read more Sex Pistols - Holidays In The Sun

The Battle of Cooch's Bridge, also known as the Battle of Iron Hill, was a skirmish fought on September 3, 1777, between American militia and primarily German soldiers serving alongside the British Army during the American Revolutionary War. Read more Legend has it that Betsy Ross' famous flag was...

The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group (comprising Lieutenant General Mark Clark's U.S. Fifth Army and General Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army) during the Second World War. Read more

San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino (Italian: Repubblica di San Marino) and also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino), is an enclaved microstate surrounded by Italy, situated on the Italian Peninsula on the north-eastern s...

The Viking 2 mission was part of the American Viking program to Mars, and consisted of an orbiter and a lander essentially identical to that of the Viking 1 mission. The Viking 2 lander operated on the surface for 1,281 Mars days and was turned off on 11 April 1980 when its batteries failed. The orbiter w...

Observing to begin again from 3rd September, 2012. Viewing evening at Winchendon Observatory. Read more 2012 is the 50th anniversary of the AAS.

NEW SEASON OF LECTURES. Professor Dick Butler "The Nature, Boundaries & Origin of the Universe" Westwood Hotel Sept 3rd 7.30pm Read more

Occultation of Jupiter, 1889 September 3 Read more

Kirkpatrick Macmillan (Born 2 September 1812 in Keir, Dumfries and Galloway; died 26 January 1878 in Keir) was a Scottish blacksmith generally credited with inventing the rear-wheel driven bicycle. Read more

Fireballs blazon the sky in Nejapa, El Salvador. Local residents gather every August 31 to hurl fireballs in honour of a huge volcanic eruption in 1922. The eruption forced all of the residents to abandon the town. Read more