Today is August 3, and this date? It rolls, races, rebels, and reshapes history. From rubber hitting the road, to Owens outrunning Hitler, to the dark depths of Auschwitz — Let’s dive in.
🛞 1900 — Firestone Rolls Out
Before there were tire ads every five minutes… there was Harvey Firestone. On this day in 1900, he founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.
From the Model T to the Indy 500, Firestone didn’t just build tires — he kept the modern world rolling. Rubber met road, and transportation sped into a new era.
⚔️ 1914 — Germany Invades Belgium and France
Things got real on August 3, 1914. Germany invaded neutral Belgium, then declared war on France, escalating what had been a regional conflict into full-scale World War I.
Lines were drawn. Empires mobilized. The Great War wasn’t coming — it had arrived.
🇺🇸 1923 — Coolidge Sworn in by Lantern Light
Here’s one for presidential trivia buffs: When President Warren G. Harding died unexpectedly, Calvin Coolidge became President… in the middle of the night… by lantern light… and sworn in by his own father — a notary public in rural Vermont.
Small room, big job.
🚦 1926 — London Gets Traffic Lights
Piccadilly Circus was known for being busy, chaotic, and just… London. But on this day in 1926, it got its first traffic lights.
A small signal with a big impact — one more step toward taming the urban jungle.
📷 1932 — Olympic Photo Finish Debuts
At the Los Angeles Olympics, tech met track: For the first time, a photo-finish camera was used to decide the winner of the 110-meter hurdles.
No more “eyeballing it” — now the stopwatch had backup. It changed sports forever.
☠️ 1934 — Hitler Declares Himself Führer
Dark day. On August 3, 1934, Adolf Hitler merged the roles of Chancellor and President… and became Führer.
That meant absolute power — and no more checks or balances. The road to catastrophe just got shorter.
🏃♂️ 1936 — Jesse Owens Wins Gold in Front of Hitler
Two years later, in that same Nazi regime, Jesse Owens — a Black American athlete — ran the 100-meter dash… and left racism in the dust.
Owens won gold in front of Hitler himself, dismantling the Nazi “master race” myth in under 11 seconds. He’d win four golds by the end — a legacy that still shines.
🕯️ 1944 — Auschwitz Massacre of Roma Prisoners
On this day in 1944, 4,000 Romani men, women, and children were gassed at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
It was one of the largest single-day massacres of Roma people during the Holocaust. Let the numbers sit with you — and remember the names we never got to know.
🎂 Born on August 3
- 1867 — Stanley Baldwin — UK Prime Minister and 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
- 1940 — Martin Sheen — American actor known for The West Wing
- 1941 — Martha Stewart — Entrepreneur, TV personality, and lifestyle icon
🕊️ Died on August 3
- 1924 — Joseph Conrad — Polish-British novelist, known for Heart of Darkness
- 2008 — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn — Russian author and critic of Soviet totalitarianism
💍 On This Day in Love & Loss
- In 2000, British PM Gordon Brown married Sarah Jane Macaulay
- In 2012, Stevie Wonder filed for divorce from Kai Millard Morris
- And in 2015, Gwen Stefani finalized her split from Gavin Rossdale
And that’s August 3. From Olympic triumphs to terrifying power grabs… From rubber tires to photo finishes… History moved fast today — and some of it hit hard.
💬 What surprised you the most? Was it Jesse Owens? Or the lantern-lit presidency? Drop it in the comments!