September 3 in History

Agrippa's fleet destroyed Sextus Pompeius's armada at Naulochus off the coast of Sicily, sinking or capturing nearly all 300 enemy ships in a single afternoon. Sextus fled east and was later executed, ending the last Pompeian challenge to the Triumvirate. The victory gave Octavian undisputed control of the western Mediterranean and set him on the path to becoming Augustus.

Visigothic King Wamba marched his army into southern Gaul and crushed the rebellion of Hilderic, the governor of Nimes who had seized power with local support. The swift campaign reunified the kingdom and demonstrated Wamba's military skill, though his reforms to strengthen central authority would soon provoke the aristocratic conspiracies that ended his reign.

Mamluk cavalry lured the Mongol vanguard into an ambush at Ain Jalut in Palestine, then counterattacked and destroyed the invaders in a decisive rout. The victory halted Mongol expansion into the Islamic heartland at its furthest western point and established the Mamluk Sultanate as the dominant power from Egypt to Syria.

Charles I of Hungary brokers peace between John of Bohemia and Casimir III of Poland at the Visegrád congress, ending their border skirmishes. This diplomatic triumph solidified a powerful alliance that stabilized Central Europe for decades and established Visegrád as a premier center for royal diplomacy in medieval history.

Charles II had everything riding on Worcester — an army of 16,000, Scottish and English royalists, his only realistic shot at reclaiming his father's throne. Cromwell's force outnumbered him nearly two to one. The battle lasted one afternoon. Charles fled and spent the next six weeks hiding across England, at one point crouching in an oak tree for hours while Parliamentary soldiers searched below. He eventually escaped to France. He'd wait nine more years in exile before anyone offered him a crown again.

American forces clashed with British and Hessian troops at Cooch's Bridge in Delaware, reportedly flying the Stars and Stripes in combat for the first time. Though the outnumbered Americans withdrew after a sharp fight, the engagement slowed the British advance toward Philadelphia and gave the new flag its baptism of fire.

Frederick Douglass borrowed the identity of a free Black sailor — using papers that didn't match his description — and rode trains and ferries from Baltimore to New York in a single day. One wrong question, one suspicious conductor, and he'd have been returned to his enslaver. He was 20 years old. The journey took less than 24 hours. He went on to write three autobiographies, advise Abraham Lincoln, and become the most photographed American of the nineteenth century. That one train ride cost him nothing except everything he'd ever risk.

General William Harney had orders to punish someone for the Grattan Massacre — 19 soldiers killed a year earlier by Sioux warriors near Fort Laramie. He found a village of Brulé Sioux on the Blue Water Creek in Nebraska, led by Chief Little Thunder, who had not been involved. Harney attacked anyway, killing around 85 people including women and children, and taking 70 prisoners. The Sioux called him 'Woman Killer.' The U.S. government called it a victory. The plains wars would grind on for another 35 years.