September 3, 590: Gregory I (“the Great”) is consecrated pope. Historians remember him as the father of the medieval papacy and last of four Latin “Doctors of the Church.” He was the first pope to aspire to secular power, the man for whom Gregorian Chant is named, and one of the main organizers of Roman liturgy and its music. He was also one of the prime promoters of monasticism.
September 3, 1752: This day and the next 10 never happen in Great Britain as the kingdom adopts the Gregorian Calendar (developed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582) to replace the inaccurate calendar created by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. Riots break out as Brits argue the government just stole 11 days from their lives.
September 3, 1894: American neo-orthodox theologian H. Richard Niebuhr, professor at Yale University and author of Christ and Culture (1951), is born.
