October 3

42 BC – The Army of Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian defeats the forces of 2 of Caesar’s assassins, Brutus and Cassius, at Phillipi, Macedonia

382 – Roman Emperor Theodosius I concludes a peace treaty with the Goths, previous converts to Christianity, and settles them in the Balkans.

1789 – President Washington issues a proclamation creating “….Thursday the 26th day of November next…” as the first officially designated Thanksgiving Day

1863 – The last Thursday in November is declared as Thanksgiving Day by President Lincoln.

1873 – Chief Kintpuash (Captain Jack), Black Jim, John Schonchin, and Boston Charley are hanged for murdering General Edward Canby and Reverend Eleazar Thomas during a peace commission hearing which began the Modoc War in California and ended with the perpetrator’s executions.

1919 – Cincinnati Reds pitcher Adolfo Luque becomes the first Latin American player to appear in a World Series, playing in 2 games as relief.

1929 – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is renamed Yugoslavia by King Alexander I.

1932 – The Kingdom of Iraq under King Faisal I – of Lawrence of Arabia fame – gains independence from the United Kingdom’s Mandatory Mesopotamia.

1942 – A German V-2 rocket reaches a record 46 nautical miles in altitude.

1946 – American Overseas Airlines Flagship New England, a Douglas C-54/DC-4 crashes near Ernest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, killing 39 passengers and crew aboard.

1962 – Wally Schirra in NASA’s Project Mercury Sigma 7 spacecraft, launches from Cape Canaveral for a 6 orbit flight.

1985 –  USAF Colonel Karol J. Bobko, and a crew of 4, pilot Space Shuttle Atlantis on its maiden flight.

1989 – A coup attempt by Panamanian Army officers against dictator Manuel Noriega fails in Panama City, 11 participants are later executed.

1990 – Tag der Deutschen Einheit. The German Democratic Republic is abolished and becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany

1993 – An American attempt to capture a warlord in Mogadishu fails, resulting in 18 US soldiers being killed, and 1 taken prisoner.

1995 – The O. J. Simpson murder trial ends with a verdict of not guilty.

2008 – The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 for the U.S. financial system is finally passed by Congress and signed by President Bush.