OCT 3
1863
President Lincoln proclaims a day of Thanksgiving
On this day in 1863, U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln heeded a request from Sarah Josepha Hale and proclaimed a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise.” Hale had been unsuccessfully urging governors, congressmen, and even prior presidents to take up this task—for decades. But Lincoln responded immediately. He proclaimed the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving—and asked the entire country to participate at once.
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Germany reunified
After four decades of Cold War division and with pressure from the German chancellor Helmut Kohl, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to a unified Germany within NATO, leading to Germany’s reunification this day in 1990.
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St. Francis of Assisi, who died this day in 1226, founded the Franciscan order and stressed the need to imitate the life of Jesus, drawing followers with his evangelical zeal, consecration to poverty, charity, and charisma.
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2025
Sarah Mullally was named the 106th archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to be appointed in the more than 1,400-year history of the office in the Church of England.
Office of U.S. House of Representatives Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy
2023
Republican Kevin McCarthy was voted out as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the first time in history a speaker was removed from office.
© 1962 United Artists Corporation
2004
American actress Janet Leigh—who was best remembered for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), in which her character suffered one of cinema’s most memorable and shocking deaths—died at the age of 77. [Take our actors quiz.]
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1995
One of the most sensational trials in U.S. history ended as a jury found O.J. Simpson not guilty of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. [Learn about 10 “trials of the century,” including the O.J. Simpson trial.]
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1974
Frank Robinson is hired by the Cleveland Indians, making him the first Black manager in baseball’s American League.
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1969
American singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani, who came to fame in the 1990s as the lead singer for the rock-ska band No Doubt before starting a solo career, was born. [Test your knowledge of singers, musicians, and composers.]
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1961
The Dick Van Dyke Show, a pioneer of the sitcom genre created by Carl Reiner and starring Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, began airing on CBS. [Watch an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.]
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1960
The Andy Griffith Show debuted on CBS and was an immediate success. [Sort fact from fiction in our pop culture quiz.]
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1952
The first British atomic weapons test, called Hurricane, was successfully conducted aboard the frigate HMS Plym.
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1945
The May-Johnson bill, keeping atomic research a secret and establishing security regulations, was introduced into the U.S. Congress; although it never became law, the debate over the proposed legislation resulted in the passage of the Atomic Energy Act (1946).
© 1941 Warner Brothers, Inc.
1941
The Maltese Falcon, John Huston’s adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s famed 1930 novel, had its world premiere; it is considered by some to be the greatest detective movie ever made. [How well do you know the history of cinema?]
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1936
American football coach John Heisman, who was considered one of the greatest innovators of the game, died in New York. [Find out every winner of Heisman’s namesake trophy since 1935.]
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1935
Italian forces led by Emilio De Bono, under orders from Benito Mussolini, invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in hopes of building a “new Roman Empire.”
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin
1918
Prince Maximilian of Baden, whose humanitarian reputation made the emperor William II think him capable of bringing World War I to an end, was appointed chancellor of Germany. [Take our quiz about German history.]
German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv), Bild 183-93516-0010
1889
German journalist and pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, who was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize for Peace while incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp, was born in Hamburg, Germany. [How much do you know about the Nobel Prize?]
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1866
Through the mediation of Napoleon III, Italy obtained Venetia in the Treaty of Vienna. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about European history.]
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1862
The Battle of Corinth, an American Civil War conflict that ended in a decisive Union victory over Confederate forces in northeastern Mississippi, began. [Test your kno
