On This Day — 3 October
2000s
2024
Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit are accorded the Classical language status by the Government of India
Bengali language
2023
Wab Kinew is elected to be the first First Nations Premier of a Canadian province in the 2023 Manitoba general election
Wab Kinew
2022
Svante Pääbo is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Svante Pääbo
2021
Eight people are killed in an airplane crash near Milan, Italy.
2021 Milan Pilatus PC-12 crash
2015
Forty-two people are killed and 33 go missing in the Kunduz hospital airstrike in Afghanistan.
Kunduz hospital airstrike
2013
At least 360 migrants are killed when their boat sinks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck
2009
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey join in the Turkic Council.
Azerbaijan
2008
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 for the U.S. financial system is signed by President George W. Bush.
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
1900s
1995
O. J. Simpson murder case: O. J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Murder trial of O. J. Simpson
1993
An American attack against a warlord in Mogadishu fails; eighteen US soldiers and over 350 Somalis die.
Battle of Mogadishu (1993)
1991
Nadine Gordimer is announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Nadine Gordimer
1990
The German Democratic Republic is abolished and becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany; the event is afterwards celebrated as German Unity Day.
East Germany
1989
A coup in Panama City is suppressed and 11 participants are executed.
1989 Panamanian coup attempt
1986
TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada, is officially opened.
Tandem Accelerator Superconducting Cyclotron
1985
The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight, carrying two DSCS-III Satellites on STS-51-J.
Space Shuttle Atlantis
1981
The hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ends after seven months and ten deaths.
1981 Irish hunger strike
1963
A violent coup in Honduras begins two decades of military rule.
1963 Honduran coup d'état
1962
Project Mercury: US astronaut Wally Schirra, in Sigma 7, is launched from Cape Canaveral for a six-orbit flight.
Project Mercury
1957
The California State Superior Court rules that the book Howl and Other Poems is not obscene.
Superior Courts of California
1952
The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon in the Montebello Islands, Western Australia, to become the world's third nuclear power.
Operation Hurricane
1951
Korean War: The First Battle of Maryang San pits Commonwealth troops against communist Chinese troops.
First Battle of Maryang-san
1949
WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, opens in Atlanta.
WERD (Atlanta)
1946
An American Overseas Airlines Douglas DC-4 crashes near Ernest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, killing 39.
American Overseas Airlines
1943
World War II: German forces murder 92 civilians in Lingiades, Greece.
World War II
1942
A German V-2 rocket reaches a record 85 km (46 nm) in altitude.
V-2 rocket
1935
Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italy invades Ethiopia.
Second Italo-Ethiopian War
1932
The Kingdom of Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.
Kingdom of Iraq
1929
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is renamed to Yugoslavia by King Alexander I.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
1919
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Adolfo Luque becomes the first Latin American player to appear in a World Series.
Cincinnati Reds
1918
Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria accedes to the throne.
Boris III of Bulgaria
1912
U.S. forces defeat Nicaraguan rebels at the Battle of Coyotepe Hill.
Battle of Coyotepe Hill
1800s
1873
Chief Kintpuash and companions are hanged for their part in the Modoc War of northern California.
Kintpuash
1863
The last Thursday in November is declared as Thanksgiving Day by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
Thanksgiving (United States)
1862
American Civil War: The two-day Second Battle of Corinth begins as Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn attack Union defenses led by General William Rosecrans around Corinth, Mississippi.
American Civil War
Before 1800
1792
A militia departs from the Spanish stronghold of Valdivia to quell a Huilliche uprising in southern Chile.
Valdivian Fort System
1789
George Washington proclaims Thursday November 26, 1789 as Thanksgiving Day.
George Washington
1739
The Treaty of Niš is signed by the Ottoman Empire and Russia ending the Russian–Turkish War.
Treaty of Niš (1739)
1712
The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor.
James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose
1683
Qing dynasty naval commander Shi Lang receives the surrender of the Tungning kingdom on Taiwan after the Battle of Penghu.
Qing dynasty
1574
The Siege of Leiden is lifted by the Watergeuzen.
Siege of Leiden
1392
Muhammed VII becomes the twelfth sultan of the Emirate of Granada.
Muhammad VII of Granada
382
Roman Emperor Theodosius I concludes a peace treaty with the Goths and settles them in the Balkans.
Theodosius I
-42
Liberators' civil war: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight to a draw Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius in the first part of the Battle of Philippi, where Cassius commits suicide believing the battle is lost.
Liberators' civil war
-52
Gallic Wars: Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and battle of Alesia.
Gallic Wars
-2457
Gaecheonjeol, Hwanung (환웅) purportedly descended from heaven. South Korea's National Foundation Day.
National Foundation Day (Korea)