October 3
1863 - U.S. President Lincoln declared that the last Thursday of November would be recognized as Thanksgiving Day.
1888 - "The Yeomen of the Guard" was performed for the first time. It was the first of 423 shows.
1893 - The motor-driven vacuum cleaner was patented by J.S. Thurman.
1901 - The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated. After a merger with Radio Corporation of America the company became RCA-Victor.
1906 - W.T. Grant opened a 25-cent department store.
1922 - Rebecca L. Felton became the first female to hold office of U.S. Senator. She was appointed by Governor Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia to fill a vacancy.
1929 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes officially changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
1932 - Iraq was admitted into the League of Nations leading Britain to terminate their mandate over the nation. Britain had ruled Iraq since taking it from Turkey during World War I.
1935 - Italian forces invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia).
1941 - Adolf Hitler stated in a speech that Russia was "broken" and they "would never rise again."
1942 - The Office of Economic Stabilization was established by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also authorized controls on rents, wages, salaries and farm prices.
1944 - During World War II, U.S. troops broke through the Siegfried Line.
1946 - "A Day in the Life of Dennis Day" began airing on NBC-TV.
1951 - CBS-TV aired the first coast-to-coast telecast of a prizefight. Dave Sands defeated Carl Olson at Soldier Field in Chicago.
1952 - Britain became the third nuclear power in the world when they successfully detonated their first atomic bomb. The U.S. and Russia were the only other nuclear powers.
1954 - "Father Knows Best" began airing on CBS-TV.
1955 - "Captain Kangaroo" premiered on CBS-TV.
1955 - "The Mickey Mouse Club" premiered on ABC-TV.
1961 - "The Dick Van Dyke Show" debuted on CBS-TV.
1962 - The Sigma VII blasted off from Cape Canaveral for a nine-hour flight.
1962 - The play, "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!" opened on Broadway.
1974 - Frank Robinson took over the management position of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. He was the first black manager in major league baseball.
1981 - Irish Nationalist in Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland called off their hunger strike. The strike had lasted 7 months and ten people had died.
1986 - "Tough Guys" was released. It was the first comedy to feature Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. It was, however, their seventh movie together.
1988 - The space shuttle Discovery landed safely after its four-day mission. It was the first American shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster.
1989 - East Germany suspended unrestricted travel to Czechoslovakia in an effort to slow the flow of refugees to the West.
1989 - Art Shell became the first African-American head coach in the modern NFL when he took over the Los Angeles Raiders.
1990 - The Berlin Wall was dismantled eleven months after the borders between East and West Germany were dissolved. The unification of Germany ended 45 years of division.
1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made a visit to Kuwait since his country had seized control of the oil-rich nation.
1994 - The headquarters of the Haitian pro-army militia was raided by U.S. soldiers.
2001 - ESPN began its 10th season of National Hockey League (NHL) coverage.
2001 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) broke Babe Ruth's major league single-season record for walks at 171.
2003 - Ray Horn, of the duo "Siegfried & Roy," was attacked by tiger during a performance. Roy survived the attack after being dragged offstage. The tiger, a 7-year-old male named Montecore, was debuting in his first show.
2006 - North Korea announced that it would conduct a nuclear test as a key step in the manufacture of atomic bombs that it viewed as a deterrent against a U.S. attack. A date for the test was not announced.
2006 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed at a new high ending the day at 11,727.34. Earlier in the session, the Dow had risen to 11,758.95. Both previous records had been set on January 14, 2000.
