03 October History
- 1739 - Russia signs a treaty with the Turks, ending a three-year conflict between the two countries.
- 1776 - Congress borrows five million dollars to halt the rapid depreciation of paper money in the colonies.
- 1862 - At the Battle of Corinth, in Mississippi, a Union army defeats the Confederates.
- 1873 - Captain Jack and three other Modoc Indians are hanged in Oregon for the murder of General Edward Canby.
- 1876 - John L. Routt, the Colorado Territory governor, is elected the first state governor of Colorado in the Centennial year of the U.S.
- 1906 - The first conference on wireless telegraphy in Berlin adopts SOS as warning signal.
- 1929 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes officially changes its name to Yugoslavia.
- 1931 - The comic strip Dick Tracy first appears in the New York News.
- 1940 - U.S. Army adopts airborne, or parachute, soldiers. Airborne troops were later used in World War II for landing troops in combat and infiltrating agents into enemy territory.
- 1941 - The Maltese Falson, starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade, opens.
- 1942 - Germany conducts the first successful test flight of a V-2 missile, which flies perfectly over a 118-mile course.
- 1944 - German troops evacuate Athens, Greece.
- 1951 - A "shot is heard around the world" when New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson hits a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the National League pennant.
- 1955 - The children's television program Captain Kangaroo debuts.
- 1989 - Art Shell becomes the first African American to coach a professional football team, the Los Angeles Raiders.
- 1990 - After 40 years of division, East and West Germany are reunited as one nation.
03 October Birthdays
- 1800 - George Bancroft, historian, known as the "Father of American History" for his 10-volume A History of the United States.
- 1900 - Thomas Wolfe, American novelist (Look Homeward Angel) not to be confused with American novelist Tom Wolfe (The Right Stuff).
- 1916 - James Herriot, Yorkshire veterinarian and author of All Creatures Great and Small.
- 1925 - Gore Vidal, writer.