Today in History: Oct. 3
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 3, 1951, the New York Giants captured the National League pennant by a score of 5-4 as Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the “shot heard ’round the world.”
On this date:
In 1789, President George Washington declared November 26, 1789, a day of Thanksgiving to express gratitude for the creation of the United States of America.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day.
In 1922, Rebecca L. Felton, D-Ga., became the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. Senate (however, she served only a day).
In 1932, Iraq became independent of British administration.
In 1941, Adolf Hitler declared in a speech in Berlin that Russia had been “broken” and would “never rise again.” ”The Maltese Falcon” — the movie version starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Huston — opened in New York.
In 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra became the fifth American to fly in space as he blasted off from Cape Canaveral aboard the Sigma 7 on a 9-hour flight.
In 1974, Frank Robinson was named major league baseball’s first black manager as he was placed in charge of the Cleveland Indians.
In 1981, Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended seven months of hunger strikes that had claimed 10 lives.
In 1990, West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a reunified country.
In 1991, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In 1995, the jury in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles found the former football star not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman (however, Simpson was later found liable for damages in a civil trial).
In 2008, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. (Simpson was later sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison.)
Ten years ago: North Korea triggered global alarm by saying it would conduct a nuclear test, but the North also said it was committed to nuclear disarmament, suggesting a willingness to negotiate. A Turkish man hijacked a jetliner traveling from Albania to Istanbul, forcing it to land in southern Italy, where he surrendered and released all the passengers unharmed. Americans John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the Nobel Prize in physics.
Five years ago: An Italian appeals court freed Amanda Knox of Seattle after four years in prison, tossing murder convictions against Knox and an ex-boyfriend in the stabbing of their British roommate, Meredith Kercher. Three scientists, Bruce Beutler of the U.S., Jules Hoffmann of France and Canadian-born Ralph Steinman (who had died three days earlier), won the Nobel Prize in medicine. Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., 92, who’d acquired the famous TV ratings company from his father, died in Winnetka, Illinois.