Today is Thursday, Oct. 3, the 276th day of 2013. There are 89 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight:
On Oct. 3, 1990, West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a reunified country.
On this date:
In 1226, St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, died; he was canonized in 1228.
In 1789, President George Washington declared Nov. 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 1929, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes formally changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Office of Economic Stabilization.
In 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 the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ralph Branca in the “shot heard ‘round the world.”
In 1961, “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” also starring Mary Tyler Moore, made its debut on CBS.
In 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra blasted off from Cape Canaveral aboard the Sigma 7 on a nine-hour flight.
In 1970, the National Oceanic &Atmospheric Administration was established under the Department of Commerce.
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 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 in a civil trial.
In 2002, five people were shot to death in the Washington, D.C., area within a 14-hour period, beginning the hunt for the “Beltway Sniper.” (In all, 10 people were killed; mastermind John Allen Muhammad and teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo were later caught.)
Ten years ago: A tiger attacked magician Roy Horn of duo “Siegfried &Roy” during a performance in Las Vegas, leaving the superstar illusionist in critical condition on his 59th birthday. Illustrator and children’s book author William Steig died in Boston at age 95.
Five years ago: Amid dire warnings of economic disaster, a reluctant Congress abruptly reversed course and approved a historic $700 billion government bailout of the battered financial industry; President George W. Bush swiftly signed it. Thirteen years to the day after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, the former football star 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.)
One year ago: An aggressive Mitt Romney sparred with President Barack Obama on the economy and domestic issues in their first campaign debate. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised a full and transparent probe of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.
Associated Press
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