October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 89 days remain until the end of the year
1863 – National Thanksgiving Day proclamation. American president Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. The holiday has been celebrated annually since that year.
1912 – U.S. forces defeat Nicaraguan rebels at the Battle of Coyotepe Hill.
1932 – The Kingdom of Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1949 – WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, opens in Atlanta.
1952 – The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon in the Montebello Islands, Western Australia, to become the world’s third nuclear power.
1960 – Princess Alexandra formally opening 1st Nigerian Parliament after Great Britain gave the country independence.
Later that day, Princess Alexandra of Kent arrived Ibadan to begin a two day official visit to the Western Region in connection with the independence celebrations and Her Royal Highness was met by Sir. Adesoji Aderemi, the Governor and Chief S.L. Akintola, Premier.
1963 – A violent coup in Honduras begins two decades of military rule.
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.
1993 – An American attack against a warlord in Mogadishu fails; eighteen US soldiers and over 350 Somalis die.
1995 – OJ Simpson acquitted in the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman. The former football player had been accused of murdering his ex-wife and her friend on June 13, 1994. The high profile case and the subsequent trial of Simpson captured widespread media and public attention in the United States and around the world.
2013 – At least 360 migrants are killed when their boat sinks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
