On Oct. 3, 1226, Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan religious order, died.
In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
In 1929 the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In 1941 Adolf Hitler declared that Russia had been ”broken” and would ”never rise again.” Also, rock star Chubby Checker was born in Philadelphia.
In 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt established the Office of Economic Stabilization.
In 1944 U.S. troops cracked the Nazis’ Siegfried Line north of Aachen, Germany.
In 1951 the New York Giants captured the National League pennant in Game 3 of a playoff 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 1952 the situation comedy “Our Miss Brooks,” formerly a radio show, premiered on CBS-TV with Eve Arden again in the title role.
In 1955 “Captain Kangaroo” and “The Mickey Mouse Club” premiered on CBS and ABC, respectively.
In 1960 “The Andy Griffith Show” premiered on CBS.
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 1967 Riverview, the North Side amusement park that entertained generations of Chicagoans, closed. Also, folk singer Woody Guthrie died at 55.
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 1987 U.S. and Canadian negotiators agreed on a framework for an accord to eliminate all tariffs between the world’s two largest trading partners.
In 1990 West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a unified country.
In 1991 Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In 1995 a jury acquitted O.J. Simpson of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was later found liable in a civil trial.)
In 1997 Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said investigators had no evidence President Bill Clinton violated the law with White House coffees and overnight stays for major contributors.
In 1999 Sony co-founder Akio Morita died at 78 in Tokyo.
In 2001 the Senate approved a pact normalizing trade between the United States and Vietnam.
In 2002 five people were shot to death in the Washington area in 14 hours, beginning the hunt for the “Beltway Sniper.”
In 2003 a tiger critically injured magician Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy during a performance in Las Vegas.
In 2004 actress Janet Leigh died at 77 in Beverly Hills, Calif.
In 2005 President Bush nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. (She withdrew three weeks later amid criticism over her lack of judicial experience.) Also, a Russian space capsule with American tourist Gregory Olsen aboard docked with the International Space Station.
