October 3



Events

Up to 1900 
 2333 BC  Famous date of the establishment of the Kingdom of Chosun (Korea).
 52 BC  Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and Battle of Alesia.
 42 BC  First Battle of Philippi: The Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight a battle with Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius. Even though Brutus defeats Octavian, Antony defeats Cassius.
 382  Emperor Theodosius I concludes a peace treaty with the Goths and settles them in the Balkans in exchange for military service.
 1283  Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, becomes the first person executed by drawing and quartering.
 1574  The Siege of Leiden lifted by the Watergeuzen – foundation of the first Dutch university.
 1683  The Qing Dynasty naval commander Shi Lang reaches Taiwan.
 1712  The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor.
 1739  The Treaty of Nissa is signed by the Ottoman Empire and Russia at the end of the Russian-Turkish War, 1736-1739.
 1762  Catherine II of Russia is crowned.
 1778  Captain James Cook anchors in Alaska.
 1789  George Washington names the first Thanksgiving Day.
 1835  The Staedtler Company is founded in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany.
 1849  American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious (a terribly confused state of mind) in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances.
 1863  Thanksgiving Day declared as the last Thursday in November by President Abraham Lincoln.
 1866  American passenger steamer Evening Star sinks in hurricane-force winds, 180 nautical miles off Tybee Island, Georgia, US, killing 148 people.
 1884  In Denmark, Christiansborg Castle is destroyed by fire.

1901  2000 
 1904  The Nama War begins as Namibian independence activist Hendrik Witbooi declares war on the colonial power, Germany.
 1918  Boris III of Bulgaria becomes King.
 1919  Cincinnati Reds pitcher Adolfo Luque becomes the first Hispanic American baseball player in the World Series.
 1929  The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is renamed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia, "Land of the South Slavs".
 1932  Iraq gets its independence.
 1935  Italy invades Ethiopia under General de Bono (replaced November 11 by Pietro Badoglio).
 1942  First successful launch of A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flew 147 kilometres wide and got to a height of 84.5 kilometres and was the first man-made object reaching space.
 1949  WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, opens in Atlanta, Georgia.
 1950  Korean War: The First Battle of Maryang San, primarily pitting Australian and British forces against Communist China, begins.
 1951  New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-4, winning the National League pennant, with Bobby Thomson's three-run homer called "The Shot Heard 'Round the World".
 1952  The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon.
 1955  The Mickey Mouse Club is first shown on the American Broadcasting Company.
 1957  Willy Brandt, future-German Chancellor, is elected as Governing Mayor of West Berlin, after the death of Otto Suhr.
 1960  The Andy Griffith Show starts.
 1961  The Dick Van Dyke Show is first shown on CBS-TV.
 1962  At Cape Canaveral the Mercury 8 takes off with Astronaut Wally Schirra on it for a nine-hour flight.
 1963  A violent coup in Honduras starts two decades of military rule.
 1964  Underdog debuts on CBS.
 1965  Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Immigration and Naturalization Service Act of 1965 into law, making immigration rules easier for people coming to the United States.
 1969  Berlin's television tower opens.
 1974  Peru is struck by an earthquake, killing 83 people.
 1981  The Hunger Strike by Irish Republican Army prisoners at the Maze jail in Belfast ends after seven months and 10 deaths.
 1982  Changtse mountain in Tibet is climbed for the first time, by Dutch climber Johan Taks.
 1985  The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its first flight.
 1990  German reunification: East Germany ends, after merging with the Federal Republic of Germany and joining the European Economic Community.
 1993  Battle of Mogadishu: In an attempt to capture officials of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's organization in Mogadishu, Somalia, 18 US Army Rangers and about 2000 Somalis are killed. US forces withdraw from Somalia soon after.
 1995  O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
 1997  The first cloned rodent, a mouse named Cumulina, is born in Honolulu, Hawaii.

From 2001 
 2004  The Montreal Expos play their last Major League Baseball game before the franchise is moved to Washington, D.C..
 2005  The EU starts entry negotiations with Turkey and Croatia.
 2010  In Delhi, India, the 2010 Commonwealth Games begin.
 2011  The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is given to Bruce Beutler, Jules A. Hoffmann and Ralph M. Steinman. Unknown to the Nobel Committee, Steinman had died three days earlier and becomes only the third-ever posthumous (after death) Nobel laureate in history, as of the announcement date.
 2011  Helle Thorning-Schmidt becomes Prime Minister of Denmark.
 2013  A boat travelling from North Africa, carrying migrants from the East African countries of Eritrea and Somalia, catches fire and sinks off the Italian Mediterranean Sea island of Lampedusa, killing 134 people, with many more feared dead.
 2013  The Gambia withdraws from the Commonwealth, through a decision made by its President, Yahya Jammeh.
 2015  At least 42 people are killed in an airstrike on a hospital, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières, in the Kunduz region of Afghanistan.
 2017  Barry Barish, Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss win the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of gravitational waves.

Births

Up to 1850 
 85 BC  Gaius Cassius Longinus, Roman senator (d. 42 BC)
 1458  Saint Casimir, Polish prince (d. 1484)
 1610  Gabriel Lalemant, French-Canadian missionary (d. 1649)
 1713  Antoine Dauvergne, French composer and violinist (d. 1797)
 1716  Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist (d. 1781)
 1720  Johann Peter Uz, German poet (d. 1796)
 1722  Johann Heinrich Tischbein, German painter (d. 1789)
 1784  Johann Karl Ehrenfried Kegel, German explorer of Kamchatka, Russia (d. 1863)
 1789  Henry Pottinger, Irish-British soldier and colonial officer (d. 1856)
 1792  Francisco Morazán, Central American political leader and statesman (d. 1842)
 1797  Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1870)
 1800  George Bancroft, American politician, 17th United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1891)
 1804  Allan Kardec, French founder of Spiritism or Kardecism (d. 1869)
 1804  Townsend Harris, American merchant, politician and diplomat (d. 1878)
 1806  Oliver Cowdery, American religious leader (d. 1850)
 1828  Woldemar Bargiel, German composer (d. 1897)
 1837  Nicolás Avellaneda, President of Argentina (d. 1885)
 1844  Patrick Manson, Scottish physician (d. 1922)
 1848  Henry Lerolle, French painter (d. 1929)

1851  1900 
 1853  Stephan G. Stephansson, Western Icelandic farmer and poet (d. 1927)
 1854  Hermann von Struve, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1920)
 1858  Eleonora Duse, Italian actress (d. 1924)
 1862  Johnny Briggs, English cricketer (d. 1902)
 1862  Andrew J. Montague, Governor of Virginia (d. 1937)
 1868  Francisco Vidal y Barraquer, Spanish cardinal (d. 1943)
 1869  Alfred Flatow, German gymnast (d. 1942)
 1873  Emily Post, American etiquette advisor (d. 1960)
 1873  Ivan Shmelyov, Russian writer (d. 1950)
 1875  Dr. Atl, Mexican painter and writer (d. 1964)
 1877  William L. Harding, Governor of Iowa (d. 1934)
 1879  Warner Oland, Swedish-American actor (d. 1938)
 1885  Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist (d. 1970)
 1886  Alain-Fournier, French novelist (d. 1914)
 1889  Carl von Ossietzky, German journalist, writer and pacifist, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1938)
 1890  Emilio Portes Gil, 41st President of Mexico (d. 1978)
 1893  King Carol III of Romania (d. 1953)
 1894  Elmer Robinson, American politician (d. 1982)
 1894  Walter Warlimont, German general (d. 1976)
 1895  Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet (d. 1925)
 1895  Giovanni Comisso, Italian writer (d. 1969)
 1896  Gerardo Diego, Spanish writer and poet (d. 1987)
 1897  Louis Aragon, French writer (d. 1982)
 1898  Leo McCarey, American movie director (d. 1969)
 1899  Gertrude Berg, American actress (d. 1966)
 1900  Thomas Wolfe, American writer (d. 1938)

1901  1950 
 1904  Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist (d. 1989)
 1905  Fuller Warren, 30th Governor of Florida (d. 1973)
 1905  Tekin Ariburun, Turkish politician (d. 1993)
 1916  James Herriot, British veterinarian and writer (d. 1995)
 1916  Russell W. Peterson, Governor of Delaware (d. 2011)
 1919  Jean Lefebvre, French actor (d. 2004)
 1919  James M. Buchanan, American economist (d. 2013)
 1920  Philippa Foot, British philosopher (d. 2010)
 1923  Edward Oliver LeBlanc, Dominican politician (d. 2004)
 1924  Arkady Vorobyov, Russian weightlifter
 1925  George Wein, American pianist and producer
 1925  Gore Vidal, American writer (d. 2012)
 1927  Kenojuak Ashevak, Canadian artist (d. 2013)
 1928  Sonny Ramphal, 2nd Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations
 1931  Glenn Hall, Canadian ice hockey player, NHL goaltender
 1933  Neale Fraser, Australian tennis player
 1934  Jerry Apodaca, former Governor of New Mexico
 1934  Miguel-Angel Cardenas, Colombian painter and photographer (d. 2015)
 1935  Charles Duke, American general, pilot and astronaut
 1936  Viktor Kanevskyi, Ukrainian footballer and coach (d. 2018)
 1936  Steve Reich, American composer
 1938  Eddie Cochran, American singer (d. 1960)
 1938  Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, former President of Peru
 1940  Sheila Fearn, British actress
 1941  Chubby Checker, American popular musician
 1941  Andrea de Adamich, Italian racing driver and sportscaster
 1942  Roberto Perfumo, Argentine footballer (d. 2016)
 1944  Bob Riley, American politician, former Governor of Alabama
 1944  Roy Horn, German-born entertainer (Siegfried & Roy) (d. 2020)
 1944  Harry Hood, Scottish footballer (d. 2019)
 1944  Pierre Deligne, Belgian mathematician
 1946  P. P. Arnold, American soul singer
 1947  John Perry Barlow, American musician (d. 2018)
 1947  Hopeton Lewis, Jamaican musician (d. 2014)
 1947  Fred DeLuca, American businessman (d. 2015)
 1949  J. P. Dutta, Indian director
 1949  Lindsey Buckingham, American musician (Fleetwood Mac)
 1950  Pamela Hensley, actress
 1950  John Curulewski, American guitarist (Styx) (d. 1988)

1951  1975 
 1951  Keb' Mo', American blues singer
 1951  Dave Winfield, American Baseball Hall of Famer
 1953  Bever-Leigh Banfield, American actress
 1954  Dennis Eckersley, American Baseball Hall of Famer
 1954  Al Sharpton, American minister, politician and activist
 1954  Stevie Ray Vaughan, American guitarist (d. 1990)
 1956  Hart Bochner, Canadian actor, screenwriter and producer
 1957  Robert Azevedo, Brazilian diplomat, 6th Director of the World Trade Organization
 1958  Louise Lecavalier, Canadian dancer
 1958  Chen Yanyin, Chinese sculptor
 1959  Fred Couples, American golfer
 1959  Greg Proops, American actor, stand-up comedian, voice artist and television host
 1962  Tommy Lee, American rock musician
 1964  Clive Owen, English actor
 1965  Jan-Ove Waldner, Swedish table tennis player
 1969  Gwen Stefani, American singer, No Doubt frontwoman
 1971  Kevin Richardson, American musician and singer (Backstreet Boys)
 1972  Komla Dumor, Ghanaian journalist (d. 2014)
 1973  Neve Campbell, Canadian actress
 1973  Lena Headey, British actress
 1975  India.Arie, American singer

From 1976 
 1976  Seann William Scott, American actor
 1978  Christian Coulson, English actor
 1978  Gerald Asamoah, German footballer
 1978  Claudio Pizarro, Peruvian footballer
 1978  Jake Shears, American singer (Scissor Sisters)
 1978  Vienna Teng, American pianist and singer-songwriter
 1979  Josh Klinghoffer, American musician (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
 1979  Danny O'Donoghue, Irish singer (The Script)
 1980  Ivan Turina, Croatian footballer (d. 2013)
 1981  Florian Keller, German field hockey player
 1981  Seth Gabel, American actor
 1981  Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Swedish footballer
 1981  Andreas Isaksson, Swedish footballer
 1983  Frederico Chaves Guedes, Brazilian footballer
 1984  Ashlee Simpson, American actress and singer
 1984  Bruno Gervais, Canadian ice hockey player
 1985  Courtney Lee, American basketball player
 1986  Jackson Martínez, Colombian footballer
 1987  Zuleyka Rivera, Puerto Rican model and actress
 1987  Robert Grabarz, English high jumper
 1987  Danny Willett, English golfer
 1988  Alicia Vikander, Swedish actress
 1988  ASAP Rocky, American rapper
 1990  Daria Shkurikhina, Russian rhythmic gymnast
 1991  Aki Takajo, Japanese singer (AKB48)
 1994  Charlie Wernham, English comedian and actor
 1996  Adair Tishler, American actress and singer
 1996  Kalechi Iheanacho, Nigerian footballer
 1997  Juri Takahashi, Japanese idol and singer (AKB48)
 1999  Aramis Knight, American actor
 2004  Noah Schnapp, American actor

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 42 BC  Gaius Cassius Longinus
 1078  Iziaslav I of Kiev (b. 1024)
 1226  Saint Francis of Assisi (b. c. 1182)
 1283  David ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, executed
 1369  Margarete Maultasch, Countess of Tyrol (b. 1318)
 1568  Elizabeth of Valois, Queen of Philip II of Spain (b. 1545)
 1611  Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain (b. 1584)
 1629  Giorgi Saakadze, Georgian military leader (b. 1570)
 1838  Black Hawk, Sauk-American tribal leader (b. 1767)
 1860  Rembrandt Peale, American painter (b. 1778)
 1867  Elias Howe, American inventor (b. 1819)
 1873  Captain Jack, Modoc tribal leader
 1877  James Roosevelt Barley, American archbishop (b. 1814)
 1881  Orson Pratt, American religious leader (b. 1811)
 1890  Joseph Hergenröther German church historian (b. 1824)
 1891  Edouard Lucas, French mathematician (b. 1842)
 1896  William Morris, British artist and designer (b. 1834)
 1897  Saint Therese of Liseaux (b. 1873)

1901  2000 
 1929  Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1878)
 1931  Carl Nielsen, Danish composer (b. 1865)
 1932  Max Wolf, German astronomer (b. 1863)
 1936  John Heisman, American football coach (b. 1869)
 1939  Fay Templeton, American actress & singer in musical comedy (b. 1865)
 1953  Arnold Bax, composer (b. 1883)
 1959  Tochigiyama Moriya, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1892)
 1965  Zachary Scott, American actor (b. 1914)
 1967  Woody Guthrie, American folk musician (b. 1912)
 1967  Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (b. 1895)
 1967  Pinto Colvig, American actor and animator (b. 1892)
 1969  Skip James, American blues musician (b. 1902)
 1979  Nicos Poulantzas, Greek-French sociologist and philosopher (b. 1936)
 1987  Jean Anouilh, French writer (b. 1910)
 1987  Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist (b. 1947)
 1988  Franz Josef Strauß, Bavarian politician (b. 1915)
 1990  General Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force officer, candidate for Vice President of the United States (b. 1906)
 1990  Stefano Casiraghi, Italian businessman, married into Monegasque royalty (b. 1960)
 1994  Heinz Rühmann, German actor (b. 1920)
 1997  Michael Adekunle Ajasin, Nigerian politician (b. 1908)
 1998  Roddy McDowall, British actor (b. 1928)
 1999  Akio Morita, Japanese co-founder of Sony (b. 1921)
 2000  Benjamin Orr, bassist and part-time lead singer for The Cars (b. 1947)

From 2001 
 2002  Bruce Paltrow, American television and movie producer (b. 1943)
 2003  William Steig, American cartoonist and children's writer; creator of Shrek (b. 1907)
 2004  Janet Leigh, American actress (b. 1927)
 2005  Ronnie Barker, British actor and comedian (b. 1929)
 2009  Reinhard Mohn, German businessman (b. 1921)
 2009  Fatima El-Sharif, former Queen of Libya (b. 1911)
 2010  Philippa Foot, British philosopher (b. 1920)
 2013  Sergei Belov, Russian basketball player (b. 1944)
 2014  Jean-Jacques Marcel, French footballer (b. 1931)
 2014  Peer Augustinski, German actor (b. 1940)
 2014  Ewen Gilmour, New Zealand comedian (b. 1963)
 2014  Alan Henning, English aid worker (b. 1967)
 2014  Ward Ruyslinck, Belgian writer (b. 1929)
 2014  Kevin Metheny, American radio executive (b. 1954)
 2015  Javid Iqbal, Pakistani judge (b. 1924)
 2015  Denis Healey, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1917)
 2017  Rodney Bickerstaffe, English trade unionist (b. 1945)
 2017  Michel Jouvet, French oneirologist and neurobiologist (b. 1926)
 2017  Chittani Ramachandra Hegde, Indian artist and dancer (b. 1933)
 2017  Jalal Talabani, Iraqi Kurdish politician, President of Iraq (b. 1933)
 2017  Ming Chang, Chinese-American naval officer (b. 1932)
 2017  John Herrnstein, American baseball player (b. 1938)
 2017  Isabella Karle, American scientist (b. 1921)
 2017  Victorino Martín, Spanish cattle rancher (b. 1929)
 2018  Elisabeth Andersen, Dutch actress (b. 1920)
 2018  Julien Bogaert, Belgian cartoonist (b. 1924)
 2018  Roger Gibbs, British financier (b. 1934)
 2018  Joseph Kamaru, Kenyan musician and political activist (b. 1938)
 2018  Leon M. Lederman, American physicist (b. 1922)
 2018  Bent Lorentzen, Danish composer (b. 1935)
 2018  Hollie Pihl, American judge (b. 1928)
 2019  John Buchanan, Canadian politician, Premier of Nova Scotia (b. 1931)
 2019  Diogo Freitas do Amaral, Portuguese politician, former Interim Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1941)
 2019  Hu Yamei, Chinese physician and medical researcher (b. 1923)
 2019  Ignacio Noguer Carmona, Spanish Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1931)
 2019  Alberto Testa, Italian dancer and choreographer (b. 1922)

Observances 
 Unity Day (Germany), marking the German reunification of 1990.
 Foundation Day (South Korea).
 National Day (Iraq).
 Soldiers' Day (Honduras).

October 03