Events on This Day
1789 - U.S. President George Washington proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day to be observed on November 26.1863 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln officially declared the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day.
1899 - The gasoline-powered vacuum cleaner was patented by John S. Thurman of St. Louis, MO. He called it the “the pneumatic carpet renovator”. Remember his advertising slogan? “You can be sure if it’s Thurman!”
1901 - The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated on this day. After a merger with Radio Corporation of America, RCA-Victor became the leader in phonographs and many of the records played on them. The famous Victrola phonograph logo, with Nipper the dog, and the words “His Master’s Voice”, appeared on all RCA-Victor phonographs and record labels.
1906 - One of the pioneer U.S. retailers, W.T. Grant, opened a 25-cent department store on this day in Lynn, Massachusetts.
1932 - Iraq gained independence from Britain and joined the League of Nations.
1935 - Italian forces invaded the independent African nation of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). It seems everybody wanted a hunk of Africa for themselves at the time.
1941 - Adolf Hitler stated in a speech to the German people that Russia was broken and it would never rise again.
1941 - The film The Maltese Falcon opened in the U.S. The mystery stars Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade.
1942 - The Office of Economic Stabilization was established by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also authorized controlled on rents, wages, salaries and farm prices because of the financial pressures of World War II.
1944 - U.S. troops broke through the Siegfried Line. The ‘line’ was a system of pillboxes and other reinforced installations built along the German western frontier in the 1930s. Nazi German troops retreating from France in 1944 found it an effective barrier against the pursuing Americans, who did not break through until this day.
1945 - Stan Kenton and his orchestra recorded Painted Rhythm for Capitol Records.
1946 - Dennis Day started his own radio show on NBC. Dennis, a popular tenor featured on The Jack Benny Show, played the same naive young bachelor he played on the Benny show. A Day in the Life of Dennis Day aired for five years.
1951 - “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants are the champs of the National League!” Listeners were hearing the voice of New York Giants play-by-play legend Russ Hodges on the ninth-inning heroics of Bobby Thomson. Thomson’s dramatic home run (off Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca) gave the Giants the pennant as they beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-4.
1951 - CBS-TV presented the first coast-to-coast telecast of a prize fight. The telecast saw Dave Sands kick Carl ‘Bobo’ Olson’s butt for the middleweight boxing crown at Soldier Field, Chicago.
1954 - One of the favorite TV shows of our time was first seen on this day. Father Knows Best began its long run on CBS, then made the move to NBC in 1956. For Jim Anderson (Robert Young) and family, it was a made-for-TV marriage of over eight wonderful years.
1955 - “Good Morning, Captain!” It was Bob Keeshan’s first day at work in what became a TV institution via CBS: Captain Kangaroo. The children’s television milestone featured Mr. Green Jeans, Bunny Rabbit, Grandfather Clock, Mr. Moose and other characters.
1955 - LIFE magazine’s cover displayed Hollywood’s most handsome bachelor, Rock Hudson.
1955 - Walt Disney premiered The Mickey Mouse Club on ABC-TV.
1960 - The Andy Griffith Show premiered this night on CBS-TV. Maybe you remember the small town of Mayberry, North Carolina with its sheriff, Andy Taylor, played gently and philosophically by Andy Griffith. Andy was a widower with a young son, Opie, played by the now, award-winning, movie director Ron Howard. Other members of the cast of The Andy Griffith Show went on to become celebrated show biz stars, too: Don Knotts who played Andy’s deputy, Barney Fife; and Jim Nabors, the lovable, extremely naive gas station attendant, Gomer Pyle.
1961 - Rob (Dick Van Dyke), Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), Sally (Rose Marie) and Buddy (Morey Amsterdam) debuted in The Dick Van Dyke Show on CBS-TV. Created by Carl Reiner, the show ran for five years (if you don’t include cable reruns).
1962 - The play, Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!, opened. Broadway welcomed Anthony Newley to the stage with many standing ovations.
1962 - Astronaut Wally Schirra blasted off from Cape Canaveral aboard the Sigma VII on a nine-hour flight into earth orbit. It was the final Mercury space mission.
1967 - U.S. air force pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to a world speed record for fixed-wing craft: 4,520 mph or 7,274 kph (6.7 times the speed of sound).
1967 - Woody Guthrie died from Huntington’s disease. Guthrie was a folk singer and songwriter who is probably best known for This Land is Your Land. (Woody was the father of singer, songwriter Arlo Guthrie.)
1972 - U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko signed the final documents of the SALT treaty (Strategic Arms Limitation Agreement). The compact put the first restrictions on nuclear weapons.
1974 - Frank Robinson took over as manager of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. He was the first black manager in major league baseball.
1984 - Richard W. Miller became the first FBI agent to be arrested and charged with espionage. Miller was tried three times and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. His sentenced was reduced to 13 years and he was released in 1994 after serving nine years.
1985 - The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis began its first flight; a mission dedicated to the Department of Defense. Mission elements were hush-hush.
1986 - Two cinema greats, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, joined for their first comedic collaboration. Their seventh film together, Tough Guys, was released. The film is best described as a modern Rip Van Winkle story.
1988 - Discovery (STS-26) completed its four-day mission; the first U.S. shuttle flight since the Challenger disaster Jan 28, 1986.
1990 - On this day, just four days away from the 41st anniversary of the forming of the East German state, East and West Germany came together again. The reunification, originally scheduled to take place during the December parliamentary elections, occurred earlier because East Germany’s economy was in serious shape.
1991 - South African author Nadine Gordimer was named winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1993 - William Gates III, the founder of Microsoft, headed the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans. Bill Gates’ net worth was listed at $6.3 billion.
1994 - Gary Larson announced that he would be retiring from doing Far Side cartoon.
1995 - In a Los Angeles courtroom, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the June 12, 1994 stabbing deaths of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and waiter, Ronald Goldman. Simpson smiled and nodded toward the jury, saying “Thank you, thank you.”
1996 - Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska won the Nobel Prize for poetry. Her work includes View With a Grain of Sand, That’s Why We Are Alive, Salt, The People on the Bridge, and The End and the Beginning.
1997 - These films made debuts in the U.S.: Kiss the Girls, starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Tony Goldwyn and Jay O. Sanders; The Locusts, with Kate Capshaw, Vince Vaughn, Jeremy Davies, Ashley Judd, Paul Rudd, Daniel Meyer and Jessica Capshaw; The Matchmaker, starring Janeane Garofalo, David O’Hara, Milo O’Shea, Denis Leary, Jay O. Sanders and Paul Hickey; U-Turn, with Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Bob Thornton, Powers Boothe, Claire Danes and Jon Voight.
1998 - Monica’s single The First Night hit #1 in the U.S.
1998 - Actor Roddy McDowall died at 70 years of age. His films include Lassie Come Home, Cleopatra and Planet of the Apes.
1999 - Sony co-founder Akio Morita, the entrepreneur, engineer and savvy salesman who gave new meaning to the words “Made in Japan,” died in Tokyo. He was 78 years old.
2000 - The first presidential debate between U.S. VP Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush was held at the Clark Athletic Center of the Univ of Massachusetts. Some critics said, “Bush may have won by not losing.” The two clashed over tax cuts, Medicare prescription drug benefits and campaign finance, among other issues.
2001 - A passenger on a Greyhound bus slashed the throat of the driver while the bus was traveling near Manchester, TN. The resulting wreck killed six people and injured 34 others. The driver survived his injuries; the attacker was killed in the crash.
2001 - The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 11–8. In the game, Barry Bonds was walked three times (numbers 170, 171 and 172 for the year) and set the major-league record, topping Babe Ruth’s 1923 single-season mark (170 walks). Bonds finished the season with 177 walks.
2002 - Police hunted for a “skilled shooter” who had murdered five random victims over 16 hours with a high-powered rifle in Montgomery County, Maryland. A 6th victim was killed in Washington DC.
2003 - William Steig, the illustrator for The New Yorker died. He was 95 years old. Steig was known as the ‘King of Cartoons’ for his award-winning, best-selling children’s books including Shrek!.
2003 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres: Foolproof, with Ryan Reynolds, David Suchet, Kristin Booth, Joris Jarsky, James Allodi and David Hewlett; Out of Time, starring Denzel Washington, Sanaa Lathan, Dean Cain, Eva Mendes, Alex Carter, Robert Baker, Neil Brown Jr., Deborah Smith Ford and Tom Hillmann; and School of Rock, with Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White and Sarah Silverman.
2003 - Roy Horn, of the duo Siegfried & Roy, was badly injured by a tiger during a performance in their showroom at the Mirage Hotel, Las Vegas. Roy was dragged off the stage by the cat after it grabbed him by the throat. In 2004, Roy surmised that he had fainted on stage and the tiger, a 7-year-old male named Montecore, had grabbed him (by biting into his neck), intending to drag him to safety.
2004 - Actress Janet Leigh died in Beverly Hills, CA. She was 77 years old. Leigh was probably best known for her role as shower-murder victim Marion Crane in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho.
2005 - On the first day of the U.S. Supreme Court’s fall term, President George Bush (II) nominated White House Counsel Harriet Miers to fill the seat held by Sandra Day O’Connor. (On October 27, Bush withdrew her nomination, saying Miers had asked him to do so.)
2006 - Cambodian and U.S. representatives signed a sister park accord in California. Sequoia National Park and Cambodia’s Samlaut park agreed to exchange expertise on park management, resource protection and wildlife preservation. Samlaut park was struggling to preserve a war-torn region that covers thousands of acres of rain forest and is home to some of the last Asian elephants and Asiatic bears on Earth. The two parks were paired because both are largely forests and host many endangered species.
2006 - John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on theories of the creation of the universe.
2007 - U.S. President George Bush (II), in a sharp confrontation with Congress, vetoed a bipartisan bill to reauthorize and dramatically expand SCHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program begun in 1997.
2007 - Irish-born aviation entrepreneur and tycoon Tony Ryan died at 70 years of age. Ryan co-founded of the Irish budget airline Ryanair in 1985, which grew into one of Europe’s largest carriers.
2008 - New movies in the U.S.: An American Carol, starring Kevin P. Farley, Kelsey Grammer, Trace Adkins, Leslie Nielson, Dennis Hopper, James Woods, Robert Davi, and Jon Voight; Beverly Hills Chihuahua, with Piper Perabo, Manolo Cardona, Jamie Lee Curtis, Andy Garcia, Placido Domingo, George Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Paul Rodriguez, Cheech Marin, Piolin, Drew Barrymore, Eugenio Derbez and Luis Guzman; Flash of Genius, starring Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney, Alan Alda, Bill Smitrovich, Tim Kelleher and Jake Abel; Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, with Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Rafi Gavron and Aaron Yoo; and Rachel Getting Married, starring Anne Hathaway, Bill Irwin, Rosemarie DeWitt, Debra Winger, Anna Deveare-Smith and Mather Zickel.
2008 - The U.S. House of Representatives approved the $700-billion economic rescue plan and President Bush signed the bill (The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008) immediately and Wall Street continued its downward plunge (the Dow closed at 10,325.38), as more economic bad news was made public.
2008 - 13 years to the day after being acquitted of killing his wife and her friend in Los Angeles, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room (he was later sentenced to 33 years behind bars). Four other men charged in the case struck plea bargains that saved them from potential prison sentences in return for their testimony. (Simpson was granted parole on July 20, 2017, and was freed three months later.)
2009 - Typhoon Parma cut a destructive path across the northern Philippines killing at least 30 people and leaving more than a dozen villages flooded, piling further misery on the Southeast Asian nation after floods from Typhoon Ketsana had claimed more than 360 lives.
2010 - Thousands of Serb pilgrims gathered in a medieval monastery in western Kosovo amid tight security to attend the enthronement ceremony of the new Serbian Patriarch, Irinej.
2011 - An Italian appeals court overturned the conviction of American student Amanda Knox (for sexually assaulting and brutally slaying her British roommate). Seattle native Knox and Italian computer student Raffaele Sollecito had appealed a 2009 verdict that found them guilty of murdering 21-year-old Meredith Kercher during what prosecutors had said was a drug-fueled sexual assault in 2007.
2011 - Billionaire investor George Soros said he had pledged $27.4 million to aid development in targeted villages across rural Africa. He also pledged up to $20 million to support business projects within those villages over five years.
2012 - Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney held their first presidential debate -- in Colorado. Mainstream media widely viewed Romney as having won this debate. Obama, at several times, seemed disengaged and not up to his usual level of passion.
2012 - Cellphone companies T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS Communications announced plans to merge. Deutsche Telekom AG, owner of T-Mobile USA, would hold 74 percent of the new business. The combined company would be called T-Mobile, and have 42.5 million subscribers -- 33.2 million from T-Mobile and 9.3 million from MetroPCS.
2013 - State media reported that swarms of hornets had killed 42 people in the northwest part of China in recent months. Experts said the culprit was the Asian giant hornet or Vespa mandarinia, which grows up to 5cm long with a 6mm sting. The insects’ highly toxic stings can lead to anaphylactic shock and renal failure.
2014 - Films debuting in the U.S. included: the horror flick, Annabelle, starring Ward Horton, Annabelle Wallis and Alfre Woodard; the documentaries Bitter Honey, Keep On Keepin’ On and The Supreme Price; Drive Hard, with John Cusack, Thomas Jane and Zoe Ventoura; Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris and Missi Pyle; The Good Lie, with Reese Witherspoon, Corey Stoll and Sarah Baker; the animated, The Hero of Color City, featuring the voices of Christina Ricci, Sean Astin and Owen Wilson; and Left Behind, starring Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray, Lea Thompson, Nicky Whelan, Jordin Sparks and Cassi Thomson.
2014 - Violent scuffles broke out in Mong Kok, a famous and congested Hong Kong shopping district. Hundreds supporters of Chinese rule stormed tents and ripped down banners belonging to pro-democracy protesters, forcing of many to retreat. The area had already seen angry confrontations between protesters and residents, who said the occupation had disrupted their lives and damaged business – reflected in the large number of bystanders yelling at the remaining demonstrators.
2015 - A U.S. airstrike hit a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres in the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing some 30 people. The U.S. military immediately called the strike “collateral damage” in the battle to oust Taliban insurgents. Several days later, General John Campbell, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, called the strike a tragic mistake and said several service members had been suspended from duty following an internal investigation.
2016 - A federal appeals court dealt a blow to Donald Trump’s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence. The three judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction blocking Indiana’s effort to prevent resettlement of Syrian refugee families in his state. The ruling held that there was “nothing to suggest that Indiana is a magnet for Syrians.” The opinion, written by Judge Richard Posner, was critical of the arguments put forward by Pence noting that it “provides no evidence that Syrian terrorists are posing as refugees or that Syrian refugees have ever committed acts of terrorism in the United States.” Posner called the suggestion “nightmare speculation.”
2016 - “Don’t fear the creepy clowns” was the message from a top New York City Police Department official whose main job was protecting the city from terrorism. Asked about the unexplained spike in reports in other places of menacing by people dressed as clowns, Deputy Commissioner John Miller told reporters that police had assessed supposed clown threats against the city on social media and deemed them harmless.
2017 - POTUS Trump flew to Puerto Rico to view the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Maria. Upon entering a multipurpose room at the Calvary Chapel in the Guaynabo neighborhood of the island, Trump was met with cheers and supportive signs welcoming his presence. He began to pick up cans of chicken to show to the crowd and then handed one man a pack of batteries. Next, he held up a flashlight and showed it off while shaking hands with the Puerto Rico residents who were there to obtain provisions. He continued to raise different items up in the air for the patrons to see while shaking hands and passing out objects, before grabbing rolls of paper towels and tossing them into the crowd -- “as if he were a rock star tossing T-shirts to a concert crowd.” Many residents were frustrated and resentful that they were still struggling with basic necessities two weeks after the storm.
2018 - Two Americans and a Briton won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for harnessing the power of evolution to generate novel proteins used in everything from environmentally friendly detergents to cancer drugs. Frances Arnold of the California Institute of Technology, George Smith from the University of Missouri and Gregory Winter of Britain’s MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology were awarded the prize for pioneering science in enzymes and antibodies.
2018 - New Jersey’s top court dismissed lawsuits by 532 people who said they developed inflammatory bowel disease after using Roche’s acne medication Accutane. The court ruled that under New Jersey law Accutane labels adequately warned of the drug’s risks.
2018 - The Japan Space Exploration Agency said the Hayabusa2 spacecraft had released several small rovers to near-Earth asteroid Ryugu’s surface. One was a German-French device, called the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT). It was “no bigger than a microwave oven” and equipped with four instruments. MASCOT separated from Hayabusa2 when the craft was 41 meters (about 100 feet) above the asteroid. MASCOT touched down on Ryugu for the first time six minutes after deployment, bounced a bit in the asteroid’s low gravity, then settled on its surface about 11 minutes later.
2019 - Chancellor Angela Merkel made a veiled attack on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, saying economic grievances in the east were no excuse for racism. In a speech marking the 29th anniversary of German reunification, Merkel cited a government-commissioned report that found economic discrepancies between the eastern and western parts of Germany and which said people in the east feel like second-class citizens.
2019 - Survivors and family of 58 people who were shot to death in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017 reached a settlement of at least $735 million with MGM Resorts. Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada, had opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 people attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. In some 10 minutes he fired more than 1,100 rounds from his 32nd floor suites in the Mandalay Bay Hotel. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
2019 - Frank Gilliam Jr, the mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey pleaded guilty to wire fraud, admitting he defrauded a youth basketball club he had founded out of $87,000.
2020 - Majority leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate would not meet as planned, after three senators tested positive for the coronavirus. His ruling came as he pledged to press ahead to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
2021 - The International Handball Federation updated its rules so that women would not be required to play in bikini bottoms. The new rule came after months of pressure from female players and coaches who described the old uniform requirements as sexist.
2021 - The Israeli government enlisted the military and the Shin Bet internal security agency to rein in a wave of violence in the country’s Arab sector.
2022 - The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Svante Pääbo for “discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution”, honoring work that illuminates both the distant past and the genetic heritage of people living today.
2022 - Former POTUS Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN, accusing the network of conducting a “campaign of libel and slander” against him and seeking $475 million in damages. The lawsuit, filed in a Florida federal court, focuses partly on CNN’s use of the term “The Big Lie” to refer to Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread fraud benefiting President Biden. (In July of 2023 a federal judge in Florida dismissed the suit. District Judge Raag Singhal, a 2019 appointee of Trump’s, said that use of the phrase or similar statements were opinion that did not meet the standard for defamation.)
2023 - The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier for their research into attosecond pulses of light.
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Birthdays on This Day October 3
1844 - Patrick ‘Mosquito’ Manson
physician: ‘father of tropical medicine’: proved insects spread disease by carrying parasites; started the school of medicine that became the University of Hong Kong; died Apr 9, 19221899 - Gertrude Berg
actress: The World of Sholom Aleichem, The Goldbergs, The Gertrude Berg Show; died Sep 14, 19661900 - Thomas Wolfe
author: Look Homeward Angel, You Can’t Go Home Again; died Sep 15, 19381903 - William A. Berke
film producer, director: The Mugger, Four Boys and a Gun, Pier 23, I Shot Billy the Kid, Rolling Home, Dick Tracy [1945], Gun Grit; died Feb 15, 19581908 - Johnny Burke
Acadent Award-winning songwriter: Swinging on a Star [1945]; What’s New?, Oh, You Crazy Moon, Annie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Beat of My Heart, Pennies from Heaven; died Feb 25, 19641916 - James Herriot (James Alfred Wight)
veterinary surgeon, author: All Creatures Great and Small; died Feb 23, 19951924 - Harvey Kurtzman
cartoonist; founder of Mad magazine; died Feb 21, 19931925 - Gore Vidal
writer: Myra Breckenridge, Burr; actor: Bob Roberts; died Jul 31, 20121926 - Gene Moss
comedy writer: Roger Ramjet (w/partner Jim Thurman), Shrimpenstein; voice actor: voice of Smokey the Bear; died Jul 15, 20021928 - Erik Bruhn
ballet dancer, choreographer; died Apr 1, 19861929 - Andy Hebenton
hockey: NHL: NY Rangers, Boston Bruins; died Jan 29, 20191931 - Glenn Hall
Hockey Hall of Famer: goalie: Detroit Red Wings: Calder Trophy [1955-1956]; Chicago Black Hawks: Stanley Cup winner [1961], Vezina Trophy [1963]; St. Louis: Vezina Trophy: 1967, 1969]1933 - Neale Fraser
tennis champion: Wimbledon [1960], U.S. Open [1959, 1960]1934 - Harold Henning
golf: turned pro: 1953, joined PGA Tour: 1955, champ: Texas Open [1966], PGA Tour career earnings: $217,047; joined Senior Tour: 1984, champ: Seiko/Tucson Match Play [1985], GTE Classic [1988], 1991 First of America Classic [1991], Senior PGA Tour career earnings: $2,942,073; died Jan 1, 20041935 - Madlyn Rhue
actress: Star Trek A Majority of One, Executive Suite, Days of Our Lives, Bracken’s World, Houston Knights; died Dec 16, 20031938 - Eddie (Ray Edward) Cochran
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer [1987]: singer: Summertime Blues, Sittin’ in the Balcony, Teenage Heaven, C’mon Everybody, Three Stars; films: The Girl Can’t Help It, Untamed Youth, Go Johnny Go; killed in car crash Apr 17, 19601940 - Alan O’Day
songwriter: Angie Baby, Rock and Roll Heaven; singer: Undercover Angel; died May 17, 20131941 - Mike Gallagher
skier: Olympic Men’s Skiing/Cross Country [1968, 1972], 4x10-Kilometer Relay [1968 w/Michael Elliott, Robert Gray, John Bower, 1972 w/Timothy Caldwell, Larry Martin, Michael Elliott]; died Oct 3, 20131941 - Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans)
singer: The Twist, Pony Time, Let’s Twist Again, The Fly, Limbo Rock, Slow Twistin’ [w/Dee Dee Sharp]1944 - Jack Gregory
football: Cleveland Browns, NY Giants1944 - Roy (Uwe Ludwig) Horn
illusionist: Siegfried & Roy; died May 8, 20201949 - Lindsey Buckingham
musician: guitar: group: Fleetwood Mac: Big Love; LP: Rumours; solo: Trouble, Go Insane1950 - Pamela Hensley
actress: Double Exposure, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Kingston: Confidential, Marcus Welby, M.D., Matt Houston, 240-Robert1950 - Ronnie Laws
musician: saxophone: group: Earth Wind and Fire: Shining Star, That’s the Way of the World, September, Can’t Hide Love, Got to Get You Into My Life1951 - Kathryn D. Sullivan
American geologist, NASA astronaut: crew member on three Space Shuttle missions [STS-41-G (first American woman to walk in space), STS-31, STS-45]1951 - Dave (David Mark) Winfield
Baseball Hall of Famer: SD Padres [all-star: 1977-1980], NY Yankees [World Series: 1981/all-star: 1981-1988], California Angels, Toronto Blue Jays [World Series: 1992], Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians1954 - Dennis (Lee) Eckersley
baseball: pitcher: Cleveland Indians [all-star: 1977], Boston Red Sox [all-star: 1982], Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics [World Series: 1988, 1989, 1990/all-star: 1988-1992/Cy Young Award: 1992/Baseball Writers’ Award: 1992], SL Cardinals1954 - Al Sharpton
baptist minister; civil rights/social justice activist, talk-show host: MSNBC; candidate for Democratic nomination for U.S. president [2004]1954 - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Grammy Award-winning blues guitarist [w/brother Jimmie]: Family Style, D/FW [1990]; solo: LP: Couldn’t Stand the Weather; killed in helicopter crash Aug 27, 19901959 - Fred Couples
golf champion: Masters [1992]1959 - Greg Proops
comedian, TV personality: Whose Line is it Anyway?, Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show, True Jackson, VP1959 - Jack Wagner
actor: General Hospital, Melrose Place, Trapped in Space, Play Murder for Me; singer: All I Need1962 - Tommy Lee (Bass)
musician: drums: group: Motley Crue: LPs: Too Fast for Love, Shout at the Devil, Theatre of Pain1964 - Clive Owen
actor: Monsieur Spade, Closer, Sin City, Inside Man, Children of Men, Chancer, Close My Eyes, Croupier, Derailed, King Arthur, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, The Bourne Identity, Gosford Park1966 - Darrin Fletcher
baseball [catcher]: Univ of Illinois; LA Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos, Toronto Blue Jays1966 - Kirsten Nelson
actress: Psych, Frasier, Ally McBeal, The West Wing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The O’Keefes, Baby’s Day Out, The Fugitive, Just Shoot Me!, Boy Meets World1969 - Gwen Stefani
singer: Hollaback Girl, Rich Girl, What You Waiting For, Let Me Blow Ya Mind, Bubble Pop Electric, Serious, Real Thing1971 - Wil Cordero
baseball: Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins1971 - Kevin Richardson
singer: group: The Backstreet Boys: I Want It That Way, As Long As You Love Me, Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely, Quit Playing Games [With My Heart], All I Have To Give1972 - Michael Nylander
hockey [center]: Hartford Whalers, Calgary Flames, Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks, Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers1973 - Neve Campbell
actress: Party of Five, The Company, Scream series, Panic, Drowning Mona, Three to Tango, Wild Things, The Craft, Last Call, House of Cards1973 - Lena Headey
actress: Game of Thrones, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Brothers Grimm, 300, The Red Baron, Ballykissangel, Band of Gold, Merlin, Dredd, The Purge1975 - India Arie
Grammy Award-winning songwriter, singer [won four: Little Things, LP Voyage to India, Pearls, Imagine; nominated 21 times]1975 - Alanna Ubach
actress: Legally Blonde, Meet the Fockers, The Closer, Uncommon Sense, Playing Chicken, Men of a Certain Age, Californication1976 - Seann William Scott
actor: American Pie, Something So Right, Dude, Where’s My Car?, American Pie 2, Road Trip, The Dukes of Hazzard, Lethal Weapon (TV 2018-2019)1979 - Josh Klinghoffer
musician: guitar: group: inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2012, becoming the youngest-ever living inductee1980 - Anquan Boldin
football [wide receiver]: NFL: Arizona Cardinals [2003–2009]; Baltimore Ravens [2010–2012]: 2013 Super Bowl XLVII champs; San Francisco 49ers [2013–2015]; Detroit Lions [2016]1981 - Seth Gabel
actor: Dirty Sexy Money, The Da Vinci Code, Nip/Tuck, Fringe1982 - Erik von Detten
actor: Leave It To Beaver, Brink!, Escape to Witch Mountain, Toy Story, The Princess Diaries, So Weird, Toy Story 31982 - Clémence Poésy
actress: The Tunnel, Harry Potter film series, 127 Hours, War and Peace [TV 2007], The Great Game, The Ones Below1983 - Tessa Thompson
actress: Westworld, Veronica Mars, Copper, For Colored Girls, Selma, Hidden Palms, Blue Belle, War on Everyone, Creed, Men in Black: International1984 - Jessica Parker Kennedy
actress: Smallville, The Secret Circle, Black Sails, Undercovers, Kaya, The Perfect Guy, Cam, Deep Murder, The Flash1984 - Ashlee Simpson
singer: Pieces of Me, La La, Shadow, Boyfriend, Giving It All Away, Nothing New, Better Off, Love Me For Me1987 - Danny Willett
golf champ: 2016 Masters Tournament: the second Englishman to win the Masters and the first European in 17 years to win [at the 2018 Masters, Willett tied for 59th place]1988 - Alicia Vikander
actress: Ex Machina, The Danish Girl, A Royal Affair, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Andra Avenyn, Jason Bourne1998 - Angel Yin
golfer: 2019 U.S. Women’s Open runner-up2004 - Noah Schnapp
actor: Stranger Things, Abe, Hubie Halloween, Waiting for Anya, The Tutor
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Hit Music on This Day October 3
1949You’re Breaking My Heart (facts) - Vic Damone
Maybe It’s Because (facts) - Dick Haymes
Some Enchanted Evening (facts) - Perry Como
Slipping Around (facts) - Ernest Tubb
1958It’s All in the Game (facts) - Tommy Edwards
Rockin’ Robin (facts) - Bobby Day
Tears on My Pillow (facts) - Little Anthony & The Imperials
Bird Dog (facts) - The Everly Brothers
1967The Letter (facts) - The Box Tops
Never My Love (facts) - The Association
Funky Broadway (facts) - Wilson Pickett
Laura What’s He Got that I Ain’t Got (facts) - Leon Ashley
1976Play that Funky Music (facts) - Wild Cherry
I’d Really Love to See You Tonight (facts) - England Dan & John Ford Coley
Disco Duck (Part 1) (facts) - Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots
Here’s Some Love (facts) - Tanya Tucker
1985Money for Nothing (facts) - Dire Straits
Cherish (facts) - Kool & The Gang
Freedom (facts) - Wham!
Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night) (facts) - Ronnie Milsap
1994I’ll Make Love to You (facts) - Boyz II Men
Endless Love (facts) - Luther Vandross & Mariah Carey
All I Wanna Do (facts) - Sheryl Crow
Third Rock from the Sun (facts) - Joe Diffie
2003Shake Ya Tailfeather (facts) - Nelly, P. Diddy & Murphy Lee
Can’t Hold Us Down (facts) - Christina Aguilera featuring Lil’ Kim
Why Don’t You & I (facts) - Santana featuring Alex Band
What Was I Thinkin’ (facts) - Dierks Bentley
2012We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (facts) - Taylor Swift
One More Night (facts) - Maroon 5
Whistle (facts) - Flo Rida
Pontoon (facts) - Little Big Town
2021Stay (facts) - The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber
Industry Baby (facts) - Lil Nas X & Jack Harlow
Way 2 Sexy (facts) - Drake featuring Future &Young Thug
Fancy Like (facts) - Walker Hayes
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
TWtD Calendar