October 3

This Day in History

Also on This Day

Lead Story
O.J. Simpson acquitted, 1995
American Revolution
French and Americans cut off British supplies at Gloucester, 1781
Automotive
UAW walks out on Ford, 1961
Civil War
North and South clash at the Second Battle of Corinth, 1862
Cold War
East and West Germany reunite after 45 years, 1990
Crime
Amanda Knox murder conviction overturned in Italy, 2011
Disaster
Hurricane Stan bears down on Mexico, 2005
General Interest
Iraq wins independence, 1932
Britain successfully tests A-bomb, 1952
Maze hunger strike called off, 1981
Hollywood
Clive Owen born, 1964
Literary
The Red Badge of Courage is published, 1895
Music
Writer, singer and folk icon Woody Guthrie dies, 1967
Old West
U.S. Army hangs four Modoc Indians for the murder of a Civil War hero, 1873
Presidential
Lincoln proclaims official Thanksgiving holiday, 1863
Sports
The shot heard round the world, 1951
Vietnam War
Operation Wallowa commences, 1967
Twenty-four die in Army helicopter accident, 1968
World War I
War Revenue Act passed in U.S. , 1917
World War II
Germany conducts first successful V-2 rocket test, 1942

Cold War

Oct 3, 1990:

East and West Germany reunite after 45 years

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Less than one year after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, East and West Germany come together on what is known as "Unity Day." Since 1945, when Soviet forces occupied eastern Germany, and the United States and other Allied forces occupied the western half of the nation at the close of World War II, divided Germany had come to serve as one of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War. Some of the most dramatic episodes of the Cold War took place there. The Berlin Blockade (June 1948--May 1949), during which the Soviet Union blocked all ground travel into West Berlin, and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 were perhaps the most famous. With the gradual waning of Soviet power in the late 1980s, the Communist Party in East Germany began to lose its grip on power. Tens of thousands of East Germans began to flee the nation, and by late 1989 the Berlin Wall started to come down. Shortly thereafter, talks between East and West German officials, joined by officials from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR, began to explore the possibility of reunification. Two months following reunification, all-German elections took place and Helmut Kohl became the first chancellor of the reunified Germany. Although this action came more than a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, for many observers the reunification of Germany effectively marked the end of the Cold War.

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This Week in History, Oct 3 - Oct 9

Oct 03, 1990
East and West Germany reunite after 45 years
Oct 04, 1957
Soviet Union launches Sputnik I
Oct 05, 1986
Iran-Contra scandal unravels
Oct 06, 1973
The Yom Kippur War brings United States and USSR to brink of conflict
Oct 07, 1960
Kennedy and Nixon debate Cold War foreign policy
Oct 08, 1970
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize in literature
Oct 09, 1967
Professional revolutionary "Che" Guevara is executed in Bolivia

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