O.J. Simpson acquitted

Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious and wearing another man’s clothes outside of a Baltimore tavern being used as a polling place.

On October 3, 1873, the United States military hangs four Native Americans found guilty of murdering the Civil War general Edward Canby during the Modoc War in Oregon. Canby was the highest ranking military official and one of the only generals ever killed by Native Americans. As with most of the American military conflicts with Native […]

With the admission of Iraq into the League of Nations, Britain terminates its mandate over the Arab nation, making Iraq independent after 12 years of British rule and centuries of Ottoman rule. Britain seized Iraq from Ottoman Turkey during World War I and was granted a mandate by the League of Nations to govern the […]

On October 3, 1951, third baseman Bobby Thomson hits a one-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the National League pennant for the New York Giants. Thomson’s homer wrapped up an amazing come-from-behind run for the Giants and knocked the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Giants’ hated inter-borough rivals, out of […]

On October 3, 1957, the American Civil Liberties Union wins The People of the State of California vs. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in which it defends Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” against obscenity charges.

On October 3, 1967, Woody Guthrie, godfather of the 1950s folk revival movement, dies. In 1963, Bob Dylan was asked by the authors of a forthcoming book on Woody Guthrie to contribute a 25-word comment summarizing his thoughts on the man who had probably been his greatest formative influence. Dylan responded instead with a 194-line […]

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 […]

On Oct. 3, 1997, 69-year-old Hall of Famer Gordie Howe skates the first shift with the Detroit Vipers in their International Hockey League opener, becoming the only professional in hockey to compete in six decades. His nickname was “Mr. Hockey,” and as that moniker suggests, Howe was one of the game’s greats. As much as […]

The podcast Serial, a spinoff of the long-running radio program This American Life, debuts on October 3, 2014, and quickly becomes a smash hit.  Producer Sarah Koenig conceived of the show after she was approached by the attorney Rabia Chaudry, who asked Koenig to investigate the case of her friend, Adnan Syed. Syed was convicted in […]