This Day in History
On Oct. 3, 1995, the jury in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles found the former football star not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman (however, Simpson was later found liable for damages in a civil trial).
On this date:
In 1789, President George Washington declared Nov. 26, 1789, a day of Thanksgiving to express gratitude for the creation of the United States of America.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day.
In 1932, Iraq became independent of British administration.
In 1941, Adolf Hitler declared in a speech in Berlin that Russia had been “broken” and would “never rise again.” ‘’The Maltese Falcon” — the version starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Huston — premiered in New York.
In 1955, “Captain Kangaroo” and “The Mickey Mouse Club” premiered on CBS and ABC, respectively.
In 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra became the fifth American to fly in space as he blasted off from Cape Canaveral aboard the Sigma 7 on a 9-hour flight.
In 1967, folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie, the Dust Bowl Troubadour best known for “This Land Is Your Land,” died in New York of complications from Huntington’s disease; he was 55.
In 1981, Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended seven months of hunger strikes that had claimed 10 lives.
In 1991, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In 2001, the Senate approved an agreement normalizing trade between the United States and Vietnam.
In 2003, a tiger attacked magician Roy Horn of duo “Siegfried & Roy” during a performance in Las Vegas, leaving the superstar illusionist in critical condition on his 59th birthday.
In 2008, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. (Simpson was later sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was granted parole in July 2017 and released from prison in October of that year.)