History Highlights
Today is Saturday, Oct. 3, the 277th day of 2020. There are 89 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight 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 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day.
In 1941, Adolf Hitler declared in a speech in Berlin that Russia had been “broken” and would “never rise again.”
In 1961, “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” also starring Mary Tyler Moore, made its debut on CBS.
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 1970, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was established under the Department of Commerce.
In 1974, Frank Robinson was named major league baseball’s first Black manager as he was placed in charge of the Cleveland Indians.
In 1981, Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended seven months of hunger strikes that had claimed 10 lives.
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.
In 2017, President Donald Trump, visiting Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, congratulated the U.S. island territory for escaping the higher death toll of what he called “a real catastrophe like Katrina;” at a church used to distribute supplies, Trump handed out flashlights and tossed rolls of paper towels into the friendly crowd.
In 2018, the Federal Emergency Management Agency conducted its first-ever national wireless emergency alert test, causing electronic devices across the country to sound, with a message that carried the subject, “Presidential Alert.” Some people got as many as four alerts on their phones, while others didn’t get any.
Ten years ago: Ruling-party candidate Dilma Rousseff, trying to become Brazil’s first female leader, fell short of getting a majority of votes in presidential elections. Rousseff prevailed in a runoff against her centrist rival, Jose Serra. Angel McCoughtry had 18 points as the U.S. won gold at the women’s basketball world championship with an 89-69 victory over the host Czech Republic.
Five years ago: Vice President Joe Biden, addressing the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Washington, threw his unequivocal support behind letting transgender people serve openly in the U.S. military; the Obama administration would lift a longstanding ban in June 2016. In 2019, the Supreme Court upheld a Trump administration policy under which people who have undergone gender transition are barred from enlisting. A U.S. airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the northern Afghanistan city of Kunduz killed 14 staff and 28 patients and caretakers. Max Scherzer pitched his second no-hitter of the season for Washington, leading the Nationals over the NL East champion New York Mets 2-0 for a doubleheader sweep.
One year ago: The former special U.S. envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, testified before House members for nearly 10 hours about what he said was turmoil within the State Department over President Donald Trump’s push to investigate Joe Biden and his family; he said he was never pressured by Trump or others to have Ukraine conduct the investigation. Attorneys announced that MGM Resorts International had agreed to pay up to $800 million to families of the 58 people who died and to the hundreds who were injured when a shooter rained gunfire on country music fans from a high-rise Las Vegas Strip hotel in 2017. Gordon Caplan, the former chairman of a global law firm, was sentenced in Boston to a month in prison for paying $75,000 to rig his daughter’s college entrance exam.
Today’s Birthdays: Composer Steve Reich is 84. Rock and roll star Chubby Checker is 79. Actor Alan Rachins is 78. Former Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., is 77. Singer Lindsey Buckingham is 71. Jazz musician Ronnie Laws is 70. Blues singer Keb’ Mo’ is 69. Former astronaut Kathryn Sullivan is 69. Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield is 69. Baseball Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley is 66. Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton is 66. Actor Hart Bochner is 64. Actor Peter Frechette is 64. World Golf Hall of Famer Fred Couples is 61. Actor-comedian Greg Proops is 61. Actor Jack Wagner is 61. Actor/musician Marcus Giamatti is 59. Rock musician Tommy Lee is 58. Actor Clive Owen is 56. Actor Janel Moloney is 51. Singer Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) is 51. Pop singer Kevin Richardson is 49. Rock singer G. Love is 48. Actor Keiko Agena is 47. Actor Neve Campbell is 47. Actor Lena Headey is 47. Singer India.Arie is 45. Rapper Talib Kweli is 45. Actor Alanna Ubach is 45. Actor Seann (cq) William Scott is 44. Actor Shannyn Sossamon is 42. Rock musician Josh Klinghoffer (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 41. Actor Seth Gabel is 39. Rock musician Mark King (Hinder) is 38. Actor Erik Von Detten is 38. Singer-musician Cherrill Green (Edens Edge) is 37. Actor Tessa Thompson is 37. Country singer Drake White is 37.