What happened on October 3 ?

2333 BC - Establishment of the Kingdom of Korea (in the name of Joseon).

42 BC - First Battle of Philippi: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight an indecisive battle with Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius.

1283 - Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, becomes the first person executed by drawing and quartering.

1574 - Siege of Leiden lifted by the Watergeuzen; foundation of the first Dutch university

1712 - The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor

1739 - The Treaty of Nissa is signed by the Ottoman Empire and Russia at the end of the Russian-Turkish War, 1736-1739.

1778 - British Captain James Cook anchors in Alaska.

1789 - George Washington proclaims the first Thanksgiving Day.

1795 - General Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence being named to defend the French National Convention against armed counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the three year old revolutionary government.

1863 - Thanksgiving Day declared as the last Thursday in November by President Abraham Lincoln.

1873 - Captain Jack and companions hanged for their part in the Modoc War

1918 - King Boris III of Bulgaria takes the throne

1929 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is renamed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia, "Land of the South Slavs".

1932 - Iraq gains independence from Britain.

1935 - Italy invades Ethiopia under General de Bono (replaced November 11 by Pietro Badoglio).

1942 - First successful launch of A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany: the first man-made object to reach space.

1949 - German Unity Day, the German Democratic Republic is declared in East Germany.

1951 - New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-4, winning the National League pennant, with Bobby Thomson's "The Shot Heard 'Round the World".

1952 - United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon.

1960 - The Andy Griffith Show debuts.

1960 - Niger gains independence from France.

1962 - At Cape Canaveral the Mercury 8 blasts off with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard for a nine-hour flight.

1981 - The Hunger Strike by Irish Republican Army prisoners at the Maze jail in Belfast ends after seven months and 10 deaths.

1981 - The Communist Party of Namibia is founded at a conference in Angola.

1985 - Space Shuttle Atlantis flys its maiden voyage.

1988 - Ted Turner's Turner Network Television cable channel launches on US television.

1990 - Re-unification of Germany. East Germany ceases to exist, and East German citizens become part of the European Community, which later became the European Union. Day of German Union.

1992 - Sinéad O'Connor rips up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live.

1993 - Battle of Mogadishu: In an attempt to capture officials of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's organization in Mogadishu, Somalia, 18 US Army Rangers and about 1000 Somalis are killed.

1995 - O. J. Simpson found not guilty of murder.