October 3rd
1776 Congress borrows five million dollars to halt the rapid depreciation of paper money in the colonies.
1862 At the Battle of Corinth, in Mississippi, a Union army defeats the Confederates. A Rebel battery's first salvo was the prelude to the Battle of Shiloh, near Corinth.
1873 Captain Jack and three other Modoc Indians are hanged in Oregon for the murder of General Edward Canby. Used by most American Indians, bows and arrows made their mark on the frontier even when guns were around, and arrowhead wounds kept army surgeons plenty busy.
1876 John L. Routt, the Colorado Territory governor, is elected the first state governor of Colorado in the Centennial year of the U.S.
1906 The first conference on wireless telegraphy in Berlin adopts SOS as warning signal.
1929 The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes officially changes its name to Yugoslavia.
1931 The comic strip Dick Tracy first appears in the New York News.
1940 U.S. Army adopts airborne, or parachute, soldiers. Airborne troops were later used in World War II for landing troops in combat and infiltrating agents into enemy territory.
1941 The Maltese Falson, starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade, opens.
1942 Germany conducts the first successful test flight of a V-2 missile, which flies perfectly over a 118-mile course. When the anticipated invasion of Britain failed to materialize in 1940, Londoners relaxed, but soon they faced a frightening new threat.
1944 German troops evacuate Athens, Greece.
1951 A "shot is heard around the world" when New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson hits a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the National League pennant.
1955 The children's television program Captain Kangaroo debuts.
1989 Art Shell becomes the first African American to coach a professional football team, the Los Angeles Raiders.
1990 After 40 years of division, East and West Germany are reunited as one nation.
Born on October 3
1800 George Bancroft, historian, known as the "Father of American History" for his 10-volume A History of the United States.
1900 Thomas Wolfe, American novelist (Look Homeward Angel) not to be confused with American novelist Tom Wolfe (The Right Stuff).
1916 James Herriot, Yorkshire veterinarian and author of All Creatures Great and Small.
1925 Gore Vidal, writer.
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