Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

October 3

1992
Irish singer Sinead O'Connor rips up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live.

1990
Reunification of East and West Germany.

1989
Gen. Manuel Noriega suppresses an attempted overthrow by rebel officers in the Panama Defense Forces.

1986
L.A. Law debuts on NBC.

1985
First launch of the fourth space shuttle, Atlantis.

1984
First FBI agent charged with espionage, Richard W. Miller is arrested for passing a classified document to the Soviets. In 1986 he was convicted and given a life sentence.

1974
First black major-league baseball manager: Frank Robinson signs with the Cleveland Indians.

1961
The Dick Van Dyke Show debuts on CBS.

1960
The Andy Griffith Show debuts on CBS.

1955
The Mickey Mouse Club: The Disney TV show debuts on ABC, featuring the Mousketeers.

1955
Captain Kangaroo debuts on CBS starring Bob Keeshan as the Captain. It became network TV's longest-running children's show.

1954
Father Knows Best debuts on CBS, starring Robert Young.

1952
Great Britain explodes their first atom bomb: At the Monte Bello islands northwest of Australia.

1950
Beulah debuts on ABC. It was the first TV dramatic series with a Black star - Ethel Waters as Beulah.

1922
First woman U.S. Senator: Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia is appointed. She served until November 22.

1913
First U.S. federal income tax under the 16th Amendment is signed into law by Congress, 1% for incomes greater than $4,000.

1899
Vacuum cleaner is patented.

1863
Thanksgiving: Pres. Lincoln declares the last Thursday in November to be a national Thanksgiving Day. This was observed yearly (except 1865 and 1869) through 1938. Pres. F.D. Roosevelt declared Thanksgiving as the next to last Thursday in November for 1939-41, and the 4th Thursday in November starting in 1942.

1859
First International Cricket tournament held in the U.S., Hoboken, Jersey, with the English team beating the Americans.

1789
First national Thanksgiving Day: (as declared by presidential proclamation) Pres. George Washington declares November 26th as a day of general thanksgiving for the adoption of the constitution. This was also the first national U.S. holiday.

2333 B.C.
Korea: Gojoseon (Korea) is founded according to the 15th-century history book Dongguk Tonggam.

1951
Kathryn D. Sullivan, American astronaut, first U.S. woman to walk in space (1984).

1947
Lindsey Buckingham, American musician, with Fleetwood Mac.

1941
Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans), American singer, his hit The Twist reached #1 in 1960 and 1962.

1938     d. 1960
Eddie Cochran, American musician. Music: Summertime Blues (1958).

1925
Gore Vidal (Eugene Luther Vidal), American author.

1924
Harvey Kurtzman, cartoonist, founder of Mad magazine (1952).

1924     d. 1992
Franco Cristaldi, Italian Oscar-winning producer, Amarcord (1973) and Cinema Paradiso (1990).

1899     d. 1966
Gertrude Berg, American actress, Molly Goldberg of The Goldbergs.

1880     d. 1938
Warner Oland (Werner Ohlund), Swedish-born actor. Film: Charlie Chan movies (title role).

1879     d. 1949
Charles Middleton, American actor. Film: Flash Gordon series (Ming the Merciless).

1873     d. 1960
Emily Post, American etiquette columnist and author.

1859     d. 1924
Eleonora Duse, Italian actress. She was the first woman featured on the cover of Time magazine (July 30, 1923). She is considered the greatest tragic actress of modern time.

1854     d. 1920
William Crawford Gorgas, American sanitarian, controlled malaria and yellow fever outbreaks during the construction of the Panama Canal.

1844     d. 1922
Patrick Manson, British parasitologist, Father of Tropical Medicine. His insect research led to the discovery of how malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes.

1800     d. 1891
George Bancroft, American historian, Father of American History.

1998     b. 1928
Roddy McDowall (Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall), British-born American Tony-winning actor. Film: Lassie Come Home (1943, Joe Carraclough), Planet of the Apes (1968, Cornelius). TV: Batman (Bookworm). He won both the Charleston and Cha-Cha contests on the The Arthur Murray Party (1950).

1967     b. 1912
Woody Guthrie (Woodrow Wilson Guthrie), American folk singer, composer. Music: This Land is Your Land and This Train is Bound for Glory.

1967     b. 1892
Vance DeBar "Pinto" Colvig, voice of Sleepy and Grumpy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's Goofey, and voice of the original Bozo the Clown.

1947     b. 1858
Max Planck, German Nobel-winning physicist, discovered quantum physics (1900). His son was among those executed for the July 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler.

1867     b. 1819
Elias Howe, American inventor. He patented the first practical sewing machine (1846).

1656     b. circa 1584
Capt. Miles Standish, English colonist in America, sailed over aboard the Mayflower and became military defender of New Plymouth.

1226     b. circa 1182
Saint Francis of Assisi, Italian monk, founded the Roman Catholic order of Franciscans. In 1224 he received the stigmata (the crucifixion scars of Christ) on Mt. Alvernia, Italy.

Please send Corrections and Omissions to epicidiot.com