October 3: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 52 BC - Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and Battle of Alesia.
2. 1778 - British Captain James Cook anchors in Alaska.
3. 1789 - George Washington made the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America.
4. 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.
5. 1952 - The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon to become the world's third nuclear power.
6. 1955 - The Mickey Mouse Club debuts on ABC.
7. 1962 - Project Mercury: Sigma 7 is launched from Cape Canaveral, with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard, for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight.
8. 1985 - The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight. (Mission STS-51-J)
9. 1986 - TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories, is officially opened.
10. 2008 - The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 for the US financial system is signed by President Bush.
11. Famous Birthdays: George Bancroft (American historian and 17th Secretary of the Navy), A. Y. Jackson (Canadian painter), Thomas Wolfe (American writer), Charles Duke (American astronaut), Rob Liefeld (American comic book illustrator)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: October 2

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: October 4

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.