Unix Timestamp: 1696291200
Tuesday, October 3. 2023, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Tony Blair's former chief-of-staff, Jonathan Powell, has been touring European capital cities, including Brussels, Paris and Prague, in an undercover move to make him the first President of the European Council. Blair is supported by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. //www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6859525.ece# ("The Times") //www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2objectid=10601055 ("The New Zealand Herald")

Presidency of the European Council:

Symantec acquired PC Tools for $262,000,000.ref name=http

U.S. President George W. Bush signs the US$ 700,000,000,000 bailout bill after it is passed by the House. //www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95336601ft=1f=1003 (NPR News)

Global financial crisis: Russia agrees to provide Iceland with a four-billion-euro loan.

Global financial crisis: U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush signs the revised Emergency Economic Stabilization Act into law, creating a 700 billion dollar Treasury fund to purchase failing bank assets.ref name = Associated Press-Raum-2008-10-03Raum, Tom (October 3, 2008) //ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hT-MwpK6QSoOPF74bGFqnUl_HVuwD93J6ND00 Bush signs $700 billion bailout bill "Associated Press" . Retrieved October 3, 2008.

The meteoroid 2008 TCsub3/sub impacts Earth, becoming the first such object to be discovered prior to impact.

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second of three flybys of Mercury, decreasing the velocity for orbital insertion on March 18, 2011.

Russia's foreign minister calls for international action to halt piracy in Somalia. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7651329.stm (BBC News)

An earthquake measuring 6.6 magnitude kills at least 65 in Kyrgyzstan.

Both of Russia's main stock exchanges, the MICEX and RTS, suspend trading of stocks for technical reasons as the markets rally after a 1-1/2 day trading halt that ended earlier in the morning. //www.ft.com/cms/s/0/505ab76a-8f51-11dd-946c-0000779fd18c.html ("Financial Times")

The United States and Russia sign a pact to use Russian technology on NASA missions to hunt for water on the moon and Mars. //www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0350549020071003?feedType=RSSfeedName=topNews (Reuters)

Evo Morales said that Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, president of Bolivia, may be preparing a coup. //www.lapatriaenlinea.com/index.php?option=contenttask=viewid=1246 (in Spanish)

California recall: Arnold Schwarzenegger denies admiring Hitler. Arnold Schwarzenegger's denial comes days before the vote for the next governor of California. //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3160706.stm

Hurricane Opal makes landfall at Pensacola Beach, Florida as a Category 3 hurricane with winds.

O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

France launches a counter-coup in the Comoros with 600 soldiers. They arrest Bob Denard and his mercenaries and take Denard to France Caabi el-Yachroutu becomes the interim president.

U.S. Army conducts Operation Gothic Serpent in the city of Mogadishu, Somalia, using Task Force Ranger. Two UH-60 Blackhawks are shot down and the operation leaves over 1000 Somalians dead and over 73 Americans WIA, 19 KIA, and 1 captured. Also known as the Battle of Mogadishu.

The government of Mozambique signs a truce with leaders of RENAMO, ending the 16-year-old Mozambican Civil War.

After performing a song protesting alleged child abuse by the Catholic Church, Sinéad O'Connor rips up a photo of Pope John Paul II on "Saturday Night Live", causing huge controversy, leading the switchboards at NBC to ring off the hook.

After performing a song protesting alleged child abuse by the Catholic Church, Sinéad O\\'Connor rips up a photo of Pope John Paul II on "Saturday Night Live", causing huge controversy, leading the switchboards at NBC to ring off the hook.

The Bijlmerr disaster: An Israeli plane crashes in Amsterdam, the Netherlands 43 are killed, many more injured.

Cold War: East Germany and West Germany reunify into a single Germany.

President of Panama Manuel Noriega foils a plot by junior officers to overthrow him.

The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement is reached but still requires ratification. This agreement would be a precursor to NAFTA.

"The Phantom of the Opera", the longest running Broadway show in history, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.

"The Phantom of the Opera", the longest running Broadway show in history, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.

United States District Court Judge Harry E. Claiborne becomes the fifth federal official to be removed from office through impeachment.

News Corporation completes its acquisition of the Metromedia group of companies, thereby launching the Fox Broadcasting Company.

TASCC, a superconductingcyclotron, officially opens at Chalk River Laboratories.

The first flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis.

A EF4 Tornado hits Windsor Locks, CT causing extensive damage to the town.

In Peru, Juan Velasco Alvarado takes power in a revolution.

An X-15 research aircraft with test pilot William J. Knight establishes an unofficial world fixed-wing speed record of Mach 6.7.

Israel applies for the membership of the EEC.

Basutoland becomes independent and takes the name Lesotho.

UNESCO signs the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. This event is now celebrated as World Teachers' Day.

The Love Pageant Rally takes place in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park, a narrower section that projects into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.

Tunisia severs diplomatic relations with the United Arab Republic.

An experimental Reactor at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station suffered a partial meltdown when its cooling system failed.

LSD is made illegal in the United States and controlled so strictly that not only were possession and recreational use criminalized, but all legal scientific research programs on the drug in the US were shut down as well.

Jânio Quadros is elected the President of Brazil for a five-year term.

"The Mickey Mouse Club" TV program debuts on the ABC-TV network in the United States.

The Reverend Sun Myung Moon is released from prison in Seoul, South Korea.

The Brooklyn Dodgers finally win the World Series, defeating the New York Yankees 2–0 in Game 7 of the 1955 baseball playoff.

Shot Heard 'Round the World: One of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history occurs when the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th inning off of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.

MGM's Technicolor musical film, "An American in Paris", starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, premieres in New York. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli. It would go on to win 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Shoppers World (one the first shopping malls in the U.S.) opens in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Getúlio Dornelles Vargas is elected president of Brazil for a 5-year term.

October 10 ndash The Detroit Tigers win the World Series against the Chicago Cubs - the Cubs have not returned to the World Series since.

The first A-4 rocket is successfully launched from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flies 147 kilometres wide and reaches a height of 84.5 kilometres, becoming the first man-made object to reach space.

Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops advance toward Nanking.

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany appoints Max von BadenGerman chancellor.

King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria abdicates in the wake of the Bulgarian military collapse in WWI. He is succeeded by his son, Boris III.

World War I: 33,000 Canadian troops depart for Europe, the largest force to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean at the time.

Battle of Sugar Point: Ojibwe tribesmen defeat U.S. government troops in northern Minnesota.

Florida AM University opens its doors in Tallahassee, Florida.

Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes makes his first appearance, in the novel "A Study in Scarlet" published in "Beeton's Christmas Annual".

Results of the Michelson-Morley experiment are published, indicating that the speed of light is independent of motion.

President Lincoln proclaims a national Thanksgiving (United States) day to be celebrated the final Thursday in November.

In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a railway between Naples and Portici (7.4 km length) is inaugurated by H.M. King Ferdinand II of Bourbon (the first railway in the Italian peninsula).

Staedtler Company founded by J.S. Staedtler in Nuremberg, Germany.

The Chassigny Mars meteorite falls in Chassigny, Haute-Marne, France.

The Waterford Glassware Factory begins production in Waterford City, Ireland.

The Treaty of Niš is signed.

The Treaty of Limerick, which guarantees civil rights to Catholics, is signed. "(It was broken before the ink was dry)"

Shi Lang reaches Taiwan and occupies present day Kaohsiung.

French troops occupy Mardyck.

The city of Leiden, besieged by the Spanish, is relieved by a Sea Beggar fleet under Louis Boisot.

November ndash Rising of the North: Northern Earls rebel gainst Queen Elizabeth the 1st of England.

The trade compact of 1536 is renewed, exempting French merchants from Ottoman law and allowing them to travel, buy and sell throughout the sultan's dominions and to pay low customs duties on French imports and exports.

Akbar founds Fatehpur Sikri to honor the Muslim holy man Shaikh Salim Chisti, who has foretold the birth of Akbar's son and heir, Jahangir.

Poland and Lithuania are united in the Union of Lublin, forming the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Assemblies of 3 Lithuanian provinces (Volhynia, Ukraine and Podlasie) vote to be incorporated into Poland.

Gerardus Mercator devises the Mercator projection.

Battle of Moncountour: The Royalist forces of Tavannaes and Anjou defeat Coligny's Huguenots.

Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón arrives in the Maluku Islands.

The Manchester Grammar School opens.

The African slave trade begins.

A plague of tropical fire ants devastates crops on Hispaniola.

The Treaty of London temporarily ensures peace in Western Europe.

Construction of Caernarfon Castle, Conwy Castle, and Harlech Castle is begun in Wales by King Edward I of England as a system of defenses against possible future Welsh uprisings.

The Saxon city of Goslar starts making efforts to redeem its already issued annuities, a sure indication of financial difficulty and maybe an early sign of the 13th century crisis.

"approx. date" ndash Ramon Llull writes "Blanquerna", the first major work of literature written in Catalan, and perhaps the first European novel.

The E. codex of the "Cantigas de Santa Maria", a collection of Portuguese musical manuscripts, is dated to between 1280 and 1283.

The "Libro de los juegos", an early European treatise on board games (including chess, dice, and a version of backgammon), is commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile between 1251 and 1283.

Death by hanging, drawing and quartering is first used as a form of capital punishment (for the newly created crime of high treason) by King Edward I of England in his execution of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the last ruler of an independent Wales, at Shrewsbury.

King Philip III of France causes a mass migration of Jews when he outlaws their residence in the small villages and rural localities of France.

Jakub Swinka becomes archbishop of Gniezno.

Daniel of Moscow begins the Russian Colonialism by uniting the west side of Russia, which ends the Tatar Yoke and begins the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

An earthquake destroys two thirds of the cave city of Vardzia, Georgia.

Emperor Gratian refuse the divine attributes of the Imperial cult and removes the Altar of Victory from the Senate.

The same council adopts Trinitarianism as orthodoxy, condemning Apollinarism. Theodosius I orders the death of members of Manichaean monks.

The Council of Rome establishes Biblical canon in the Catholic Church. Pope Damasus I commissions a revision of the Vetus Latina, eventually resulting in the Vulgate of Jerome.

The first sermons declaring the virginity of Mary are given by John Chrysostom.

Emperor Theodosius I commands his general Saturninus to conclude a peace treaty with the Visigoths, allowing them to settle south of the Danube. They are installed as "foederati" in Moesia and Thrace with the title of Allies of the Roman People, in exchange that they furnish a contingent of auxiliary troops to defend the borders.