This Day in History: Oct. 3

On this day, Oct. 3 …

1995: A Los Angeles jury finds O.J. Simpson not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. (However, Simpson would be found liable for damages at a separate civil trial.)

Also on this day:

• 1226: St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, dies; he is canonized in 1228.
• 1789: President George Washington declares Nov. 26, 1789, a day of Thanksgiving to express gratitude for the creation of the United States of America.
• 1863: President Abraham Lincoln proclaims the last Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving Day.
• 1941: Adolf Hitler declares in a speech in Berlin that Russia is "broken" and would "never rise again." 
• 1941: ''The Maltese Falcon" — the version starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Huston — premieres in New York City.

• 1955: "Captain Kangaroo" and "The Mickey Mouse Club" premiere on CBS and ABC, respectively.
• 1961: "The Dick Van Dyke Show," also starring Mary Tyler Moore, premieres on CBS.
• 1967: Folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie, best known for "This Land Is Your Land," dies in New York of complications from Huntington's disease at age 55.
• 1981: Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, end seven months of hunger strikes that claimed 10 lives.
• 1991: Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton enters the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
• 2001: The Senate approves an agreement normalizing trade between the United States and Vietnam.
• 2003: A tiger attacks magician Roy Horn of "Siegfried & Roy" during a performance in Las Vegas, leaving him in critical condition.

• 2008: O.J. Simpson is found guilty of robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. (Simpson would later be sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison and ultimately granted parole in July 2017 and released in October that same year.)
• 2018: Researchers at Columbia University present evidence that astronomers for the first time may have found a moon outside our solar system, orbiting a planet as big as Jupiter about 8,000 light-years away.