October 3
Events
Pre-1600
- 2457 BC - Gaecheonjeol, Hwanung purportedly descended from heaven. South Korea's National Foundation Day.
- 52 BC - Gallic Wars: Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and battle of Alesia.
- 42 BC - Liberators' civil war: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight to a draw Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius in the first part of the Battle of Philippi, where Cassius commits suicide believing the battle is lost.
- 382 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I concludes a peace treaty with the Goths and settles them in the Balkans.
- 1392 - Muhammed VII becomes the twelfth sultan of the Emirate of Granada.
- 1574 - The Siege of Leiden is lifted by the Watergeuzen.
1601–1900
- 1683 - Qing dynasty naval commander Shi Lang receives the surrender of the Tungning kingdom on Taiwan after the Battle of Penghu.
- 1712 - The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor.
- 1739 - The Treaty of Niš is signed by the Ottoman Empire and Russia ending the Russian–Turkish War.
- 1789 - George Washington proclaims Thursday November 26, 1789 as Thanksgiving Day.
- 1792 - A militia departs from the Spanish stronghold of Valdivia to quell a Huilliche uprising in southern Chile.
- 1862 - American Civil War: The two-day Second Battle of Corinth begins as Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn attack Union defenses led by General William Rosecrans around Corinth, Mississippi.
- 1863 - The last Thursday in November is declared as Thanksgiving Day by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
- 1873 - Chief Kintpuash and companions are hanged for their part in the Modoc War of northern California.
1901–present
- 1912 - U.S. forces defeat Nicaraguan rebels at the Battle of Coyotepe Hill.
- 1918 - Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria accedes to the throne.
- 1919 - Cincinnati Reds pitcher Adolfo Luque becomes the first Latin American player to appear in a World Series.
- 1929 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is renamed to Yugoslavia by King Alexander I.
- 1932 - The Kingdom of Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1935 - Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italy invades Ethiopia.
- 1942 - A German V-2 rocket reaches a record 85 km in altitude.
- 1943 - World War II: German forces murder 92 civilians in Lingiades, Greece.
- 1946 - An American Overseas Airlines Douglas DC-4 crashes near Ernest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, killing 39.
- 1949 - WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, opens in Atlanta.
- 1951 - Korean War: The First Battle of Maryang San pits Commonwealth troops against communist Chinese troops.
- 1952 - The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon in the Montebello Islands, Western Australia, to become the world's third nuclear power.
- 1957 - The California State Superior Court rules that the book Howl and Other Poems is not obscene.
- 1962 - Project Mercury: US astronaut Wally Schirra, in Sigma 7, is launched from Cape Canaveral for a six-orbit flight.
- 1963 - A violent coup in Honduras begins two decades of military rule.
- 1981 - The hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ends after seven months and ten deaths.
- 1985 - The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight, carrying two DSCS-III Satellites on STS-51-J.
- 1986 - TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada, is officially opened.
- 1989 - A coup in Panama City is suppressed and 11 participants are executed.
- 1990 - The German Democratic Republic is abolished and becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany; the event is afterwards celebrated as German Unity Day.
- 1991 - Nadine Gordimer is announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- 1993 - An American attack against a warlord in Mogadishu fails; eighteen US soldiers and over 350 Somalis die.
- 1995 - O. J. Simpson murder case: O. J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
- 2008 - The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 for the U.S. financial system is signed by President George W. Bush.
- 2009 - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey join in the Turkic Council.
- 2013 - At least 360 migrants are killed when their boat sinks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
- 2015 - Forty-two people are killed and 33 go missing in the Kunduz hospital airstrike in Afghanistan.
- 2021 - Eight people are killed in an airplane crash near Milan, Italy.
- 2022 - Svante Pääbo is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- 2023 - Wab Kinew is elected to be the first First Nations Premier of a Canadian province in the 2023 Manitoba general election
- 2024 - Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit are accorded the Classical language status by the Government of India
Births
Pre-1600
- 1390 - Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
- 1458 - Saint Casimir, Prince of Poland and Duke of Lithuania
- 1554 - Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, English poet
1601–1900
- 1610 - Gabriel Lalemant, French-Canadian missionary and saint
- 1631 - Sebastian Anton Scherer, German organist and composer
- 1637 - George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Chancellor of Scotland
- 1713 - Antoine Dauvergne, French violinist and composer
- 1716 - Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist and academic
- 1720 - Johann Uz, German poet and judge
- 1790 - John Ross, American tribal chief
- 1797 - Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany
- 1800 - George Bancroft, American historian and politician, 17th United States Secretary of the Navy
- 1804 - Townsend Harris, American merchant, politician, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Japan
- 1804 - Allan Kardec, French author, translator, educator and founder of modern Spiritism
- 1828 - Woldemar Bargiel, German composer and educator
- 1837 - Nicolás Avellaneda, Argentinian journalist and politician, 8th President of Argentina
- 1846 - James Jackson Putnam, American neurologist and academic
- 1848 - Henry Lerolle, French painter and art collector
- 1858 - Eleonora Duse, Italian actress
- 1862 - Alice B. Woodward, British illustrator for children and scientists
- 1862 - Johnny Briggs, English cricketer and rugby player
- 1863 - Pyotr Kozlov, Russian archaeologist and explorer
- 1865 - Gustave Loiseau, French painter
- 1866 - Josephine Sabel, American singer and comedian
- 1867 - Joseph Beech, American Methodist missionary and educator
- 1867 - Pierre Bonnard, French painter
- 1869 - Alfred Flatow, German gymnast
- 1875 - Dr. Atl, Mexican painter
- 1879 - Warner Oland, Swedish-American actor and singer
- 1880 – Nora Bayes, American singer, comedian, and actress
- 1882 - A. Y. Jackson, Canadian painter and academic
- 1885 - Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist
- 1886 - Alain-Fournier, French soldier, author, and critic
- 1888 - Wade Boteler, American actor and screenwriter
- 1889 - Carl von Ossietzky, German journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1890 - Emilio Portes Gil, Mexican politician, President of Mexico
- 1894 - Elmer Robinson, American lawyer and politician, 33rd Mayor of San Francisco
- 1894 - Walter Warlimont, German general
- 1895 - Giovanni Comisso, Italian author and poet
- 1895 - Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet
- 1896 - Auvergne Doherty, Australian businesswoman
- 1896 - Gerardo Diego, Spanish poet and critic
- 1897 - Louis Aragon, French author and poet
- 1898 - Leo McCarey, American director and screenwriter
- 1898 - Adolf Reichwein, German economist and educator
- 1899 - Gertrude Berg, American actress, screenwriter and producer
- 1900 - Thomas Wolfe, American novelist
1901–present
- 1901 - Jean Grémillon, French director, composer, and screenwriter
- 1904 - Ernst-Günther Schenck, German colonel and physician
- 1905 - Tekin Arıburun, Turkish soldier and politician, President of Turkey
- 1906 - Natalie Savage Carlson, American author
- 1908 - Johnny Burke, American songwriter
- 1911 - Michael Hordern, English actor
- 1912 - Charles Wood, 2nd Earl of Halifax, British peer, Conservative politician
- 1915 - Ray Stark, American film producer
- 1916 - James Herriot, English veterinarian and author
- 1919 - James M. Buchanan, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1921 - Ray Lindwall, Australian cricketer and soldier
- 1923 - Edward Oliver LeBlanc, Dominican lawyer and politician, 1st Premier of Dominica
- 1924 - Harvey Kurtzman, American cartoonist
- 1924 - Arkady Vorobyov, Russian weightlifter and coach
- 1925 - Simone Segouin, French Resistance fighter and partisan
- 1925 - Gore Vidal, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic
- 1925 - George Wein, American pianist and producer, co-founded the Newport Folk Festival
- 1926 - Gerardo P. Cabochan, Filipino politician
- 1928 - Erik Bruhn, Danish dancer and choreographer
- 1928 - Shridath Ramphal, Guyanese academic and politician, 2nd Commonwealth Secretary-General
- 1931 - Glenn Hall, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1933 - Neale Fraser, Australian tennis player
- 1934 - Benjamin Boretz, American composer and theorist
- 1934 - Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas, Colombian-Dutch painter and illustrator
- 1934 - Harold Henning, South African golfer
- 1934 - Simon Nicholson, English sculptor and painter
- 1935 - Charles Duke, American general, pilot, and astronaut
- 1935 - Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Soviet Russian-Armenian actor
- 1936 - Steve Reich, American composer
- 1938 - Eddie Cochran, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1938 - David Hart Dyke, English captain
- 1938 - Jack Hodgins, Canadian author and academic
- 1938 - Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Peruvian entrepreneur and politician, 66th President of Peru
- 1939 - Bob Armstrong, American wrestler and trainer
- 1940 - Alan O'Day, American singer-songwriter
- 1940 - Jean Ratelle, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1940 - Mike Troy, American swimmer
- 1941 - Chubby Checker, American singer-songwriter
- 1941 - Andrea de Adamich, Italian racing driver and sportscaster
- 1941 - John Elliott, Australian businessman
- 1941 - Nicolae Șerban Tanașoca, Romanian historian and philologist
- 1942 - Alan Rachins, American actor
- 1943 - Jeff Bingaman, American soldier and politician, 25th Attorney General of New Mexico
- 1943 - Baki İlkin, Turkish civil servant and diplomat
- 1944 - Pierre Deligne, Belgian mathematician and academic
- 1944 - Bob Riley, American politician, 52nd Governor of Alabama
- 1945 - Tony Brown, English footballer and sportscaster
- 1945 - Christopher Bruce, English dancer and choreographer
- 1945 - Jo Ritzen, Dutch economist and politician, Dutch Minister of Education
- 1946 - P. P. Arnold, American soul singer
- 1947 - John Perry Barlow, American poet, songwriter, blogger, and activist
- 1947 - Ben Cauley, American trumpet player and songwriter
- 1947 - Fred DeLuca, American businessman
- 1947 - Anne Dorte of Rosenborg
- 1947 - Takis Michalos, Greek water polo player and coach
- 1949 - Lindsey Buckingham, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1949 - J. P. Dutta, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1949 - Aleksandr Rogozhkin, Russian director and screenwriter
- 1949 - Laurie Simmons, American photographer and director
- 1950 - Ronnie Laws, American jazz, R&B, and funk saxophone player
- 1951 - Keb' Mo', American blues musician and songwriter
- 1951 - Kathryn D. Sullivan, American geologist and astronaut
- 1951 - Dave Winfield, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1952 - Bruce Arians, American football coach
- 1952 - Gary Troup, New Zealand cricketer
- 1954 - Eddie DeGarmo, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
- 1954 - Dennis Eckersley, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1954 - Al Sharpton, American minister, talk show host, and political activist
- 1954 - Stevie Ray Vaughan, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1955 - Moshe Kam, American engineering educator
- 1955 - John S. Lesmeister, American educator and politician, 30th North Dakota State Treasurer
- 1955 - Allen Woody, American bass player and songwriter
- 1955 - Buket Uzuner, Turkish author
- 1956 - Hart Bochner, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1957 - Roberto Azevêdo, Brazilian engineer and diplomat, 6th Director-General of the World Trade Organization
- 1957 - Tim Westwood, English radio and television host
- 1958 - Chen Yanyin, Chinese sculptor
- 1958 - Louise Lecavalier, Canadian dancer and choreographer
- 1959 - Craig Bellamy, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1959 - Fred Couples, American golfer
- 1959 - Greg Proops, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1959 - Frank Stephenson, Italian automotive designer and blogger
- 1959 - Jack Wagner, American actor and singer
- 1961 - Rebecca Stephens, English journalist and mountaineer
- 1961 - Ludger Stühlmeyer, German cantor, composer, and musicologist
- 1962 - Tommy Lee, Greek-American singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer
- 1962 - Simon Scarrow, Nigerian-English novelist
- 1963 - Benny Anders, American basketball player
- 1963 - Dan Goldie, American tennis player
- 1964 - Clive Owen, English actor
- 1965 - Annemarie Verstappen, Dutch swimmer
- 1965 - Jan-Ove Waldner, Swedish table tennis player
- 1966 - Darrin Fletcher, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1967 - Rob Liefeld, American author and illustrator
- 1967 - Chris Collingwood, English-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1968 - Paul Crichton, English footballer and manager
- 1968 - Greg Foster, American basketball player and coach
- 1968 - Marko Rajamäki, Finnish footballer and manager
- 1968 - Donald Sild, Estonian javelin thrower
- 1969 - Garry Herbert, English rower and sportscaster
- 1969 - Janel Moloney, American actress
- 1969 - Gwen Stefani, American singer-songwriter, actress, and fashion designer
- 1969 - Tetsuya, Japanese singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
- 1970 - Elmar Liitmaa, Estonian guitarist and songwriter
- 1970 - Jimmy Ray, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1971 - Wil Cordero, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach
- 1971 - Kevin Richardson, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1972 - Komla Dumor, Ghanaian-English journalist
- 1972 - G. Love, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player
- 1972 - Michael Nylander, Swedish ice hockey player and coach
- 1972 - Guy Oseary, Israeli-American talent manager and businessman
- 1973 - Keiko Agena, American actress
- 1973 - Neve Campbell, Canadian actress
- 1973 - Angélica Gavaldón, American-Mexican tennis player and coach
- 1973 - Lena Headey, British actress
- 1973 - Eirik Hegdal, Norwegian saxophonist and composer
- 1974 - John Dwyer, American multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, visual artist, and record label owner
- 1974 - Mike Johnson, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
- 1974 - Antti Laaksonen, Finnish ice hockey player
- 1974 - Marianne Timmer, Dutch speed skater
- 1975 - India Arie, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 1975 - Phil Greening, English rugby player and coach
- 1975 - Satoko Ishimine, Japanese singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1975 - Talib Kweli, American rapper
- 1975 - Alanna Ubach, American actress
- 1976 - Herman Li, Hong Kong-English guitarist and producer
- 1976 - Seann William Scott, American actor and producer
- 1977 - Daniel Hollie, American wrestler
- 1977 - Eric Munson, American baseball player and coach
- 1977 - Luca Tognozzi, Italian footballer
- 1978 - Gerald Asamoah, Ghanaian-German footballer
- 1978 - Neil Clement, English footballer
- 1978 - Claudio Pizarro, Peruvian footballer
- 1978 - Jake Shears, American singer-songwriter
- 1978 - Shannyn Sossamon, American actress
- 1979 - Josh Klinghoffer, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1979 - John Morrison, American wrestler and actor
- 1980 - Anquan Boldin, American football player
- 1980 - Sheldon Brookbank, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 - Lindsey Kelk, English journalist and author
- 1980 - Danny O'Donoghue, Irish singer-songwriter and producer
- 1980 - Héctor Reynoso, Mexican footballer
- 1980 - Ivan Turina, Croatian footballer
- 1981 - Danny Coid, English footballer
- 1981 - Zlatan Ibrahimović, Swedish footballer
- 1981 - Andreas Isaksson, Swedish footballer
- 1981 - Jonna Lee, Swedish singer and musician
- 1981 - Ronald Rauhe, German kayaker
- 1981 - Matt Sparrow, English footballer
- 1983 - Thiago Alves, Brazilian mixed martial artist
- 1983 - Fred, Brazilian footballer
- 1983 - Mark Giordano, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1983 - Andreas Papathanasiou, Cypriot footballer
- 1983 - Tessa Thompson, American actress
- 1984 - Yoon Eun-hye, South Korean singer and actress
- 1984 - Bruno Gervais, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 - Jessica Parker Kennedy, Canadian actress
- 1984 - Anthony Le Tallec, French footballer
- 1984 - Chris Marquette, American actor
- 1984 - Gary Neal, American basketball player and coach
- 1984 - Ashlee Simpson, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1985 - Courtney Lee, American basketball player
- 1986 - Lewis Brown, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1986 - Jackson Martínez, Colombian footballer
- 1987 - Starley, Australian pop singer
- 1988 - Dustin Gazley, American ice hockey player
- 1988 - ASAP Rocky, American rapper and songwriter
- 1988 - Alicia Vikander, Swedish actress
- 1989 - Nate Montana, American football player
- 1989 - Alex Trimble, Irish singer
- 1990 - Johan Le Bon, French cyclist
- 1991 - Jenny McLoughlin, English sprinter
- 1991 - Aki Takajo, Japanese singer
- 1993 - Raffaele Di Gennaro, Italian footballer
- 1994 - Victoria Bosio, Argentinian tennis player
- 1994 - Seth Jones, American ice hockey player
- 1995 - Ayo Edebiri, American actress
- 1995 - Mike Gesicki, American football player
- 1995 - Artyom Zub, Russian ice hockey player
- 1997 - Jin Boyang, Chinese figure skater
- 1997 - Jonathan Isaac, American basketball player
- 1997 - Bang Chan, Australian singer and record producer based in South Korea
- 2000 - CJ Abrams, American baseball player
- 2001 - Anton Lundell, Finnish ice hockey player
- 2001 - Max Plath, Australian rugby league player
- 2001 - C. J. Stroud, American football player
- 2004 - Noah Schnapp, American actor