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Explore 3 October

Explore 3 October: Germany is reunited, Iraq becomes independent, Italy invades Ethiopia and two presidents call the nation to give thanks. Meet Eleonora Duse, Gore Vidal and Stevie Ray Vaughan, born on this date.

This day through time →8 verified events across 2 eras

⌛8Full
Timeline ◈4Historic
Moments ♙7Born
Today ✦5Lives
Remembered ◉2Firsts &
Discoveries ☉2Observances
Crowds on the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate on 9 November 1989, the night the Wall opened.
Crowds on the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate on 9 November 1989, the night the Wall opened.
Image creditSue Ream, photographer (San Francisco, California) · CC BY 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
1990

Germany is reunited

On 3 October 1990, less than a year after the Berlin Wall opened, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and its five states, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, joined the Federal Republic of Germany. Berlin was reunited as one city.

East and West had chosen accession under West Germany’s Basic Law rather than writing a new constitution, and the Two Plus Four Treaty signed with the four wartime Allies on 12 September 1990 had cleared the way internationally. 3 October has been Germany’s national holiday, the Day of German Unity, ever since.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: deutschland.de (German Federal Foreign Office): The fall of the Wall and German reunification ↗
King Faisal I, Iraq's ruler from 1921 to 1933.
King Faisal I, Iraq’s ruler from 1921 to 1933.
Image creditUnknown authorUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1932

Iraq becomes independent

On 3 October 1932 the League of Nations Assembly voted unanimously to admit Iraq as a member, ending the British mandate that had governed the country since the First World War. Iraq was the first of the League’s mandated territories to become independent.

Britain had announced in 1929 that the mandate would end, and a treaty of alliance signed in 1930 came into force on the same day, keeping close ties between the two countries. King Faisal I, who had ruled Iraq since 1921, died the following year.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Iraq, independence 1932-39 ↗
Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.
Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.
Image creditunknown; according to [1] and [2] an official portrait of which b/w copies were distributed by the Ethiopian government · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1935

Italy invades Ethiopia

On 3 October 1935 Italian forces under General Emilio De Bono crossed from Eritrea into Ethiopia, one of Africa’s last independent states, after Mussolini had rejected every offer of arbitration. On 7 October the Council of the League of Nations named Italy the aggressor.

The League imposed economic sanctions, but they left out oil and had little effect. Italian troops took Addis Ababa on 5 May 1936 and Emperor Haile Selassie went into exile. The failure to stop Italy badly damaged the League and is often seen as one of the steps towards the Second World War.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Italo-Ethiopian War ↗
Abraham Lincoln, photographed by Alexander Gardner in November 1863.
Abraham Lincoln, photographed by Alexander Gardner in November 1863.
Image creditAlexander Gardner · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1863

Two presidents proclaim a national Thanksgiving

On 3 October 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation under the new US Constitution, asking Americans to set aside Thursday 26 November as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. Congress had asked him to recommend such a day.

Exactly 74 years later, on 3 October 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November a national day of Thanksgiving and Praise. He acted after years of campaigning by the magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, and the holiday has been kept every year since.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: George Washington’s Mount Vernon: Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789 ↗
♙
PEOPLE

Born Today

Pierre Bonnard
Image creditAréat · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1867

Pierre Bonnard

French painter celebrated for his glowing colour and domestic interiors.

Gore Vidal
Image creditCarl Van Vechten · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1925

Gore Vidal

American novelist, essayist and political commentator.

Steve Reich
Image creditHans Peters for Anefo · CC0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1936

Steve Reich

American composer, a pioneer of minimalist music.

Stevie Ray Vaughan
Image creditBbadventure · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1954

Stevie Ray Vaughan

American blues guitarist and singer who revived the blues in the 1980s.

Gwen Stefani
Image creditPete Souza · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1969

Gwen Stefani

American singer, lead vocalist of No Doubt and a solo star.

Zlatan Ibrahimović
Image creditColleen Sturtevant · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1981

Zlatan Ibrahimović

Swedish footballer and his country’s record goalscorer.

◉
IDEAS THAT CHANGED THINGS

Firsts, Science & Discoveries

A V-2 rocket on display at the Peenemünde museum, Germany.
A V-2 rocket on display at the Peenemünde museum, Germany.
Image creditAElfwine · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
1942

The first successful V-2 rocket launch

On 3 October 1942, after two failures earlier that year, German army engineers at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast launched their first successful A-4 rocket, later known as the V-2. It climbed to about 85 km, far higher than anything built before; Walter Dornberger, head of the programme, later called it the beginning of the space age.

From September 1944 thousands of V-2s were fired at London, Antwerp and other cities, many of them built by concentration-camp prisoners in brutal conditions. After the war the United States and the Soviet Union captured V-2s and their engineers, including Wernher von Braun, and used them to start their own rocket and space programmes.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: V-2 missile ↗
The frigate HMS Plym in 1943. The bomb was detonated inside her hull.
The frigate HMS Plym in 1943. The bomb was detonated inside her hull.
Image creditRoyal Navy official photographer · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1952

Britain tests its first atomic bomb

At 8 am on 3 October 1952 Britain exploded its first atomic bomb, codenamed Operation Hurricane, in the Montebello Islands off the coast of Western Australia. The 25-kiloton device had been placed in the hull of an old frigate, HMS Plym, which was vaporised by the blast.

The test made the United Kingdom the third nuclear power, after the United States and the Soviet Union. It left a crater on the sea floor more than 300 metres wide and spread radioactive fallout over the islands and parts of the Australian mainland.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: National Archives of Australia: First British atomic bomb test on Montebello Islands ↗
✦
LIVES REMEMBERED

Remembered Today

William Morris
Image creditFrederick Hollyer · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1896

William Morris

English designer, poet and socialist, a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Gustav Stresemann
Image creditUnknownUnknown · CC BY-SA 3.0 deResized and cropped for display.
Died 1929

Gustav Stresemann

German chancellor and foreign minister who shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize for reconciliation with France.

☉
AROUND THE WORLD

Observances & Anniversaries

HISTORY & TIMELINE

Finished the highlights?

Follow 3 October chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, with 8 verified events and the sources behind them.

This day through time →
Sources & further reading