Today in History October 3rd

1863

Lincoln makes official Thanksgiving holiday

Today in 1863, expressing gratitude for Union Army victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln announces that the nation will celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on November 26, 1863.

1932
Iraq wins independence

With the admittance of Iraq into the League of Nations, Britain ends its mandate over the Arab nation, making Iraq independent after 17 years of British rule and centuries rule by the Ottomans.

1995
O.J. Simpson acquitted

Former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the brutal 1994 double murder of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman in the "trial of the century". In the epic 252-day trial, Simpson’s “dream team” of lawyers employed creative and controversial methods to convince jurors that Simpson’s guilt had not been proved “beyond a reasonable doubt,” thus surmounting what the prosecution called a “mountain of evidence” implicating him as the murderer.

2011
Amanda Knox murder conviction overturned

Lastly, on this day in 2011, in a decision that makes international headlines, an Italian appeals court overturns the murder conviction of Amanda Knox, an American exchange student who two years earlier was found guilty in the 2007 murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy. At the time of her 2009 conviction, Knox, then 22 years old, received a 26-year prison sentence, while her ex-boyfriend, Italian college student Raffaelle Sollecito, who also was convicted in the slaying, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars.

Source:
History.com