Friday, October 2, 2026

1187 – Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin after his forces defeated the Crusader defenders. The event brought an end to nearly 90 years of Christian rule over the city and helped inspire the Third Crusade.

1780 – British officer Major John André was hanged as a spy during the American Revolution after being captured carrying documents related to Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point to the British.

1835 – The Battle of Gonzales was fought between Texan settlers and Mexican soldiers. Often summarized by the famous “Come and Take It” flag, the skirmish is generally considered the beginning of the Texas Revolution.

1870 – Rome officially became the capital of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy following a plebiscite in which voters overwhelmingly approved joining Italy.

1919 – President Woodrow Wilson suffered a severe stroke while in the White House, leaving him partially paralyzed and seriously impairing his health for the remainder of his presidency.

1950 – The Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz was published for the first time. Charlie Brown appeared in the debut strip, while Snoopy made his first appearance two days later.

1959 – The Twilight Zone premiered on CBS. Created and hosted by Rod Serling, the anthology series became one of the most influential science-fiction and fantasy programs in television history.

1967 – Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Black justice to serve on the Court.

1985 – Actor Rock Hudson died from complications related to AIDS at age 59. His illness and death brought unprecedented public attention to the AIDS epidemic.

2002 – The Beltway sniper attacks began in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Over the following three weeks, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo carried out a series of shootings that killed 10 people and wounded several others.