On October 3, 1789 George Washington assigned Thursday, November 26, 1789 as Thanksgiving Day. Exactly 74 years later… On October 3, 1863 Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that “the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving” and was celebrated on Thursday, November 26, 1863. Image “Behold Oh America, Your Sons. The greatest among men” via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Abraham Lincoln and others at Antietam Lincoln’s bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, is seated on the left – October 3, 1862 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
On October 3, 1955 Captain Kangaroo debuted on network television. Image: Hugh Brannum (Mr. Green Jeans) secretly reveals a five year anniversary cake behind Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) in 1960 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
American rock star Eddie Cochran (left) who recorded the hit song “Summertime Blues” was born on October 3, 1938 in Albert Lea, Minnesota. Image: The Cochran Brothers (Eddie and Hank) for Ekko Records, 1955 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation for nearly 4 decades, was born on October 3, 1790 in Turkeytown, Alabama. His mother was Scottish and Cherokee and his father was Scottish. Daguerreotype of John Ross via Library of Congress, no known restrictions
Waiting in line for tickets at 10pm on October 3, 1924 for the opening game of the World Series to be played at 2pm the next day in Washington D.C. Image via Library of Congress, no known restrictions
On October 3, 1950 Bell Labs researchers Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley received a U.S. patent for their technological breakthrough, the “Three-electrode utilizing circuit element semiconductive materials,” otherwise known as the transistor. The invention paved the way for modern computerized devices to function. Six years later in 1956 Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Image of Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley in 1948 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
On today’s date October 3, 1901 The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated. It was later purchased by Radio Corporation of America and was known as RCA Victor. Image: “His Master’s Voice” by Francis James Barraud via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
On Monday, October 3, 1960 at 9:30pm The Andy Griffith Show premiered. The show’s theme song “The Fishin’ Hole” was whistled and co-written by Earle Hagen. Don Knotts, Andy Griffith and Jim Nabors on the set of the Andy Griffith Show in 1960 by CBS Television via Alamy
George Bancroft was born on today’s date October 3, 1800 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He wrote “History of The United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.” When he was Secretary of The Navy, Bancroft established the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Photo: George Bancroft in 1846 by John Plumbe – Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Spine-Tingling History “The supposititious victim of demoniac power in this Clarksville (now Clarkstown in Rockland County, New York) case, was the widow of a Scottish physician, named Jane Kanniff, who moved into the hamlet prior to 1816, took a small house situated a few rods west of the old church on the New City road, and devoted herself to the care of her only child, a son by a previous marriage, named Lowrie. Jane or as she was called in the vernacular of the Clarksville people, Naut Kanniff, seems to have been exceedingly eccentric, a person who would now be regarded by alienists as insane ; but her vagaries at the worst took a harmless form. She was odd in dress, preferring parti-colors of wondrous diversity, queer in the fashion of arranging her hair. She was unsocial in a neighborhood where every one knew each other ; and morose or erratic when forced to meet people. With these traits and habits, she combined one other. From her deceased husband she had gathered a smattering of medicine, and now, when placed where she could get at the herbs known in her Materia Medica, she made wondrous decoctions with which she treated such as came to her for aid, and I have been informed by those who knew her, with most excellent results. In a spot where all others were connected by ties of blood or marriage, the advent of this stranger could but create comment, and the actions of Mrs. Kanniff formed an interesting topic of conversation. Inadvertently, perhaps, her name became associated with Satanic influence and her deeds, theretofore regarded as harmless, began to assume an appearance of diablery. The distrust of Naut soon spread from their elders to the children of the neighborhood, and, when compelled to pass her house on errands, the young ones of Clarksville would scurry by with palpitating hearts and starting eyes, looking askance for some manifestation of the evil one. It did not take a long time for Jane Kanniff to learn the belief, concerning herself, that was gaining ground and the effect of that knowledge was to aggravate her oddities.
There seems to have been no one act of monstrous import that provoked the trial, but rather a culmination of suspected misdoings. The house wives of the locality found great difficulty in making their churnings “come off” well, and two or three averred that upon emptying their 419 churns they had discovered the form of a horseshoe plainly ourned in the bottom. A worthy member of the church after passing a sleepless night, distracted by the lowing of his cattle, found, on visiting his farm yard in the morning, the best milker of the herd standing in a farm wagon. From that hour she is said to have yielded no milk.
Circumstances such as these, were of grave character in a God fearing peaceful community. It seems not to have occurred to these intelligent citizens that perhaps heat applied to the milk to aid the churning, and the known proclivity of the domestic dog to chase cattle ; might have been factors in these events.
They sought a preternatural cause, and fixed on the baleful influence of Naut Kanniff. It was determined that she should be tried for witchcraft. A shrewd suspicion probably, that not only would no legally appointed judge listen for a moment to such a charge, but also that those who made it would become a public laughing stock; led the worthy people to take the law in their own hands; and from similar considerations they forbore mentioning their determination to their dominie. But the desire for justice was uppermost in their minds, and only reputable citizens were permitted to act in the matter. The choice for judge resulted in the selection of the resident physician and the jury was composed of the farmers in the neighborhood. It may occur to the reader as it has to the writer, that the occupation of the practice of medicine might unfit a man from acting impartially as a judge in this case, the more especially because the accused interfered with that occupation by her treatment of disease. Such an idea however seems not to have entered the minds of her neighbors.
The place selected for the trial was an old mill, which stood on the site of the present mill, just south of Pye’s Corner. The mode of trial was by balance. The suspected woman was brought to the mill, was seated in one dish of the big mill scale, and held till a board-covered, brass-bound Dutch Bible was placed in the opposite dish. If, in the test which was to follow, the Bible outweighed the woman, it would be con- clusive evidence that she was in league with the evil one. If to the contrary, she raised the Bible, it was equally conclusive she was innocent. It is with regret I have to record that Mrs. Kanniff” outweighed the Bible, sending it to the ceiling with a mighty bound; a regret which will be indulged by others, who, with a curiosity equal to my own, would much cared to have seen what the gentle men present would have done had the Holy Book sent the woman to the beam.” From: The History of Rockland County (New York) by Frank Green, published in 1886 Source says not in copyright https://archive.org/details/historyofrocklan01gree/page/418/mode/1up?view=theater
