By The Associated Press

Tue Oct 3, 7:06 AM ET

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 3, the 276th day of 2006. There are 89 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 3, 1863, President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day.

On this date:

In 1226, St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, died; he was canonized in 1228.

In 1929, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes formally changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

In 1941, Adolf Hitler declared in a speech in Berlin that Russia had been "broken" and would "never rise again."

In 1951, the New York Giants captured the National League pennant as Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off the Brooklyn Dodgers' Ralph Branca in the "shot heard 'round the world."

In 1952, Britain conducted its first atomic test as it detonated a 25-kiloton device in the Monte Bello Islands off Australia.

In 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra blasted off from Cape Canaveral aboard the Sigma 7 on a nine-hour flight.

In 1981, Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended seven months of hunger strikes that had claimed 10 lives.

In 1986, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-219 suffered an explosion and fire in a missile tube northeast of Bermuda; the vessel sank three days later.

In 1991, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1995, the jury in the O.J. Simpson murder trial announced its verdicts, finding the former football star not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman. (However, Simpson was later found liable in a civil trial).

Ten years ago: Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Five years ago: A man aboard a Greyhound bus in Tennessee slashed the driver's throat, causing a crash that killed seven passengers, including the attacker. The Senate approved an agreement normalizing trade between the United States and Vietnam.

One year ago: President Bush nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court (however, she withdrew three weeks later after criticism over her lack of judicial experience and Republican concerns about her conservatism). A Russian space capsule with American tourist Gregory Olsen aboard docked with the international space station. Australians Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren won the 2005 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Today's Birthdays: Author Gore Vidal is 81. Singer Alan O'Day is 66. Rock and roll star Chubby Checker is 65. Actor Alan Rachins is 64. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (news, bio, voting record), D-N.M., is 63. Magician Roy Horn is 62. Singer Lindsey Buckingham is 57. Jazz musician Ronnie Laws is 56. Blues singer Keb' Mo' is 55. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield is 55. Actor Hart Bochner is 50. Actor Peter Frechette is 50. Actor Jack Wagner is 47. Rock musician Tommy Lee is 44. Actor Clive Owen is 42. Actress Janel Moloney is 37. Singer Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) is 37. Pop singer Kevin Richardson is 35. Actress Keiko Agena is 33. Actress Neve Campbell is 33. Singer India.Arie is 31. Actress Alanna Ubach is 31. Actor Seann William Scott is 30. Actress Shannyn Sossamon is 28. Actor Erik Von Detten is 24. Actress-singer Ashlee Simpson is 22.

Thought for Today: "No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person." — Willa Cather, American author (1873-1947).