Banner Day

October 3 has seen a number of notable historical events besides those aforementioned--including the death of St. Francis of Assisi in 1226 and his canonization just two years later in 1228. It was on this day in 1637 that Ben Jonson died--while he was a prominent poet and playwright himself, he would be best known as the man who purportedly identified the presumed author of Shakespeare's plays. It was also on this day that first Washington and then later Lincoln made Thanksgiving Day proclamations. It was on this day in 1929 that the hodge-podge kingdoms of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were officially unified and cobbled together into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. But, in addition to all these bellwether historical events, in 1960, this day also saw the premiere of The Andy Griffith Show. That first episode, "The New Housekeeper," was aired by CBS on a Monday evening in prime time. While Aunt Bea won the heart of Opie after she came to live with her widowed nephew and his son, the whole cast of characters who inhabited Mayberry won the heart of America. The show went on to become a undisputed cultural icon.