3 November 1942 - on the Kokoda Trail

After recapture of Kokoda from Japanese forces the night before, 3 November 1942 marks the day the Australian flag was raised over Kokoda again - a milestone in the Pacific War.

Australian 39th Battalion in Papua, 1942

Japan's attempt to isolate Australia from the US by capturing Port Moresby in the then Australian territory of Papua failed after a 4-months long battle in the rugged jungle terrain of the Kokoda Trail - one of the major Australian war tales.
 
Elsewhere in the world, Panama split from Colombia (1903), the USA introduced the income tax (1913), 10-year old Elvis Presley performed in public for the first time, winning $5 for coming 2nd in a talent show (1945), Laika, the first dog in space, went into orbit aboard the Sputnik II (1957), the Caribbean island of Dominica gained independence (1978) as did the Federated States of Micronesia (1986).
 
Today's birthdays include the Italian goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (Florence/Italy, 1500), German publisher Karl Baedeker, whose company set the standard for tourist guide books (Essen/Prussia, 1801), Italian opera composer Vincenzo Bellini (Catania/Sicily, 1801), Adolf Dassler, the founder of Adidas (Herzogenaurach/Bavaria, 1900) and Roy Emerson, the Australian tennis hero, who won 12 Grand Slam tournaments in his career - a feat only surpassed by Pete Sampras (14) and Roger Federer (17) - in Blackbutt/QLD (1936), while Solomon R. Guggenheim, art collector, philanthropist and founder of the Guggenheim Museum in New York died on this day (New York, 1949), as did French Artist Henri Matisse (Nice/France, 1954) and Laika, the Russian space dog (Space, 1957)