October 3, 1942

1942Alan Rachins, American actor (died 2024)^[†]

Alan L. Rachins was an American actor, known for his role as Douglas Brackman in L.A. Law which earned him both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, and his portrayal of Larry on the television series Dharma & Greg.

1942A German V-2 rocket reaches a record 85 km (46 nm) in altitude.^[†]

The V-2 rocket, with the development name Aggregat-4 (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a "vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings of German cities. The V2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.