TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 22
1746 Princeton University, in New Jersey, receives its charter.
1797 The first successful parachute descent is made by Andre-Jacqes Garnerin, who jumps from a balloon at some 2,200 feet over Paris.
1824 The Tennessee Legislature adjourns ending David “Davy” Crockett’s state political career.
1836 Sam Houston sworn in as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) worldwide, creating 24 international time zones with longitude zero at the Greenwich meridian
1907 Ringling Brothers buys Barnum & Bailey.
1907 Panic of 1907: A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company stock leads to US wide run on banks
1913 A coal mine explosion caused by a pocket of methane gas had been ignited by a miner’s lamp in Dawson, New Mexico, killing more than 250 miners.
1914 U.S. places economic support behind Allies.
1914 Congress pass the Revenue Act mandating the first tax on incomes over $3,000.
1918 The cities of Baltimore and Washington run out of coffins during the “Spanish Inflenza” epidemic.
1927 The findings of a special grand jury in to the floggings carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan in Cremshaw County Alabama ended with 102 indictments against men involved with the 20 lashings in that county.
1928 Pres Hoover speaks of “American system of rugged individualism”
1934 Pretty Boy Floyd was finally shot by G-Men from Hoovers FBI team today in a corn field in Ohio after refusing to surrender. It is believed Floyd preferred death in a shoot out to death in the electric chair.
1938 Chester Carlson invents the photocopier. He tries to sell the machine to IBM, RCA, Kodak and others, but they see no use for a gadget that makes nothing but copies.
1949 A new study highlighting the problems facing the British government caused by the increase in it’s welfare state and Nationalization of British Industry shows that the problems are getting worse as the public debt increases quicker than the national income.
1954 As a result of the Geneva accords granting Communist control over North Vietnam, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes a crash program to train the South Vietnamese Army.
1957 François Duvalier, also known as Papa Doc, became the President of Haiti.
1962 U.S. reveals Soviet missile sites in Cuba. President Kennedy orders a naval and air blockade on further shipment of military equipment to Cuba. Following a confrontation that threatens nuclear war, Kennedy and Khrushchev agree on October 28 on a formula to end the crisis. On November 2 Kennedy reports that Soviet missile bases in Cuba are being dismantled.
1978 Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II; born Karol Jozef Wojtyla. The Polish-born Wojtyla was the first non-Italian pope since Pope Adrian VI died in 1523; he would become the second-longest serving pope in the history of the Papacy and exercise considerable influence on events of the later portion of the 20th century.
1979 Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi, the deposed Shah of Iran, was allowed in the United States for medical treatment. This action led to the Iran hostage crisis.
1981 The US Federal Labor Relations authority decertified the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) from representing federal air traffic controllers, as a result of a PATCO strike in August that was broken by the Reagan Administration.
1981 US national debt tops $1 trillion
1999 Maurice Papon, formerly an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity for his role in deporting more than 1,600 Jews to concentration camps.
2002 The Washington Sniper claims his last victim Conrad Johnson a bus driver in Aspen Hill, Md., in the 13th and final attack. The two men involved were arrested 2 days later on October 24.
2005 Tropical Storm Alpha forms to break the record for the most tropical storms in an Atlantic hurricane season ever. It is also the first storm to be named with a letter of the Greek alphabet.
2011 The United States and North Korea reached an agreement to continue the search for remains of American soldiers from the Korean war after stopping for six years
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
