TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 22
1721 Tsar Peter the Great becomes “All-Russian Imperator”
1746 The College of New Jersey was officially chartered. It later became known as Princeton University.
1797 The first successful parachute descent is made by Andre-Jacqes Garnerin, who jumps from a balloon at some 2,200 feet over Paris.
1836 Sam Houston sworn in as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
1844 This day is recognized as “The Great Disappointment” among those who practiced Millerism. The world was expected to come to an end according to the followers of William Miller.
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 Panic of 1907: A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company stock leads to US wide run on banks
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.
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
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.
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.
1966 The double agent, George Blake, escapes from prison in a daring break-out believed to have been masterminded by the Soviet Union.
1975 Air Force Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich was discharged after publicly declaring his homosexuality. His tombstone reads ” “A gay Vietnam Veteran. When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”
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.
1983 At the Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia, an armed man crashed a truck through front gates and demanded to speak with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
1986 The pressure on the South African government to dismantle it’s apartheid policies continues to mount as more American companies withdraw from doing business in South Africa including sales and manufacturing
1991 The European Community and the European Free Trade Association agreed to create a free trade zone of 19 nations by the year 1993.
1998 Pakistan’s carpet weaving industry announced that they would begin to phase out child labor.
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.
2008 Stock markets around the world continue the downward spiral as companies shed more workers and weak corporate earnings and countries around the world prop up financial institutions who have been effected by the meltdown in the housing market.
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 **
