TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 22
1633 Battle of Liaoluo Bay: Dutch East India Company defeated by Chinese Ming naval forces in southern Fujian sea
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.
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.
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.
1918 The cities of Baltimore and Washington run out of coffins during the “Spanish Inflenza” epidemic.
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.
1963 225,000 students boycott Chicago schools in Freedom Day protest
1966 The double agent, George Blake, escapes from prison in a daring break-out believed to have been masterminded by the Soviet Union.
1975 World Football League disbands
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.”
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
1986 U.S. President Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 into law.
1999 The U.N. Security Council voted to send 6,000 troops to Sierra Leone to oversee a peace plan that had been signed in July.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
