On this day: October 22
The first parachute jump takes place, "Pretty Boy" Floyd is gunned down, football meets television, The Supremes top the charts, and "First Blood" dominates the box office, all on this day.
1734: American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman Daniel Boone, whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States, is born in Pennsylvania, near what today is the city of Reading. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky.
1734: American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman Daniel Boone, whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States, is born in Pennsylvania, near what today is the city of Reading. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky.
1746: The College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) receives its charter. The school's initial enrollment totaled 10 young men, who met for classes in the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson's parlor in Elizabeth, N.J.
1797: More than 3,000 feet above Paris, André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump, riding in a gondola underneath a silk parachute. Garnerin's parachute collapsed to resemble a closed umbrella while a balloon carried him upward. Once Garnerin severed the balloon from his gondola, the parachute opened and carried him to the ground.
1811: Pianist and composer Franz Liszt, who became renowned in Europe during the 19th century for his virtuosic piano skills, is born in the village of Doborján in the Kingdom of Hungary.
1819: The first 15 miles of the Erie Canal from Rome, N.Y., to Utica, N.Y., opens with a trial trip and excursion by the canal boat The Chief Engineer with a contingent including New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton, state officials and 70 or so guests.
1836: Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas. Houston, who had previously been the governor of Tennessee, would also be elected Texas governor in 1859, making him the only person in U.S. history to have been the governor of two different states.
1844: Millerites, followers of Baptist preacher William Miller, anticipate the end of the world in conjunction with Jesus Christ's return to the earth. When the prediction did not come true, the following day becomes known as the Great Disappointment.
1879: Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb. The bulb would last more than 13 hours before burning out.
1903: Actor and comedian Curly Howard (right), best known as a member of the slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges, is born under the birth name Jerome Lester Horwitz in Brooklyn, N.Y.
1906: French painter Paul Cézanne, whose work laid the foundations of the transition from late 19th century Impressionism to early 20th century Cubism, dies of pneumonia at age 67 in Aix-en-Provence, France.
1907: Hall of Fame baseball player Jimmie Foxx, the second player in Major League Baseball history to hit 500 career home runs, a three-time MVP and a triple crown winner in 1933, is born in Sudlersville, Md.
1920: Writer and psychologist Timothy Leary, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs and for popularizing the catchphrase "turn on, tune in, drop out," is born in Springfield, Mass.
1924: Toastmasters International, an organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills, is founded with Smedley Club Number 1 at the YMCA in Santa Ana, Calif.
1926: A McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead, sucker punches magician Harry Houdini several times in the stomach backstage at the Princess Theater in Montreal. Houdini, who was known for being able to take a punch to his stomach, was not able tighten his stomach muscles to avoid serious injury. Although in serious pain and already suffering from appendicitis, Houdini continued to travel without seeking medical attention. He would die of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix nine days later, on Halloween.
1934: In East Liverpool, Ohio, FBI agents and local law officers shoot and kill notorious bank robber Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd.
1938: Actor Christopher Lloyd, best known for his roles on the TV sitcom "Taxi" and in movies such as "Back to the Future," "The Addams Family" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", is born in Stamford, Conn.
1939: The first televised pro football game is telecast from New York, with the Brooklyn Dodgers defeating Philadelphia Eagles 23-14 at Ebbets Field.
1942: Actress Annette Funicello, best known as one of the most popular "Mouseketeers" on "The Micky Mouse Club" and for movies in the "Beach Party" genre in the mid-1960s, is born in Utica, N.Y.
1945: Argentine military officer and politician Juan Peron marries actress Eva Duarte. Peron would become president of Argentina in 1946, with Eva Peron, known as "Evita," as the country's first lady.
1946: Physician and writer Deepak Chopra, an advocate of mind/body spiritual healing who has written more than 65 books with 19 New York Times bestsellers, is born in New Delhi, British India.
1952: Actor Jeff Goldblum, known for his roles in "The Big Chill," "The Fly," "Jurassic Park" and "Independence Day," is born in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Homestead, Pa.
1957: U.S. military personnel suffer their first casualties of the Vietnam War when 13 Americans are wounded in three terrorist bombings of military installations in Saigon.
1963: Figure skater Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion, the 1986 and 1988 World Champion, and the 1985-1988 U.S. National Champion, is born in Mountain View, Calif.
1964: French existentialist philosopher, writer and political activist Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution." He was the first Nobel Laureate to voluntarily decline the prize.
1964: The musical "My Fair Lady," starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison and directed by George Cukor, premieres in theaters. The film, an adaptation of the stage musical of the same name, would go on to win eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Harrison, and Best Director.
1966: The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album, with "The Supremes A' Go-Go" knocking the Beatles' "Revolver" out of the top spot.
1968: Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times. It's 11-day Earth-orbital flight allowed the crew to check life-support, propulsion and control systems, clearing the way for the flight of Apollo 8 to orbit the Moon just two months later.
1969: "Led Zeppelin II" is released. The album, which featured the single "Whole Lotta Love," would become the band's first to hit No. 1 in the U.S., knocking The Beatles' "Abbey Road" twice from the top spot, where it remained for seven weeks.
1969: Filmmaker and actor Spike Jonze, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television, is born under the birth name Adam Spiegel in Rockville, Md. Jonze is best known for movies such as "Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation" and "Where the Wild Things Are."
1973: Baseball player Ichiro Suzuki is born in Kasugai, Aichi, Japan. Originally a player in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, Ichiro moved to the United States in 2001 to play in MLB for the Seattle Mariners, with whom he spent 12 seasons before being traded to the New York Yankees during the 2012 season. The 10-time MLB All-Star won a Golden Glove Award in each of his first 10 seasons in the league and has established a number of batting records, including MLB's single-season record for hits with 262 and 10 consecutive 200-hit seasons, the longest streak by any player in MLB history.
1975: The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus. The orbiter was the first spacecraft to orbit Venus, while the lander (pictured) was the first to return images from the surface of another planet.
1976: Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada.
1981: The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for its strike the previous August that was broken by the Reagan Administration.
1981: Aspartame artificial sweetener is approved for tabletop use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Its permitted uses included in candy, tablets, breakfast cereals, instant coffee and tea, gelatines, puddings, fillings, dairy-product toppings and as a flavour enhancer for chewing gum, among others. It was first approved on July 26, 1974, but objections caused a stay on Dec. 5, 1975, and years of scrutiny followed. It would also be approved for use in carbonated beverages in 1983 before being approved for use in all foods in 1996. It would go on to be first sold under the brand name NutraSweet.
1982: The action thriller movie "First Blood," starring Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna and Brian Dennehy, premieres in theaters. The movie, which launched the "Rambo" series starring Stallone as the U.S. Army Special Forces Vietnam War veteran, would top the North American box office for three weeks in a row and its $6.6 million opening weekend was the best October opening at the time.
2008: India launches Chandrayaan-1, its first unmanned lunar mission. The Moon Impact Probe would separate from the Chandrayaan orbiter on Nov. 14, 2008, and strike the Moon's south pole in a controlled manner, making India the fourth country to place its flag on the Moon.
2009: Comedian and TV personality Soupy Sales, best known for his local and network children's television show, "Lunch with Soupy Sales," dies of cancer at the age of 83 in The Bronx, N.Y.
2010: The international space station sets the record (3,641 days) for the longest continuous human occupation of space. It had been continuously inhabited since Nov. 2, 2000.
