On October 22nd...

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794 Emperor Kanmu relocated the Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto).

1383 King Fernando of Portugal died.

1746 Princeton University received its charter.

1797 Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first ever parachute descent from a balloon, in Paris, France.

1811 Composer Franz Liszt was born.

1836 Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1843 Agricultural chemist Stephen Moulton Babcock was born.

1861 The first telegraph line linking the west and east coasts of the United States was completed.

1864 Confederate troops defeated Kansas militia troops at the Battle of the Big Blue (Missouri).

1881 The Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert.

1884 The International Meridian Conference adopted Greenwich Mean Time worldwide, with 24 international time zones and longitude zero at the Greenwich Meridian.

1897 The world's first automobile dealership opened in London, England.
1897 Hector Boiardi, aka Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, was born.
1897 Librarian and author Justin Winsor died.

1903 Biologist George Wells Beadle was born.
1903 Comic actor Curly Howard was born.

1906 Painter Paul Cézanne died.

1907 Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth bought Barnum & Bailey circus.
1907 A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company stock lead to a U.S.-wide run on banks.

1913 An explosion at a coal mine in Dawson, New Mexico, killed 263 miners.

1920 LSD proponent Timothy Leary was born.

1924 Toastmasters International was founded.

1926 J. Gordon Whitehead sucker-punched magician Harry Houdini in the stomach.

1928 Andrew Fisher, former Prime Minister of Australia, died.

1934 Armed robber and murderer Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd was killed by law enforcement officers.

1938 Chester Carlson demonstrated the first Xerox copying machine.
1938 Actor Christopher Lloyd was born.

1948 Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, failed assassin of President Gerald Ford, was born.

1949 A train derailment near Nowy Dwor, Poland, killed about 200 persons.

1951 An earthquake killed about 100 persons in Formosa.

1952 Laos gained full independence from France.

1962 U.S. President John F. Kennedy publicly announced a U.S. naval blockade of Cuba in response to the Soviet Union installing missile bases on that island.

1963 225,000 students boycotted Chicago, Illinois, schools in a "Freedom Day" protest.
1963 Brian Boitano, U.S. Olympic gold medalist figure skater, was born.

1973 Cellist Pablo Casals died.

1975 The Soviet spacecraft Venera 9 soft-landed on Venus.
1975 The Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Red Sox, 4 games to 3, to win the World Series.
1975 The World Football League disbanded.
1975 Historian Arnold Toynbee died.

1976 Red Dye No. 4 was banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

1977 International Sun-Earth Explorers 1 and 2 were launched into Earth orbit.

1979 The deposed Shah of Iran arrived in the United States for medical treatment.

1981 The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified.
1981 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame artificial sweetener for tabletop use.

1992 Actor Cleavon Little died.

2008 India launched its first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1.

2009 Comedian Soupy Sales died.

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This page was last updated on October 23, 2018.