Oct. 22
Today in history
Today is Oct. 22. On this date in:
1746: Princeton University, originally chartered as the College of New Jersey, was established. It is the fourth-oldest college in the United States.
1797: In Paris, pioneering balloonist André-Jacques Garnerin paved the way for modern skydiving when, after reaching an altitude of 3,200 feet in a hydrogen balloon, he descended with a silk parachute.
1836: Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first elected president of the independent Republic of Texas, which later became part of the United States.
1879: Thomas Edison successfully tested an electric incandescent lamp with a carbonized filament at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, keeping it lit for over 13 hours – and paving the way for the widespread use of electric lights.
1883: The Metropolitan Opera House, also known as the Met, then located on Broadway at 39th Street in New York City, opened with a performance of Charles Gounod’s “Faust.”
1934: American gangster Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd was killed by FBI agents in East Liverpool, Ohio.
1957: American forces suffer the first causalities of the Vietnam War when 13 American military advisers were wounded in three separate terrorist bombings.
1968: Apollo 7 returned to Earth, solidifying the success of the first crewed Apollo mission with a safe return that demonstrated the feasibility of sending astronauts to the moon.
1975: The Soviet space probe Venera 9 became one of the first spacecraft to transmit images from another planet when it sent back close-up pictures of the surface of Venus.
1977: The New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia was opened to traffic. It was the longest steel arch bridge in the world until the 2003 construction of Shanghai’s Lupu Bridge in China. It’s still the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the United States – and at 876 feet, one of the highest.
1981: The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was officially decertified as a union by the Federal Labor Relations Authority after a strike and thousands were fired by President Ronald Reagan.
1981: The Food and Drug Administration re-authorized the artificial sweetener aspartame for use in tabletop sweeteners and various foods and beverages.
1990: Pearl Jam played their first official concert at the Off Ramp Cafe in Seattle. The band was then still known as Mookie Blaylock.
2012: The International Cycling Union formally stripped Lance Armstrong of his seven consecutive Tour de France titles and banned him for life following a doping report.
– USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in history, October 22
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