Today in History
Today’s highlight:
On Oct. 22, 1979, the U.S. government allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment — a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.
On this date:
1797: French balloonist Andre-jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet over Paris.
1811: Composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt was born in the Hungarian town of Raiding in present-day Austria.
1836: Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.
1883: The original Metropolitan Opera House in New York held its grand opening with a performance of Gounod’s “Faust.”
1906: French post-impressionist painter Paul Cezanne died in Aix-en-provence at age 67.
1934: Bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd was shot to death by federal agents and local police at a farm near East Liverpool, Ohio.
1962: In a nationally broadcast address, President John F. Kennedy revealed the presence of Soviet-built missile bases under construction in Cuba and announced a quarantine of all offensive military equipment being shipped to the Communist island nation.
1981: The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified by the federal government for its strike the previous August.
1986: President Ronald Reagan signed into law sweeping tax-overhaul legislation.
2001: A second Washington, D.C., postal worker, Joseph P. Curseen, died of inhalation anthrax.
2002: Bus driver Conrad Johnson was shot to death in Aspen Hill, Md., in the final attack carried out by the “Beltway Snipers.”
2014: A gunman shot and killed a soldier standing guard at a war memorial in Ottawa, then stormed the Canadian Parliament before he was shot and killed by the usually ceremonial sergeant-at-arms.
Ten years ago: Wikileaks released 391,831 purported Iraq war logs that suggested more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians had died in the conflict. A gang attacked a teenager’s birthday party in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, killing 14 people.
Five years ago: Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton battled Republican questions in a marathon hearing that revealed little new about the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Acting on word of an “imminent mass execution” by Islamic State militants, dozens of U.S. special operations troops and Iraqi forces raided a northern Iraqi compound, freeing approximately 70 Iraqi prisoners but losing one American service member.
One year ago: A top U.S. diplomat, William Taylor, told House investigators that President Donald Trump had held back military aid for Ukraine unless the country agreed to investigate Democrats and a company linked to Joe Biden’s family; the testimony provided lawmakers with a detailed new account of a quid-pro-quo central to the impeachment probe.