Today in History October 22

794 – Emperor Kanmu relocates the Japanese capital to Heian-kyō (now Kyoto).

1707 – Four British naval vessels run aground on the Isles of Scilly because of faulty navigation. In response, the first Longitude Act is enacted in 1714.

1746 – The College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) receives its charter.

1784 – Russia founds a colony on Kodiak Island, Alaska.

1797 – André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump, from one thousand meters (3,200 feet) above Paris.

1877 – The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners.

1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasts 13 hours before burning out).

1884 – The Royal Observatory in Britain is adopted as the prime meridian of longitude.

The terminal before the crash

1895 – In Paris an express train derails after overrunning the buffer stop, crossing almost 30 metres (100 ft) of concourse before crashing through a wall and falling 10 metres (33 ft) to the road below.

1941 – World War II: French resistance member Guy Môquet and 29 other hostages are executed by the Germans in retaliation for the death of a German officer.

1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval “quarantine” of the Communist nation.

1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but turns down the honor.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Oceanafter orbiting the Earth 163 times.

1975 – The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus.

1976 – Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs.

2008 – India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.

2014 – Michael Zehaf-Bibeau attacks the Parliament of Canada, killing a soldier and injuring three other people.

1197 – Juntoku, Japanese emperor (d. 1242)

1701 – Maria Amalia, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1756)

1811 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist and composer (d. 1886)

1882 – N. C. Wyeth, American painter and illustrator (d. 1945)

1903 – George Wells Beadle, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)

1913 – Robert Capa, Hungarian-American photographer and journalist (d. 1954)

1920 – Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author (d. 1996)

1925 – Robert Rauschenberg, American painter and illustrator (d. 2008)

1929 – Dory Previn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2012)

1942 – Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (d. 2013)

1946 – Deepak Chopra, Indian-American physician and author

741 – Charles Martel, Frankish king (b. 688)

842 – Abo, Japanese prince (b. 792)

1383 – Ferdinand I of Portugal (b. 1345)

1973 – Pablo Casals, Catalan cellist and conductor (b. 1876)

1993 – Innes Ireland, English race car driver and engineer (b. 1930)

2002 – Richard Helms, American intelligence agent and diplomat, 8th Director of Central Intelligence (b. 1913)