Today is Sunday, Oct. 22, the 295th day of 2017. There are 70 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 22, 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.
On this date:
In 4004 BC, the world was created at approximately six o’clock in the evening, according to the Ussher chronology.
In 362, the temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire.
In 1633, the Ming dynasty defeats the Dutch East India Company at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay.
In 1784, Russia founds a colony on Kodiak Island, Alaska.
In 1797, French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet over Paris.
In 1836, Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.
In 1884, the Royal Observatory in Britain is adopted as the prime meridian of longitude by the International Meridian Conference.
In 1926, Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, “The Sun Also Rises,” was published by Scribner’s of New York.
In 1934, bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd was shot to death by U.S. federal agents and local police at a farm near East Liverpool, Ohio.
In 1953, the Franco-Lao Treaty of Amity and Association effectively made Laos an independent member of the French Union.
In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was named winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, even though the French writer had said he would decline the award.
In 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.
In 1991, the European Community and the European Free Trade Association concluded a landmark accord to create a free trade zone of 19 nations by 1993.
In 2008, India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.
In 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.
Black Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale is 81. Actor Derek Jacobi is 79. Actor Jeff Goldblum is 65. Rock musician Greg Hawkes is 65. Movie director Bill Condon is 62. Actor Luis Guzman is 60. Rock musician Cris Kirkwood is 57. Olympic gold medal figure skater Brian Boitano is 54. Reggae rapper Shaggy is 49. Movie director Spike Jonze is 48. Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson is 42. Rock musician Zac Hanson (Hanson) is 32. Actor Corey Hawkins is 29. Actress Sofia Vassilieva is 25.
Thought for Today:
“Forgiveness is the final form of love.” — Reinhold Niebuhr, American clergyman and author (1892-1971).