Saturday, October 22

This Day In History

• 1746   John Hamilton, the Royal Governor of New Jersey officially chartered the College of New Jersey. The school is now known as Princeton University.
  
• 1797   The first person to jump from a hot air balloon did so over Paris on this day. André-Jacque Garnerin, a Frenchman, accomplished the feat.
  
• 1844   On this day, according to those who practiced Millerism, the world was to come to an end. A man named William Miller, religious leader and founder of the Adventist church, started the Millerism movement. Some say his followers got rid of all their earthly possessions and climbed to high places so as to be saved when the world ended.
  
• 1915   Some 25,000 women marched in New York City demanding the right to vote.
  
• 1942   Britain launched a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein in Egypt during World War II.
  
• 1946   The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow.
  
• 1956   An anti-Stalinist revolt began in Hungary.
  
• 1973   President Richard M. Nixon agreed to turn White House tape recordings requested by the Watergate special prosecutor over to Judge John J. Sirica.
  
• 1987   The U.S. Senate rejected the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork on a 58-42 vote.
  
• 1989   A white man, Charles Stuart, claimed that he and his pregnant wife had both been shot by a black robber in Boston; Carol Stuart and her prematurely delivered baby died. Weeks later, Stuart was implicated in the killings and apparently committed suicide.
  
• 1993   Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Joe Carter became the second player to end the World Series with a home run. His three-run shot in the ninth inning gave Toronto an 8-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6.
  
• 1995   A jury in Houston convicted Yolanda Saldivar of murdering Tejano singing star Selena.
  
• 1996   The civil trial of O.J. Simpson opened in Santa Monica, Calif. Simpson was later found liable in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
  
• 1998   Dr. Barnett Slepian, a doctor who performed abortions, was killed at his home in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., when a sniper fired through his kitchen window.
  
• 1998   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat signed a land-for-peace agreement at the White House, following nine days of talks at Wye River, Md.
  
• 2002   Gunmen seized a crowded Moscow theater, taking hundreds hostage and threatening to kill their hostages unless the Russian army pulled out of Chechnya.
  
• 2003   Madame Chiang Kai-shek, widow of the Chinese nationalist leader, died in New York at age 105.
  

Happy Birthday To

• 1811   Franz Liszt (composer: The Hungarian Rhapsodies, Les Preludes, Orpheus, Tasso, Faust, Hungarian Fantasy, Sonata in B Minor; died July 31, 1886)
  
• 1917   Joan Fontaine (de Havilland) (Academy Award-winning actress)
  
• 1920   Timothy Leary (psychologist, professor: Harvard; 1960s icon: promoted the use of LSD in the search of political and spiritual freedom; died May 31, 1996)
  
• 1942   Annette Funicello (actress: The Mickey Mouse Club)