Today is October 22 2014

National Nut Day: More

• International Caps Lock Day: More
  Jun 28 and October 22
• National Color Day: More
• Medical Assistants Recognition Day: More
  Wednesday of Third Full Week in October (Medical Assistants Recognition Week)
• Smart is Cool Day: More
• International Stuttering Awareness Day: More

• In 1797. The first parachute jump (non-rigid) is made by Andre-Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris.
  From Wikipedia: 'André-Jacques Garnerin (31 January 1769 – 18 August 1823) was a balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute. He was appointed Official Aeronaut of France.
  
  Garnerin, a student of the ballooning pioneer professor Jacques Charles, was involved with the flight of hot air balloons, and worked with his brother Jean-Baptiste-Olivier Garnerin (1766–1849) in most of his ballooning activities. Eventually he was appointed Official Aeronaut of France.
  
  Garnerin began experiments with early parachutes based on umbrella-shaped devices and carried out the first parachute descent (in the gondola) with a silk parachute on 22 October 1797 at Parc Monceau, Paris (1st Brumaire, Year VI of the Republican calendar). Garnerin's first parachute resembled a closed umbrella before he ascended, with a pole running down its center and a rope running through a tube in the pole, which connected it to the balloon. Garnerin rode in a basket attached to the bottom of the parachute; at a height of approximately 3,000 feet (1,000 m) he severed the rope that connected his parachute to the balloon. The balloon continued skyward while Garnerin, with his basket and parachute, fell. The basket swung violently during descent, then bumped and scraped when it landed, but Garnerin emerged uninjured. The white canvas parachute was umbrella-shaped and approximately 23 feet (7 m) in diameter'.
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• In 1836, Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.
  From Wikipedia: 'Houston was twice elected President of the Republic of Texas. In the 1836 election, he defeated Stephen F. Austin and Henry Smith with a landslide of over 79% of the vote. Houston served from October 22, 1836, to December 10, 1838. The Constitution of the Republic of Texas stated that no president could succeed himself, but did not prohibit any non-consecutive multiple terms.
  
  When his first term ended, he was elected to serve as a representative from San Augustine County in the Republic of Texas House of Representatives. After his term as representative ended, Houston again served as President of the Republic of Texas from December 12, 1841, to December 9, 1844'.
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• In 1861, The first telegraph line linking the West and East coasts is completed.
  From Wikipedia: 'The first transcontinental telegraph (completed in 1861) was a line that connected an existing network in the eastern United States to a small network in California by a link between Omaha and Carson City via Salt Lake City. It was a milestone in electrical engineering and in the formation of the United States of America. It served as the only method of near-instantaneous communication between the east and west coasts during the 1860s. In 1841, it had taken 110 days for the news of the death of President Harrison to reach Los Angeles.
  
  Construction of the first transcontinental telegraph was the work of Western Union, which Hiram Sibley and Ezra Cornell had established in 1856 by merging companies operating east of the Mississippi River. A second significant step was the passing of the Telegraph Act by the Congress in 1860, which authorized the government to open bids for the construction of a telegraph line between Missouri and California and regulated the service to be provided. Eventually, the only bidder would be Sibley, because all competitors—Theodore Adams, Benjamin Ficklin and John Harmon—withdrew at the last minute. Later they joined Sibley in his effort. Similar to the First Transcontinental Railroad, elimination of the gap in the telegraph service between Fort Kearny in Nebraska and Fort Churchill in Nevada was planned to be divided between teams that would be advancing the construction in opposite directions. James Gamble, an experienced telegraph builder in California was put in charge of the western crew and Edward Creighton was responsible for the eastern crew. From Salt Lake City, a crew in charge of James Street advanced westward and W.H. Stebbins’s grew eastward toward Fort Kearny. Creighton’s crew erected its first pole on 4 July 1861. When the project was completed in October 1861, they had planted 27,500 poles holding 2,000 miles of single-strand iron wire over a terrain that was not always inviting. California Chief Justice Stephen Field sent one of the first messages from San Francisco to Abraham Lincoln, using the occasion to assure to the president the California allegiance to the Union. Note that the construction took place while Civil War fighting was taking place to the southeast. The entire cost of the system was half a million dollars'.
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• In 1879, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (manufacture the day before), using a filament of carbonized thread which lasted 13 hours.
  From Wikipedia: 'In addressing the question of who invented the incandescent lamp, historians Robert Friedel and Paul Israel list 22 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison. They conclude that Edison's version was able to outstrip the others because of a combination of three factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve (by use of the Sprengel pump) and a high resistance that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.
  
  Historian Thomas Hughes has attributed Edison's success to his development of an entire, integrated system of electric lighting'.
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• In 1883, The original Metropolitan Opera House, in NYC, had it's grand opening.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New York's old established Academy of Music opera house. The subscribers to the Academy's limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these "old money" families were loath to admit New York's newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Opera's founding subscribers determined to build a new opera house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of some 22 men assembled at Delmonico's restaurant on April 28, 1880. They elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The new theater, built at 39th and Broadway, would include three tiers of private boxes in which the scions of New York's powerful new industrial families could display their wealth and establish their social prominence. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, and Vanderbilt families, all of whom had been excluded from the Academy. The new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22, 1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Music's opera season folded just three years after the Met opened'.
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• In 1884, The International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, USA adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) worldwide, creating 24 international time zones with longitude zero at the Greenwich meridian.
  From Wikipedia: 'The International Meridian Conference was a conference held in October 1884 in Washington, D.C., in the United States, to determine a prime meridian for international use. The conference was held at the request of U.S. President Chester A. Arthur. The subject to discuss was the choice of "a meridian to be employed as a common zero of longitude and standard of time reckoning throughout the world". It resulted in selection of the Greenwich Meridian as an international standard for zero degrees longitude'.
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• In 1907, Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth buys Barnum and Bailey circus.
  From Wikipedia: 'Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus is a United States traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. The circus, known as Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows, was started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey was merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers had purchased Barnum and Bailey Ltd. following Bailey's death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919.
  
  On July 16, 1956, at the Heidelberg Race Track in Pittsbugh, Pennsylvania, the circus ended its season early, with President John Ringling North announcing that it would no longer exhibit under their own portable tents and starting in 1957 would exhibit in permanent venues, such as sports stadiums and arenas that had the seating already in place. In 1967, Irvin Feld and his brother Israel, along with Houston Judge Roy Hofheinz bought the circus from the Ringling family. In 1971, the Felds and Hofheinz sold the circus to Mattel, buying it back from the toy company in 1982. After the death of Irvin Feld in 1984, the circus has been a part of Feld Entertainment, an international entertainment firm headed by Kenneth Feld, with its headquarters in Ellenton, Florida.
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• In 1926, Harry Houdini, agrees to a test of his strength, by allowing himself to be hit in the stomach. He was, however, unprepared for the blows, and in a lying position. This precipitated his death from peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix, October 31, 1926 .
  From Wikipedia: 'Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz, later Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was an American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the US and then as "Harry Handcuff Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can.
  
  In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who imitated his escape stunts.
  
  Houdini made several movies, but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also a keen aviator, and aimed to become the first man to fly a plane in Australia.
  
  Harry Houdini died of peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix at 1:26 p.m. on October 31, 1926 in Room 401 at Detroit's Grace Hospital, aged 52. In his final days, he optimistically held to a strong belief that he would recover, but his last words before dying were reportedly, "I'm tired of fighting." Eyewitnesses to an incident at Houdini's dressing room in the Princess Theatre in Montreal gave rise to speculation that Houdini's death was caused by a McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead, who delivered a surprise attack of multiple blows to Houdini's abdomen'.
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• In 1939, The first televised pro football game was telecast from New York on NBC. Brooklyn defeated Philadelphia 23-14. The ability to record TV broadcasts had not been invented yet.
  From Wikipedia: 'NBC was the first major television network to cover an NFL game, when on October 22, 1939, it broadcast a match between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Brooklyn Dodgers; the network was still only in its infancy, with only two affiliates, the modern day WRGB (now a CBS affiliate) in Schenectady and W2XBS in New York City. Portions of that game still survive via films, but the film is not footage from the telecast (recordings of television broadcasts did not begin until 1948).
  
  Regular broadcasts of games began after World War II and the first NFL championship to be televised was the 1948 match between the Eagles and Cardinals.
  
  In 1950, the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins became the first NFL teams to have all of their games—home and away—televised. In the same year, other teams made deals to have selected games telecast. The DuMont Network then paid a rights fee of US$75,000 to broadcast the 1951 NFL Championship Game across the entire nation'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1962, JFK imposes a naval blockade on Cuba, beginning the 'Cuban Missile Crisis'.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (Spanish: Crisis de octubre), the Caribbean Crisis kij, or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day (October 16–28, 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. Along with being televised worldwide, it was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.
  
  In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, and the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to agree to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter future harassment of Cuba. An agreement was reached during a secret meeting between Khrushchev and Fidel Castro in July 1962 and construction of a number of missile launch facilities started later that summer.
  
  The 1962 midterm elections were under way in the United States and the White House had denied charges that it was ignoring dangerous Soviet missiles 90 miles from Florida. These missile preparations were confirmed when an Air Force U-2 spy plane produced clear photographic evidence of medium-range (SS-4) and intermediate-range (R-14) ballistic missile facilities. The United States established a military blockade to prevent further missiles from entering Cuba. It announced that they would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the weapons already in Cuba be dismantled and returned to the USSR.
  
  After a long period of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between President John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a U.S. public declaration and agreement never to invade Cuba again without direct provocation. Secretly, the United States also agreed that it would dismantle all U.S.-built Jupiter MRBMs, which were deployed in Turkey and Italy against the Soviet Union but were not known to the public.
  
  When all offensive missiles and Ilyushin Il-28 light bombers had been withdrawn from Cuba, the blockade was formally ended on November 20, 1962. The negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union pointed out the necessity of a quick, clear, and direct communication line between Washington and Moscow. As a result, the Moscow–Washington hotline was established. A series of agreements sharply reduced U.S.–Soviet tensions during the following years'.
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• In 1975, The Soviet Venera 9, lands on Venus. The first to do so.
  From Wikipedia: 'Venera 9, manufacturer's designation: 4V-1 No. 660, was a Soviet unmanned space mission to Venus. It consisted of an orbiter and a lander. It was launched on June 8, 1975, at 02:38:00 UTC and had a mass of 4,936 kilograms (10,882 lb). The orbiter was the first spacecraft to orbit Venus, while the lander was the first to return images from the surface of another planet.
  
  The orbiter consisted of a cylinder with two solar panel wings and a high gain parabolic antenna attached to the curved surface. A bell-shaped unit holding propulsion systems was attached to the bottom of the cylinder, and mounted on top was a 2.4-metre (7.9 ft) sphere which held the lander.
  
  The orbiter entered Venus orbit on October 20, 1975. Its mission was to act as a communications relay for the lander and to explore cloud layers and atmospheric parameters with several instruments and experiments. It performed 17 survey missions from October 26, 1975 to December 25, 1975.
  
  On October 20, 1975, the lander spacecraft separated from the orbiter, and landing was made with the Sun near zenith at 05:13 UTC on October 22. Venera 9 landed within a 150 km (93 mi) radius of 31.01°N 291.64°E , near Beta Regio, on a steep (20°) slope covered with boulders (suspected to be the slope of the tectonic rift valley, Aikhylu Chasma). The entry sphere weighed 1,560 kg (3,440 lb) and the surface payload was 660 kg (1,455 lb).
  
  It was the first spacecraft to return an image from the surface of another planet.
  
  A system of circulating fluid was used to distribute the heat load. This system, plus pre-cooling prior to entry, permitted operation of the lander for 53 minutes after landing, at which time radio contact with the orbiter was lost as the orbiter moved out of radio range. During descent, heat dissipation and deceleration were accomplished sequentially by protective hemispheric shells, three parachutes, a disc-shaped drag brake, and a compressible, metal, doughnut-shaped landing cushion. The landing was a bout 2,200 km (1,400 mi) from the Venera 10 landing site.
  
  Venera 9 measured clouds that were 30–40 km (19–25 mi) thick with bases at 30–35 km (19–22 mi) altitude. It also measured atmospheric chemicals including hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, bromine and iodine. Other measurements included surface pressure of about 9,100 kilopascals (90 atm), temperature of 485 °C (905 °F), and surface light levels comparable to those at Earth mid-latitudes on a cloudy summer day. Venera 9 was the first probe to send back black and white television pictures from the Venusia n surface showing no shadows, no apparent dust in the air, and a variety of 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16 in) rocks which were not eroded. Planned 360-degree panoramic pictures could not be taken because one of two camera lens covers failed to come off, limiting pictures to 180 degrees. This failure recurred with Venera 10'.
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• In 1994, A 67 foot tall statue of Sam Houston is unveiled in Texas.
  From Wikipedia: 'A Tribute to Courage monument is a statue of Sam Houston located in Huntsville, Texas. Sam Houston is a major Texas hero. The statue by sculptor David Adickes is 67 feet tall and was built in 1994. It is clearly visible to motorists heading north on Interstate 45'.
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• In 2008, India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.
  From Wikipedia: 'Chandrayaan-1 was India's first lunar probe. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008, and operated until August 2009. The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor. India launched the spacecraft using a PSLV-XL rocket, serial number C11, on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Nellore District, Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km north of Chennai, at 06:22 IST (00:52 UTC). Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced the project on course in his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2003. The mission was a major boost to India's space program, as India researched and developed its own technology in order to explore the Moon. The vehicle was successfully inserted into lunar orbit on 8 November 2008.
  
  On 14 November 2008, the Moon Impact Probe separated from the Chandrayaan orbiter at 20:06 and struck the south pole in a controlled manner, making India the fourth country to place its flag on the Moon. The probe impacted near the crater Shackleton at 20:31 ejecting sub-surface soil that could be analysed for the presence of lunar water ice.
  
  After almost a year, the orbiter started suffering from several technical issues including failure of the star sensors and poor thermal shielding, Chandrayaan stopped sending radio signals at 01:30 IST on 29 August 2009 shortly after which, the ISRO officially declared the mission over. Chandrayaan operated for 312 days as opposed to the intended two years but the mission achieved 95% of its planned objectives. Among its many achievements, the greatest achievement was the discovery of the widespread presence of water molecules in the lunar soil'.
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Tomorrow's food holiday will be ' National Nut Day'. From a strictly botanical definition, these are nuts: hazelnuts, chestnuts, and acorns,. These are not nuts: almonds, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, and Brazil nuts and me.

Be careful tomorrow June 28 of this year was Caps Lock day. Since this day seems to be on everyone's, 'don't list', tomorrow is also 'International Caps Locks Day'. This is not, but should also be, a day of disdain for the cap-lock key, which is guilty of most of your 'page not found' and password do-overs, in your browser. I guess you realize this is a day against using uppercase in your typing. I might say I am also against typing all lowercase, but I might get run out of town on an I-beam. (An I-beam l ooks like a capital I and a rail, the traditional conveyance of forced egress, looks like a lowercase i. Get it? Why do I bother?)

You can't be drab tomorrow as it will be 'National Color Day'. Put a little color into your life, but let's watch those yellow and lime-green combos.

We have two awareness days tomorrow. It will be 'Medical Assistants Recognition Day'. It is the Wednesday of the Third Full Week in October (Medical Assistants Recognition Week) The second is 'International Stuttering Awareness Day'.

Tomorrow is 'Smart is Cool Day'. Does it follow that dumb is hot. In the colloquialisms of the past 50 or 60 years, both cool and hot can be used interchangeably. Does that mean dumb is also cool? I'm confused. I think I will just stay inside tomorrow, and not risk it. Besides my lime green leisure suit with the yellow tie, is not back from the cleaners.

Jack London once said 'Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?' We can't put time in reverse, but we can see where we have been. Let's follow the tracks back to October 22 in the past.

In 1797, The first parachute jump (non-rigid) is made by Andre-Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris.

In 1836, Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

In 1861, The first telegraph line linking the West and East coasts is completed.

In 1879,- Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb, using a filament of carbonized thread which lasted 13 hours.

In 1883, The original Metropolitan Opera House, in NYC, had it's grand opening,

In 1884, The International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, USA adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) worldwide, creating 24 international time zones with longitude zero at the Greenwich meridian.

In 1907, Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth buys Barnum and Bailey circus.

In 1926 - Harry Houdini, agrees to a test of his strength, by allowing himself to be hit in the stomach. He was, however, unprepared for the blows, and in a lying position. He received injuries which precipitated his death from peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix, on October 31, 1926 .

In 1962, JFK imposes a naval blockade on Cuba, beginning the 'Cuban Missile Crisis'.

In 1975, The Soviet Venera 9, lands on Venus. The first to do so.

In 1994, A 67 foot tall statue of Sam Houston is unveiled in Texas. Yep, this is the one you can see on I-45.

No. 1 song

• Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann: More
  'Oh, Pretty Woman' has been displaced by 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy', which will hold the no. 1 spot until October 31 2014, when 'We'll Sing in the Sunshine', takes over.

Top movie

• Send Me No Flowers More
  Having displaced 'Fail-Safe', it will be there until the weekend box office of October 25 1964 when, 'Mary Poppins (regains the box office)', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: October 22 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: October 22 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 22nd October More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 22nd October More
• On-This-day.com history 22nd October More
• On-This-day.com music history 22nd October More
• Wikipedia.com: History October 22 More

Food: Apple Month, Rhubarb Month, Sausage Month, Spinach Lovers Month, National Chili Month, National Popcorn Poppin' Month, National Seafood Month Pear and Pineapple Month, , Vegetarian Month
Other
AIDS Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Bullying Prevention Month, Celiac Disease Awareness Month, Class Reunion Month, Down Syndrome Awareness Month, Dyslexia Awareness Month, National Book Month, National Dental Hygiene Month, National Down Syndrome Month, National Spina Bifida Awareness Month, National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Month

October is:

October origin (from Wikipedia): October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old Roman calendar, October retained its name (from the Greek meaning 'eight') after January and February were inserted into the calendar that had originally been created by the Romans. "
October is commonly associated with the season of autumn in the Northern hemisphere and spring in the Southern hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to April in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa.

October at Wikipedia: More

If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago, or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More

Best selling books of 1964 More

• Astronomy Picture of the Day: More
• NOAA: - National Hurricane Center - Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook: More
• Listen to Old Radio Shows: (streaming mp3 with schedule) More
• NASA TV: (video feed) More
  NASA TV schedule: More
• Public Domain eBook Links

  Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More

• Podcast: A Moment of Science. Approximately 1 minute general science facts.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: The Naked Scientists. Current science, medicine, space and other science
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: Quirks & Quarks. Current science news.
  Home page: More
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• Articles and videos: Universe Today. Current space and astronomy news.
  Home page: More
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• Old Picture of the Day - "Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph."
  Home page: More
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Below, are listed several holiday sites that I reference in addition to other holiday researches.

US Government Holidays

• 2014 Postal Holidays More
• 2014 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

• List of holidays by country More
• Holidays and Observances around the World More