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JFK’s address on Cuban Missile Crisis shocks the nation

Born on This Day

Robert Capa

1913 - 1954

American photojournalist whose images of the Spanish Civil War and World War II captured the stark realities of battle.

Joan Fontaine

1917 - 2013

Oscar-winning Hollywood star of Alfred Hitchcock classics Rebecca and Suspicion. Had bitter rivalry with sister Olivia de Havilland.

Annette Funicello

1942 - 2013

Actor who graduated from TV’s “Mickey Mouse Club” to Beach Party films with fellow 1960s teen idol Frankie Avalon.

Robert CapaGetty Images

Joan FontaineBettmann Archive

Annette FunicelloGetty Images

1895

OCT22

In one of the most spectacular railway accidents ever, a train with a faulty brake hurtles through Paris’ Gare Montparnasse and out the front, landing nose down in the street. Curious onlookers buy train tickets just to go in and ogle the damage.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on October 22nd

First parachute jump is made over Paris

The first parachute jump of note is made by André-Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris on October 22, 1797.

Harry Houdini is punched nine days before his death

Legendary escape artist Harry Houdini is repeatedly punched in the stomach on October 22, 1926. Nine days later, he dies on Halloween.

FBI agents kill fugitive “Pretty Boy” Floyd

Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd is shot by FBI agents in a corn field in East Liverpool, Ohio. Floyd, who had been a hotly pursued fugitive for four years, used his last breath to deny his involvement in the infamous Kansas City Massacre, in which four officers were shot to death at a train station. He […]

American forces suffer first casualties in Vietnam

U.S. military personnel suffer their first casualties in the war when 13 Americans are wounded in three terrorist bombings of Military Assistance Advisory Group and U.S. Information Service installations in Saigon. The rising tide of guerrilla activity in South Vietnam reached an estimated 30 terrorist incidents by the end of the year and at least […]

Jean-Paul Sartre wins—and declines—Nobel Prize in Literature

Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, which he declines. In his novels, essays, and plays, Sartre advanced the philosophy of existentialism, arguing that each individual must create meaning for his or her own life.

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President Lyndon Johnson signs the Highway Beautification Act

On October 22, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Highway Beautification Act, which attempts to limit billboards, junkyards and other unsightly roadside messes along America’s interstates.

173rd Airborne trooper dives onto live grenade, saving comrades

In action on this day near Phu Cuong, about 35 miles northwest of Saigon, PFC Milton Lee Olive III of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, throws himself on an enemy grenade and saves four soldiers, including his platoon leader, 1st Lt. James Sanford. The action came during a patrol that made contact with Communist […]

South Vietnamese President Thieu turns down peace proposal

In Saigon, Henry Kissinger meets with South Vietnamese President Thieu to secure his approval of a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out at the secret peace talks with the North Vietnamese in Paris. The proposal presumed a postwar role for the Viet Cong and Thieu rejected the proposed accord point for point and accused […]

Cyclist Lance Armstrong is stripped of his seven Tour de France titles

On October 22, 2012, Lance Armstrong is formally stripped of the seven Tour de France titles he won from 1999 to 2005 and banned for life from competitive cycling after being charged with systematically using illicit performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions as well as demanding that some of his Tour teammates dope in order to […]

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