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4004 BCE - The day the universe was created according to British Archbishop James Ussher after using the Bible's chronology to calculate the date.

362 - The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire.

1383 - The 1383-1385 Crisis in Portugal: A period of civil war and disorder began when King Fernando died without a male heir to the Portuguese throne.

1575 - Foundation of Aguascalientes.

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

1797 - One thousand meters (3,200 feet) above Paris, Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump.

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

1844 - The Great Anticipation: Millerites, followers of William Miller, anticipated the end of the world in conjunction with the Second Advent of Christ. The following day became known as the Great Disappointment.

1877 - The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners. Those widows and orphans who were unable to support themselves were evicted by the mine owners and likely sent to the Poor House.

1878 - The first rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, between Broughton and Swinton.

1883 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Gounod's Faust (opera).

1895 - In Paris an express train overruns a buffer stop and crosses more than 30 metres of concourse before plummeting through a window at Gare Montparnasse.

1907 - Panic of 1907: A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company stock sets events in motion that will lead to a depression.

1910 - Dr. Crippen is convicted at the Old Bailey of poisoning his wife and was subsequently hanged at Pentonville Prison in London.

1924 - Toastmasters International is founded.

1926 - J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in Montreal.

1934 - In East Liverpool, Ohio, notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd is shot and killed by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

1943 - Kassel: RAF conducts an air raid on the city of 236,000 people, killing 10,000, rendering 150,000 homeless. Second firestorm raid in Germany

1953 - Laos gains independence from France.

1956 - A concrete girder weighing 200 tons kills 48 in Karachi, Pakistan.

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

1960 - Ed Yost makes the first free flight of a modern hot-air balloon at Bruning, Nebraska.

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy announces that American spy planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the island nation.

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

1964 - Canada: A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada.

1966 - The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A' Go-Go).

1968 - Apollo program: Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.

1969 - Led Zeppelin release the classic album Led Zeppelin II, featuring the hit single "Whole Lotta Love."

1972 - Vietnam War: In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris. Thieu rejects the proposal and accused the United States of conspiring to undermine his regime

1975 - Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox hits a home run to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

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. The dye is still used in Canada.

1981 - The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for its strike the previous August.

1983 - Two correctional officers are killed by inmates in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspired the Supermax model of prisons.

1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Tax Reform Act of 1986 into law.

1987 - John Coolidge Adams's opera Nixon in China debuts at the Houston Grand Opera in Houston, Texas.

1987 - The pinnacle rock Gendarme falls at Seneca Rocks.

1989 - Jacob Wetterling is abducted in St. Joseph, Minnesota.

1990 - Seminal grunge band Pearl Jam, then named Mookie Blaylock, play their first show as a band at the Off Ramp club in Seattle, WA.

1991 - Dimitrios Arhondonis, metropolitan of Chalcedon elected 270 th Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch as Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Orthodox church.

1999 - Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity.

2002 - Internet users declare this day as the official Caps Lock Day.

2005 - Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms.

2005 - Crash of Bellview Airlines Flight 210 in Nigeria kills all 117 on board.

2005 - The first phase of Transantiago, the new public transport system of Santiago de Chile is implemented.

2005 - The final new episode of the long running 10 years in the making Nickelodeon show "ALL THAT" aired on Saturday Night Teenick!

2006 - A Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama.

2006 - Michael Schumacher drives his last Formula 1 Race.

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1071 - William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and poet (d. 1126)

1197 - Emperor Juntoku of Japan (d. 1242)

1511 - Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1553)

1592 - Gustaf Horn, Swedish soldier and politician (d. 1657)

1688 - Nadir Shah of Persia (d. 1747)

1689 - King John V of Portugal (d. 1750)

1729 - Johann Reinhold Forster, German botanist (d. 1798)

1770 - Thomas Seebeck, Baltic German physicist (d. 1831)

1809 - Volney E. Howard, American politician (d. 1889)

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

1818 - Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle, French poet (d. 1894)

1844 - Louis Riel, Canadian Metis Political Leader (d. 1885)

1858 - German Empress Augusta Victoria, wife of German Emperor Wilhelm II (d. 1921)

1865 - Kristjan Raud, Estonian painter (d. 1943)

1870 - Alfred Douglas, English partner of Oscar Wilde (d. 1945)

1870 - Ivan Bunin, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)

1881 - Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)

1887 - John Reed, American journalist (d. 1920)

1900 - James Hall, American actor

1903 - George Wells Beadle, American geneticist, Nobel laureate (d. 1989)

1903 - Curly Howard, American actor and comedian, member of the Three Stooges (d. 1952)

1904 - Constance Bennett, American actress (d. 1965)

1905 - Joseph Kosma, Hungarian-born composer (d. 1969)

1907 - Jimmie Foxx, baseball player (d. 1967)

1908 - John Gould, American humorist, essayist, and columnist (d. 2003)

1912 - Frances Drake, American actress (d. 2000)

1913 - Robert Capa, American war photographer (born in Hungary)(d. 1954)

1913 - Bao Dai, Emperor of Vietnam (d. 1997)

1913 - Hans-Peter Tschudi, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 2002)

1917 - Joan Fontaine, British actress

1918 - Lou Klein, baseball player (d. 1976)

1919 - Doris Lessing, British writer

1920 - Timothy Leary, American writer and professor (d. 1996)

1921 - Georges Brassens, French singer (d. 1981)

1921 - Alexander Kronrod, Russian mathematician (d. 1986)

1925 - Robert Rauschenberg, American painter, sculptor, and graphic artist

1925 - Dory Previn, American songwriter

1927 - Allan Hendrickse, South African politician (d. 2005)

1929 - Lev Yashin, Russian footballer (d. 1990)

1935 - Ann Rule, American true-crime writer

1936 - Bobby Seale, American civil rights activist

1938 - Derek Jacobi, English actor

1938 - Christopher Lloyd, American actor

1939 - George Cohen, English footballer

1939 - Tony Roberts, American actor

1942 - Annette Funicello, American actress

1942 - Bobby Fuller, American rock singer and guitarist (d. 1966)

1943 - Jan de Bont, Dutch film director

1943 - Catherine Deneuve, French actress

1943 - Allen Coage, American professional wrestler

1945 - Leslie West, American musician

1945 - Sheila Sherwood, British long jumper

1946 - Kelvin MacKenzie, British media tycoon

1946 - Claude Charron, French Canadian politician and TV personality

1946 - Eddie Brigati, American singer (The Rascals)

1947 - Raymond Bachand, French Canadian politician and businessman

1948 - Lynette Fromme, American attempted assassin of Gerald Ford

1949 - Stiv Bators, American musician (The Dead Boys) (d. 1990)

1949 - Arsène Wenger, English football manager

1952 - Jeff Goldblum, American actor

1956 - Frank DiPino, baseball player

1959 - Arto Salminen, Finnish writer (d. 2005)

1963 - Brian Boitano, American figure skater

1964 - Drazen Petrovic, Croatian basketball player (d. 1993)

1964 - Toby Mac, American singer and songwriter

1965 - John Wesley Harding, American musician

1965 - Otis Smith, American football player

1966 - Valeria Golino, Italian actress

1967 - Rita Guerra, Portuguese singer

1967 - Ron Tugnutt, Canadian hockey player

1967 - Ulrike Maier, Austrian alpine skier (d. 1994)

1968 - Shaggy, Jamaican musician

1968 - Stéphane Quintal, National Hockey League player

1969 - Héctor Carrasco, baseball player

1969 - Spike Jonze, American director and film producer

1969 - Helmut Lotti, Belgian singer

1972 - Accie Connor, American professional wrestler

1973 - Ichiro Suzuki, Japanese baseball player

1974 - Tim Kinsella, American musician

1974 - Miroslav Satan, Slovakian hockey player

1975 - Míchel Salgado, Spanish footballer

1976 - Jon Foreman, American musician, lead singer of the band "Switchfoot."

1978 - Owais Shah, English cricketer

1982 - Robinson Cano Dominican baseball player

1984 - Lee Ho, Korean footballer

1985 - Zachary Hanson, American musician (Hanson)

1990 - Jonathan Lipnicki, American actor

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741 - Charles Martel, leader of the Franks (b. 686)

1383 - King Fernando I of Portugal (b. 1345)

1565 - Jean, Vicomte d'Aguisy Grolier de Servieres, French bibliophile (b. 1479)

1613 - Pomponio Nenna, Italian composer

1625 - Kikkawa Hiroie, Japanese politician (b. 1561)

1674 - Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Dutch painter (b. 1621)

1708 - Hermann Witsius, Dutch theologian (b. 1636)

1751 - William IV, Prince of Orange (b. 1711)

1755 - Elisha Williams, American rector of Yale College (b. 1694)

1792 - Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer (b. 1725)

1847 - Sahle Selassie, Negus of Shewa

1859 - Louis Spohr, German violinist and composer (b. 1784)

1891 - Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, Austrian physiologist (b. 1846)

1906 - Paul Cezanne, French painter (b. 1839)

1917 - Bob Fitzsimmons, English boxer (b. 1863)

1918 - Myrtle Gonzalez, American film and stage actress (b. 1891)

1928 - Andrew Fisher, fifth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1862)

1934 - Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (b. 1904)

1935 - Komitas, Armenian composer (b. 1869)

1954 - Jibanananda Das, Bengali Poet

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

1978 - John Riley, English poet (murdered) (b. 1937)

1979 - Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher (b. 1887)

1986 - Albert Szent-Györgyi, Hungarian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1893)

1987 - Lino Ventura, Italian-born actor (b. 1919)

1989 - Ewan MacColl, English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer (b. 1915)

1992 - Cleavon Little, American actor (b. 1939)

1995 - Sir Kingsley Amis, English writer (b. 1922)

1998 - Eric Ambler, English novelist (b. 1909)

2000 - Rodney Anoai (Yokozuna), American professional wrestler (b. 1966)

2002 - Queen Geraldina of the Albanians (b. 1915)

2005 - Arman, French-born artist (b. 1928)

2005 - Franky Gee, American singer (Captain Jack) (b. 1962)

2006 - Arthur Hill, Canadian actor (b. 1922)

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R.C. Saints - Saint Mary Salome; Philip, Severus, Eusebius, and Hermes of Heraclea; Donatus of Fiesole

Also see October 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

French Republican Calendar - Pomme (Apple) Day, first day in the Month of Brumaire