The Punch That Came Nine Days Before Houdini's Death
On October 22, 1926, a McGill student named J. Gordon Whitehead struck an unprepared Harry Houdini in the stomach in a Montreal dressing room; the great escape artist died nine days later.
On October 22
Eight Million Dollars in Three Hours: The Panic of 1907
On October 22, 1907, a bank run drained $8 million from New York's Knickerbocker Trust in under three hours, igniting a panic that ended with the creation of the Federal Reserve.
The Man Who Jumped Out of a Balloon — and Invented the Parachute
On October 22, 1797, French balloonist André-Jacques Garnerin cut loose from a hydrogen balloon 3,000 ft over Paris and floated down under silk — the first successful high-altitude parachute descent.