October 22, 2026: Thursday, Day 295, This Day in History

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, is the 295th day of the year, and the date has a long list of firsts: the first recorded parachute jump, the first xerographic copy and the first photograph from the surface of another planet. It is also the day Sam Houston became president of the Republic of Texas and the day John F. Kennedy told Americans about Soviet missiles in Cuba. Below: what happened on Oct. 22 through the years, the day’s observance, and what was on the calendar that week.

This day in history: October 22

Year	What happened	Years ago
1797	André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump, dropping from a balloon over Paris with a silk parachute	229
1836	Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first elected president of the Republic of Texas	190
1883	The Metropolitan Opera House opens in New York City with Gounod’s “Faust”	143
1938	Chester Carlson and Otto Kornei make the first xerographic copy, reading “10-22-38 ASTORIA,” in Queens	88
1962	President John F. Kennedy announces Soviet missile sites in Cuba and a naval quarantine in a televised address	64
1975	The Soviet lander Venera 9 returns the first image ever taken from the surface of another planet, Venus	51
1981	Federal authorities decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) after its August strike	45
2014	A gunman kills Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at Ottawa’s National War Memorial, then attacks Parliament’s Centre Block	12

Three stories behind the dates

Texas, 1836. Houston, who had led the Texan army at San Jacinto that April, served as president from Oct. 22, 1836 to Dec. 10, 1838, according to the Texas State Historical Association’s Handbook of Texas. He later served a second term as president, then as a U.S. senator and governor after Texas joined the Union.

Queens, 1938. Carlson’s first image, made with static electricity and powder, recorded the date and place: “10-22-38 ASTORIA.” The process he named xerography became the basis of the office copier, as The Henry Ford museum and the American Physical Society describe.

Washington, 1962. Kennedy’s televised address that evening opened the public phase of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The full text is preserved by the American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara.

The observance on Oct. 22

International Stuttering Awareness Day falls on Oct. 22 every year. It has been observed since 1998 and is organized by the International Stuttering Association together with the International Fluency Association and the European League of Stuttering Associations. No United Nations day falls on Oct. 22; UN Day follows on Saturday, Oct. 24.

Oct. 22 is not a federal or state holiday, so banks, schools, post offices and federal offices keep their usual hours. The next federal holiday is Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11.

Born on this day: Doris Lessing, the British novelist and 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, in 1919, according to the Nobel Prize’s biography.

On the calendar the week of Oct. 22

Date	What was on
Thu., Oct. 22	The Orionid meteor shower peaks before dawn; Florida’s deadline to request a mail ballot
Fri., Oct. 23	Mole Day, 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m.; World Series Game 1, 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on FOX
Sat., Oct. 24	Early voting opens in Michigan and New York; Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Take Back Day, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Mon., Oct. 26	The Hunter’s Moon is full at 12:12 a.m. EDT
Wed., Oct. 28	Social Security payments for birthdays on the 21st to the 31st
Sat., Oct. 31	Halloween, and clocks fall back the next morning

See how to watch the meteors in our Orionid meteor shower guide.

Print the timeline

Our free printable puts all eight events on a classroom timeline, with how many years ago each happened and space for students’ notes. Pair it with our October 2026 printable calendar, and look ahead on the November 2026 calendar and when is Halloween.