It was a day like today.
On October 22 in 1919, in Asbury Park, New Jersey, was born a girl child of a woman named Nan Britton. Britton claimed that the infant was the product of her union with then-Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio. The charges became celebrated throughout the country but never proven conclusively, even after the publication of a sensational book, The President’s Daughter, that rocked the U.S. Harding’s political career was apparently unscathed: he went on to become President of the republic.
Composer and pianist Franz Liszt was born on this day in 1811, as was Canadian Métis rebel Louis Riel in 1844.
On this date in 1852, hapless zookeeper Edward Gurling of the Zoological Gardens in London rashly festooned himself with a deadly cobra around his neck. The disturbed viper bit Gurling on the nose, leaving small punctures on either side. Gurling passed into history a few hours later.
In 1797, André Jacques Garnerin made the first known successful parachute jump from a balloon tethered at Monceau Park in Paris. Having hitched both balloon and an parachute to a car, Garnerin rose to some 3,000 feet. Releasing his 30-foot wide chute from the balloon, Garnerin swung back and forth pendulum-like until reaching the earth. On his descent, he became violently ill and spattered the crowd assembled beneath.
Christians of the East celebrate October 22 as the feast of the Seven Youths of Ephesus. They were Maximilian, Jamblicus, Martinian, Dioysius, Exacustodian (Constantine), and Antoninus. Living in the 3rd C. AD, they were the scions of prominent families of Ephesus – the city where the Virgin Mary is said to have spent some time. When the Emperor Decius arrived in Ephesus in 249 AD, he demanded sacrifice to the old gods under penalty of death. When the seven Ephesian youths confessed their faith in Jesus Christ before the pagan authorities, they were stripped of military rank. Released by Decius, the seven youths fled to a cave on Mount Ochlon where they prayed before their expected martyrdom. When the emperor heard of their disobedience, he ordered that the cave be sealed. Miracalously, and two centuries later, the youths were to emerge from the cave alive. This miracle is cited in reference to the belief that at the end of time, bodies and souls of the faithful will be resurrected from the dead.
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